Director/Screenplay – Alan Gadney, Producer – Dick Alexander, Photography – Emmett Alston, Music – Bill Byers & Pat Gordon, Art Direction – Richard Tamburino. Production Company – Alexander Godney & Alston Inc..
Mark Travis (Student), Victor Buono (Matire D’), John Carradine (Mr Walker), Pat Renella (Manager), William Challee (Alchemist), Janet Landgard (Girl), Frank Corsetino (Homunculus), Marie Denn (Maid)
A young man is making a painting of a mission in California when he is approached by an old man who calls himself merely a walker. The young man is invited to stay at the mission and given the title of student, while those there recognise him as a ‘moonchild’. The student believes he has seen all these people previously and is told that all of this has happened before. Around the mission he meets many who challenge his beliefs, while he becomes haunted by a beautiful girl he keeps seeing.
Moonchild is a fascinating obscurity from the 1970s. It was barely seen when it came out and afterards disappeared. It was only due to starring names like Victor Buono and in particular horror legend John Carradine that it in any way ended up being remembered. It never received a VHS released and it was not until 2009 that it resurfaced on DVD – not that it is a particularly good dvd transfer where the print has been left grainy and scratched rather than tidied up. Director Alan Gadney only made one other film with West Texas (1970) and then vanished – nothing else is known about him.
The film is rambling as though the filmmakers had obtained use of a location (in actuality, The Mission Inn Hotel in Riverside, California) and everything was made up on a scene-by-scene basis. You’re not even sure if the film is taking itself seriously as witness the farcical dinner table scene where Frank Corsetino’s Homunculus plays waiter fumbling over and spilling everything and constantly swapping the wine goblets around. Characters have no names – are just referred to as Walker, Alchemist, Student etc. The Student (Mark Travis) has flashbacks and sees the others at the hotel in historical periods and as part of The Inquisition, while they all seem to know him. If anything, it seems to be a film about eternal recurrence and events happening over and over.
Quite what Moonchild is about, I honestly have no idea. It feels if anything something birthed by the same transcendental cinematic mindset that created El Topo (1970) and of the filmmakers’ desire to achieve something that held philosophical meaning and weight. If there is any other work that Moonchild resembles it might be The Magus (1969) in which Michael Caine was wound into a series of enigmatic games that made him question reality – in particular, the scenes here where Mark Travis is placed on trial seem to owe allegiance to that film.
The dialogue is filled with what you are supposed to take as portentous meaning. What are you meant to make of lines like: “How can a dream not be death?” “It’s a dream that goes on and on and never stops.” And my favourite, the height of preposterousness: “That’s the sort of remark that will get you an inkblot on the page of time.” John Carradine takes the opportunity to really ham his performance up, while Victor Buono plays big and grandiose. One is certain that neither actor – indeed, probably most of the cast – had any idea what it was they were saying.
Full film available here