The Raging Moon (1971)

Interesting facts

The Raging Moon is a 1971 British romantic drama film starring Malcolm McDowell and Nanette Newman and based on the book by British novelist Peter Marshall. Adapted and directed by Bryan Forbes, this "romance in wheelchairs" was considered unusual in its time owing in part to the sexual nature of the relationship between McDowell and Newman, who play disabled people. The film received two Golden Globe nominations, for Best Foreign Film, and Best Song for "Long Ago Tomorrow".

Production

Film rights eventually went to producer Bruce Curtis, nephew of Harry Cohn, who had just made Otley (1969). He initially tried to finance the film through Columbia, but was turned down. Shelagh Delaney wrote a script.

Curtis took the project to Bryan Forbes who had recently been appointed head of EMI Films. Forbes agreed to write and direct the film as well. Forbes was in the unusual position of being able to green-light his own film.

He was highly criticized in some quarters for directing a film while running the studio. He said at the time he did it to keep the studio active in "the traditionally dull time in January–February" and says he directed it because there was no one cheaper than himself (he took no directing fee).

Filmink magazine argued for Forbes to make Raging Moon "truly was a mad decision on his part" as "running a studio" was "a full-time job and for Forbes to go off and write and direct a feature film (another all-encompassing job) was foolish."

Forbes cast Malcolm McDowell and his wife, Nanette Newman in the lead roles. Forbes later wrote "I believed passionately in the subject and felt that in casting Malcolm MacDowell I had a potential star." (McDowell had appeared in if... and been cast in A Clockwork Orange. Forbes claimed he cast his wife because she was "right for the part".

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