Main Cast: Hayley Mills, Eli Wallach, Peter McEnery, Joan Greenwood, Irene Papas
Release Year: 1964
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Disney produced this distilled Hitchcockian suspense yarn, diluted for the consumption of children. Hayley Mills stars as Nikky Ferris who is spending time in Crete at a small inn called The Moon-Spinners with her Aunt Frances (Joan Greenwood). One day Nikky discovers a handsome young man, Mark Camford (Peter McEnery), wounded in an empty church nearby. It turns out that Mark was once a London bank messenger, but he lost his job after a major jewel robbery. Tagged as a suspect, Mark has made his way to the inn to gather evidence against the inn's owner, Stratos (Eli Wallach), who Mark thinks is the real jewel thief. Nikky and Mark fall in love and decide to capture Stratos together. Silent screen vamp Pola Negri makes a luminous appearance as a jewelry aficionado. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
While The Moon-Spinners is hardly a great film, it is notable for being much more serious than most live action Disney films. Until the last fifteen minutes or so, when Hayley Mills encounters Pola Negri, Moon-Spinners avoids that winking-slightly-at-the-camera kind of comedy that is the hallmark of so much of the studio's work, especially in the 1960's. Before then, Moon-Spinners finds Mills performing believably as a real young woman rather than as the typical 1960s teenager she was so often asked to play. She's well matched with the talented Joan Greenwood, and as the love interest/mystery man, Peter McEnery is solid without being stiff. Eli Wallach is memorably villainous, one of the few human Disney foes that has real menace. In addition to the fine cast, Moon-Spinners features several memorable scenes, including a scary ride on a windmill's arms and a lively festival in honor of King Minos, and there is some attractive location scenery throughout. Unfortunately, the script is not as tautly written as it needs to be, and there are several turns (especially toward the end) that stretch credulity too far. In addition, the broadness of the Negri sequence is jarring, undercutting the effectiveness of the climax that follows it. Mills would be back in more familiar (and more profitable) territory with her next film, That Darn Cat. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Tony Masters - Art Director, Anthony Mendleson - Costume Designer, James Neilson - Director, Gordon Stone - Editor, Ron Grainer - Composer (Music Score), Ron Grainer - Musical Direction/Supervision, Harry Frampton - Makeup, Paul Beeson - Cinematographer, Michael Reed - Cinematographer, John Wilcox - Cinematographer, Bill Anderson - Producer, Michael Dyne - Screenwriter, Mary Stewart - Book Author
The Moon-Spinners (1964) is a Walt Disney Productionsfeature film starring Hayley Mills in a story about a jewel theft on the island of Crete. The film was based upon a suspense novel by Mary Stewart and was directed by James Neilson. The Moon-Spinners was Mills' fifth of six films for Disney, and featured Pola Negri's last big-screen appearance.
Plot and cast
A young English woman named Nikki Ferris (Hayley Mills), living in Athens, takes a trip with her aunt (Joan Greenwood) to the Greek island of Crete. She meets a wounded stranger (Peter McEnery) and the plot takes off, involving her in the theft a rich woman's (Pola Negri) jewels while being threatened by a Greek gentleman (Eli Wallach) and his sister (Irene Papas).
Production notes
Hayley Mills in The Moon-Spinners
The lead character is somewhat younger than in the novel. Travelling alone in the book, she is accompanied by her aunt in the film. The film is somewhat dark, similar to other Disney live-action features made in the '50s and '60s for more mainstream audiences such as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Treasure Island. It was Walt Disney's penultimate live-action film that he was credited as producer while alive. Disney convinced actress Pola Negri, who had been retired for two decades, to return to the screen for this, her final film.
