Director: Thornton Freeland
Over the Moon went into production in 1937 before being shelved for two years. During that period, star Merle Oberon suffered a serious car accident that scarred her for life. Although she would remain a great beauty, makeup and lighting tricks would need to be used for the remainder of her career in order to hide her scars. Just about all this production has going for it is that it is a fascinating glimpse into Oberon’s evolving presentation–one can see drastic changes in her hair and make-up styles from one scene to the next. Beyond that, the project is dead in the water, with director Thornton Freeland blandly staging banal dialogue sequences in-between gratuitous travelogues. Oberon’s co-star Rex Harrison (who had yet to arrive at the peak of his talents) is stiff and wrought with an unintended pomposity. The finished production arrived with good timing in that it followed the release of Oberon’s breakout performance in Wuthering Heights, however it would have been better for all parties involved to have scrapped the material altogether when they had the chance.
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