The Moon Is Blue - Production

Production

Otto Preminger had directed the 1951 Broadway production of F. Hugh Herbert's play with Barbara Bel Geddes, Donald Cook, and Barry Nelson in the lead roles. Its successful run of 924 performances prompted him to contract with United Artists to finance and distribute a screen adaptation over which he would have complete control. He deferred his producer's and director's salaries in exchange for 75% of the film's profits.

Preminger cast David Niven over the objection of studio executives, who felt the actor's career was in a decline. The director cast him in a West Coast production of the play to prepare for the film. Last of the leads to be cast was Maggie McNamara, making her screen debut in a role she had played on stage in Chicago.

Herbert's play had been a huge success in Germany, and Preminger decided to film English and German language versions simultaneously, using the same sets but different casts. The director estimated this method would increase the filming schedule by only eight to ten days and production costs by only 10 to 15 percent. The budget for both films was $373,445.

On July 13, 1951, the Breen office contacted Herbert and advised him his screenplay was in violation of the Motion Picture Production Code because of its "light and gay treatment of the subject of illicit sex and seduction." On December 26, Preminger submitted a revised draft of the script which, due to numerous lines of dialogue exhibiting "an unacceptably light attitude towards seduction, illicit sex, chastity, and virginity," was rejected on January 2, 1952. Contrary to later legend, the words "virgin," "mistress," and "pregnant," all of which had been in the original play's dialogue, were not singled out as objectionable. On January 6, Preminger and Herbert advised the Breen office they disagreed with its decision and would film the screenplay without further changes.

In a display of solidarity, United Artist heads Arthur B. Krim and Robert S. Benjamin amended their contract and deleted the clause requiring Preminger to deliver a film that would be granted a Production Code seal of approval. After ten days of rehearsals for each of his casts, Preminger began principal photography of both films on January 21, filming an English language scene and then its German equivalent in quick succession. Johanna Matz and Hardy Krüger, the stars of the German adaptation, briefly appear in the English language version as the young couple waiting to use the coin-operated telescope at the top of the Empire State Building, cameo roles Holden and McNamara play in the German version. (Preminger later stated he much preferred The Moon is Blue to Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach because he felt the psychology of the plot did not translate well.) Filming was completed in twenty-four days and it previewed in Pasadena on April 8. Two days later, Breen notified Preminger the film would not be approved. Outraged at Breen's "unwarranted and unjustified attack" on "a harmless story," the director joined forces with UA executives to appeal the decision with the Motion Picture Association of America board of directors, who ruled against them.

United Artists decided to release the film without the seal of approval, initially in major urban markets where they hoped its success would encourage exhibitors in rural areas to book the film. The film premiered for an "adults only" audience in one movie house in Chicago on June 22 and opened in one theater in San Francisco on June 25. On June 30, Variety reported three major nationwide theater chains were willing to exhibit the film, and it went into general release on July 8. (In its year-end report, Variety said the film had ranked #15 at the box office with a gross of $3.5 million.)

Kansas, Ohio, and Maryland banned the film, and Preminger and United Artists decided to bring suit in a Maryland court. On December 7, 1953, Judge Herman Moser reversed the State Censor Board. In his ruling, he called the film "a light comedy telling a tale of wide-eyed, brash, puppy-like innocence." Preminger and UA then appealed in Kansas, but the state's Supreme Court upheld the state board of review's decision to ban the film. Determined to win, the director and studio took their case to the Supreme Court of the United States, which overturned the finding of the Kansas Supreme Court on October 24, 1955.

The success of the film was instrumental in weakening the influence of the Production Code. On June 27, 1961, the PCA granted both The Moon is Blue and The Man with the Golden Arm, Preminger's similarly controversial 1955 release, the seals of approval they initially withheld.

In later years, the film was the focus of the M*A*S*H episode, "The Moon is Not Blue", in which the characters, having heard about the controversy surrounding it, attempt to get a copy shipped to their mobile hospital in Korea. The film actually was released in the closing days of the Korean War.