Moonrise

Synopsis:
Danny Hawkins' father was hanged for murder when the boy was still in his crib. And although young Danny is fully grown now, he still lives under the long shadow of that legacy. Abused both physically and emotionally by the children in the small southern town where he was raised, Danny finds his only escape as a young adult in his romance with a local schoolteacher named Gilly. But fate leads Hawkins down a dark road when, in self-defense, he accidentally kills a wealthy young dandy who has tormented him since his schoolyard days. Now Danny is on the run, as much afraid of the blood that runs inside him as he is of the blood on his hands. Forced to give up his precious Gilly and his mentor Old Mose, Danny flees into the murky swamp to face down his past once and for all.

Notes:
A Charles K. Feldman Group production. "Moonrise" was originally to be made by Marshal Grant Productions. They had purchased the rights to Strauss' novel with the idea that James Stewart or John Garfield would star, with William Wellman directing; a screenplay had even been written by Vladimir Posner. Eventually, Grant sold the movie rights to Charles K. Feldman. New York Daily News critic Dave Kehr wrote in the Spring 1973 issue of "Focus!" (a Chicago film journal) that "'Moonrise' is the last film Frank Borzage completed before the blacklist forced him into a ten-year period of inactivity." Borzage had never previously been linked to the group of filmmakers banished during the McCarthy era. It is true that after "Moonrise" (1948), Borzage did not work again until 1958 when he made "China Doll". The next year he directed his final film, "The Big Fisherman" (1959). Borzage died in 1961.