Once in a New Moon

1935 British film by Anthony Kimmins

Once in a New Moon
Opening titles
Directed by	Anthony Kimmins
Written by	Anthony Kimmins Owen Rutter (novel)
Starring	Eliot Makeham René Ray Morton Selten
Production company	Fox Film Company
Distributed by	Fox Film Company
Release date	1935
Running time	63 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Once in a New Moon is a 1935 British science fiction film directed by Anthony Kimmins and starring Eliot Makeham, René Ray and Morton Selten.^[1] It is a quota quickie, made at Shepperton Studios.^[2] It was written by Kimmins based on the 1929 novel Lucky Star by Owen Rutter.

Plot

When a dead star passes planet Earth, its magnetic pull dislodges the (fictitious) English town of Shrimpton-on-the-Sea and causes it to break away and become its own miniature globe in orbit around the Earth. The village is now an island, the only land, and the rest of the mini planet is water which can be circumnavigated in a day. Sail straight and you eventually find the town again. The sun rises and sets every few hours and the Earth can be seen as a new moon in the sky. Otherwise, life is as before.

As panic sets in, the inhabitants of the village set about forming a government. However, conflicts arise between the local aristocracy and the villagers and lead the population of the newly named Shrimpton-in-Space to the brink of civil war.

Cast

Eliot Makeham as Harold Drake
René Ray as Stella Drake
Morton Selten as Lord Bravington
Wally Patch as Syd Parrott
Derrick De Marney as Honorable Bryan-Grant
John Clements as Edward Teale
Mary Hinton as Lady Bravington
Gerald Barry as Coonel. Fitzgeorge
Richard Goolden as Reverend Benjamin Buffett
Harold Saxon-Snell as K. Pilkington-Bigge
John Turnbull as Captain Crump
William Fazan
Ralph Howard
Franklyn Kelsey
Vernon Kelso
Cecil Landau
Charles Paton
Walter Roy
Thorley Walters

Critical reception

Kine Weekly wrote: "Acting, presentation, and character drawing are all live and give credence to the improbable theme, which is very well argued. Essentially a quota booking of value in the better-class programme and one which is not without popular appeal."^[3]

Picture Show called it "an entertaining picture".^[4]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "average", writing: "Way-out fantasy, unusual for its time."^[5]

References

^ "Once in a New Moon". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 24 February 2024.
^ Wood, Linda (1986). British Films, 1927-1939 (PDF). British Film Institute. p. 83. ISBN 0851701892.
^ "Once in a New Moon". Kine Weekly. 214 (1444): 21. 20 December 1934 – via ProQuest.
^ "Once in a New Moon". Picture Show. 33 (839): 39. 1 June 1935 – via ProQuest.
^ Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 125. ISBN 0-7134-1874-5.