Moonfleet is a 1955 Eastman Color film shot in CinemaScope directed by Fritz Lang. It was inspired by the 1898 novel Moonfleet by J. Meade Falkner, although significant alterations were made in the characters and plot. Plot A gothic melodrama set in England during the 18th century, the film is about John Mohune, a young orphan (Jon Whiteley), who is sent to the Dorset village of Moonfleet to stay with his mother's former lover, Jeremy Fox. Fox (Stewart Granger), is a morally ambiguous character, an elegant gentleman intimately involved with smugglers. On the run from the law, Mohune and Fox must decipher a coded message in their pursuit of a fabulous diamond hidden long ago. Cast Stewart Granger as Jeremy Fox George Sanders as Lord James Ashwood Joan Greenwood as Lady Clarista Ashwood Viveca Lindfors as Mrs. Minton Jon Whiteley as John Mohune Liliane Montevecchi as Gypsy Melville Cooper as Felix Ratsey Sean McClory as Elzevir Block Alan Napier as Parson Glennie John Hoyt as Magistrate Maskew Donna Corcoran as Grace Jack Elam as Damen Gordon Richards as Marling Production The book was published in England in 1898 but not published in the US until 1951. Reviews were excellent. MGM bought the film rights and announced Stewart Granger as the star immediately. William Wright was originally going to produce. Then the job of producing went to John Houseman. Houseman later recalled, "the novel was written back about 1890, was as successful as Treasure Island had been, and then was totally forgotten. The man [J. Meade Falkner] never wrote anything else. It was a grim story, a realistic adventure story about pirates and a little boy who accidentally got himself involved with them. There was no sex. But then we began to have fun with it, and embroider it." At one stage Merle Oberon was going to be the female lead. Eventually Joan Greenwood was brought over from England. In October 1953 the film was officially put on MGM's schedule. Shooting Filming took place in September 1954. "We are trying to make it one of the best of its type", said Houseman. Director Fritz Lang said the story "calls for mood, for atmosphere. The smugglers work in the dark, on hazy days. I plan to light my principals just as you would in a play, dropping shadows on the sides of the stage to concentrate on the main action and the