Moment to Moment

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 People may think the acting lacks depth and the story is out of date.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.

"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.

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.

I was a very young 20 year old college student in the Philippines and very much in love, when I first saw this movie. The 50's thru the 60's to me was just the right time to fall in love. So many good movies then, so many good movie themes, so many good actors and so many good songs. Life was so easy then and falling in love was so simple.

I loved watching this movie just as I did many other movies from that period. So when recorded VHS movie tapes became available over 30 years ago, I made sure I bought all the movies that I enjoyed watching then. I have the VHS of this movie and of many other classic movies of that era, including a few of earlier and later years. Just as I do with all my other movies, I watch this at least two or three times a year or whenever I am in the mood, to cry, to laugh or to love. I know I will enjoy watching these movies for many more years or at least until my tapes give up on me.

I also have a few CD's and LP's of soundtrack and movie themes from many movies. I love the theme from this movie as well. Henry Mancini was a great Songwriter and Composer. "Moment To Moment" was one of his best work. He has done so many movie themes and I enjoy listening to each one of them as well. The man is a genius.

Watching this movie and listening to its music take me back to many good memories.

There are still a few elusive movies that I still have to own. "Tender Is The Night", "Tiara Tahiti", "My Geisha", Bonjour Tristesse" and many more,including many soundtracks. I hope I find them soon for they don't make movies or write songs as they used to, or like these, anymore.

I have been searching for this movie for years! I saw it when I was in college and have never seen it since. I am so happy to finally locate it and now I would like to purchase the video, if available. If anyone knows where to obtain it, please put it on this site and I will order it. Anyway, this movie is a real tear jerker - I remember sobbing at the end; course I was young and impressionable then. But seriously, for anyone who loves a tragic love story, this is it!! In general I don't remember too many movies but this one has literally haunted me for over 25 years! I even had the sheet music and used to play the theme on the piano. Thanks IMDb for having the information!