Moment to Moment

"Moment to Moment" (1966: *** out of ****) is a forgotten gem that has just recently been released through Collecter's Choice video. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, an old pro from Hollywood's Golden Age, this is one of the best of the glossy guilty pleasures of the 60's, the golden decade of such films. Jean Seberg plays a bored housewife and mother vacationing on the French Riviera with her neglectful psychiatrist husband (Arthur Hill). While Hill is away on one of his frequent long business trips she drifts into an affair with a hunky sailor (played by an actor named Sean Garrison, one of those leading men of the time who get the big buildup, make one or two pictures, then disappear for good). As they motor around the area taking in the sights, they're accompanied by one of Henry Mancini's catchiest title songs. In fact, it is played so often that at one point Seberg asks the bandleader at a café the name of the tune. He ,of course, replies "Moment to Moment." After a bad lover's quarrel Seberg accidentally shoots the sailor and then she and her neighbor (Honor Blackman) drop his body in a nearby ravine. To reveal any more would spoil the unpredictable twists and turns of a deliciously absurd but completely absorbing plot. Suffice it to say that nothing that occurs in the first half of the film is wasted in the second half. Highly recommended for connoisseurs of the "good-bad" movie.

First time I saw this movie, I was in my early twenties and of course in a pretty romantic stage. I ran into it again on TV once back in the 1980's & I found it was equally enjoyable. It is a movie, which has the romance & suspense in a perfect rapport. People may think the acting lacks depth and the story is out of date. However, what do they matter if the story is wonderfully played out and the feeling of the characters is believable? I may not be as naive and romantic as before, but, every time I hear Henry Mancini's "moment to moment", the beauty of Jean Seberg's profile & French Riviera comes out of my memory and henceforth the story. The love, forgiveness & understanding among all the characters make me think that the world I'm leaving in is a beautiful place.

I saw this movie 30 years ago and have been very anxious for it to come out on video. The plot is intriguing and wonderful. It is a story about a neglected wife who would behave as most bored wives would and have an affair and wind up in trouble. But the beautiful heart touching music by Henry Mancini sets this movie apart as a precious jewel.

I too have loved this movie ever since I saw it.

The difference is that I fell in love with the scenery and THe old French style House and of course the music .

Will be purchasing it but am waiting for a DVD version if that will ever happen. The acting is phenomenal.

The scene at the fountain has stayed with me for a long time . I too was a teenager when I first saw it. The cinematography was so great in the beginning scene. The intensity is felt and you feel like your right there with them.

And the actor is so handsome.

For avid fans of Alfred Hitchcock's style of suspense, MOMENT TO MOMENT will fill the bill nicely--especially since it's lavishly photographed among some beautiful French Riviera surroundings and extremely well played by JEAN SEBERG (at her most radiant) and has HONOR BLACKMAN in an enjoyably campy role as her best friend and neighbor.

Seems that Jean is a bored housewife who drifts into a tender affair with a hunky sailor (SEAN GARRISON, whose career seemed to go nowhere except to TV roles), and when she kills him during an explosive argument she gets help from her neighbor to bury the body in a nearby ravine. From then on, it's a cat-and-mouse game with the French authorities that keeps the audience guessing right up until the finale.

Under Mervyn LeRoy's direction, this is a little slow-moving when it should have been more taut with suspense. Still, it's so attractively filmed and performed, and accompanied by an attractive Henry Mancini score, that it's recommended viewing for any fan of this sort of suspenseful romance.