Blood on the Moon sounds like it might be sci-fi. It’s directed by Robert Wise, who’d later do The Andromeda Strain and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Without any other clue that would be a fair assumption to make. Until you learn it’s from 1948. Bit early for sci-fi. It’s a western, in fact, and a good propulsive one, even if character is occasionally sacrificed to the need to get on and tell the story, almost as if this were an episode in a western serial.
The dynamic is homesteaders versus ranchers, with neither side over-demonised as they square off over who’s going to get control of a big swathe of fertile land – great for setting up family farms but also for the open-range grazing of cattle. Coming between both parties is Robert Mitchum’s Jim Garry, the rugged individualist beholden to no man or creed, who is asked – though not in so many words – to adjudicate. Should he side with the ranchers, the homesteaders or continue to keep his own counsel? As an inducement, Amy Lufton, played by Barbara Bel Geddes, daughter of rancher John Lufton (Tom Tully).
The plot winds this way and that, and involves Jim’s old mate Tate Rilling (Robert Preston) working behind everyone’s back to stir things up unnecessarily. Meanwhile, in front of the curtain, a romance between Jim and Amy seems to be on the cards, from the moment they meet-cute over some rifle sharpshooting – mine’s bigger than yours! Later, when Jim sustains a nasty cut, Amy tends to it in classic getting-her-hands-on-that-man style.
Talking of style – film noir is the predominant mood, even though this is a western, with the great noir lighting guy Nicholas Musuraca making everything evocatively crepuscular. The frontier town is often seen at night, vast shadows broken by pools of light illuminating the buildings. Good chunks of the film are shot at night, in fact, when the whole point of the western originally was that it could be shot out in the bright desert, which got round all sorts of technical problems, like lighting. Here, Musuraca and Wise even use infra-red to shoot some scenes, which gives everything a ghostly glow. If you see a white face and dark sky, that’s the telltale.
Mitchum’s is a “Yup… nope…” performance as the gunslinger with the perma-curled lip. He is relaxed all the way, apart from the final scene when Amy grabs hold of Jim’s hand and suddenly Mitchum looks awkward. That’s acting, I suppose, Jim just isn’t used to being in a couple.
As for Bel Geddes, perfectly plausible and sweet, as she should be. Howard Hughes fired her not long after this film came out because she wasn’t sexy enough. Before there were tech bros there was Howard Hughes playing the big spoilt billionaire kid.
Robert Preston gives off the bad guy vibes from early on and is well cast. As is Walter Brennan, playing a slightly younger version of all those wheezy old-timers he’d be playing till he died. Next to Tully’s fairly decent rancher John Lufton, Frank Faylen and Tom Tyler are also worth a mention, giving sidekick roles more character than they probably deserve.
There is good stuff all over the place here: the playing, the dark style, the urgent pace Wise takes it at. There are even scenes set in the snowy wastes, which add an angle not often seen in westerns in this era.
Cold. As in Cold War – is it a stretch to see the whole thing as a gigantic allegory for the post-War situation, with America turning away from a former ally and making it into an enemy? Yup… or nope?
Blood on the Moon – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
