Montana Moon (1930)

Interesting facts

Montana Moon is a 1930 pre-Code Western musical film directed by Malcolm St. Clair which introduced the concept of the singing cowboy to the screen. Starring Joan Crawford, Johnny Mack Brown, Dorothy Sebastian, and Ricardo Cortez, the film focuses on the budding relationship between a city girl and a rural cowboy.

Production

As opposed to filming in Monument Valley or in California's Sierra Nevadas, director Malcolm St. Clair sent the cast to Montana for location shooting. The change in scenery and remoteness of the location helped create a strong sense of cohesion among the cast and crew, who spent most of their off hours together playing games and rehearsing scenes.

Because of delays in getting the script through the Production Code Administration, also known as the Hays office, the film was completed before any requisite changes were requested to get the film past Hollywood censors. By the time St. Clair got the lengthy list of cuts, it was too late to go back to Montana and re-shoot the necessary scenes.

Film historian Ruth Anne Dwyer considers the censoring of Montana Moon as "sabotage" and a harbinger of even more "extreme restrictions" that would be imposed on pictures when the Breen office took over censorship duties for Hollywood.

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