hard drinking dockworker, quick with his fists but just as quick to forgive. He's hooked up with Tiny (Thomas Mitchell), a man who rides along on Bopo the way pilot fish ride along on sharks, feeding off what remains of the sharks meal. They blow into San Pablo and wash up in the Red Dot saloon, where Bobo is determined to have a good time in spite of Tiny's insistence that they need to move on to San Francisco. After an all-night binge, Bobo wakes up on board a bait boat owned by Takeo (Victor Sang Yung) and Henry (Chester Gan), a couple of good natured bait fishermen. They give Bobo a job and a place to live on the bait barge, but he's worried that he might have killed Pop Kelly (Arthur Aylesworth) during the previous night's binge. That evening, Bobo sees Anna (Ida Lupino) trying to drown herself and he saves her life. Bobo and Nutsy (Claude Rains) take Anna back to the bait barge, where Bobo takes care of her. Over the next few days Anna and Bobo grow closer to each other, and both slowly realize that they may have found a safe harbor in the other's heart. But Tiny isn't ready to give up Bobo; after all, he's been sponging off Bobo for a long time. Tiny tells Anna that Bobo did indeed kill Pop Kelly the other night, and he'll send Bobo to jail if she doesn't stay away from him. Fortunately for Anna and Bobo, Nutsy 
sees and understands a lot more than others realize, and he helps guide these two lost souls past the dangerous shoals and toward the safety of each other. When Bobo marries Anna, Tiny decides to take matters into his own hands. He goes to their cabin on the bait barge and beats Anna severely, breaking her back. When Bobo returns from repairing Dr. Brothers' (Jerome Cowan) boat, they find her stuffed into the bait box and take her to the hospital. Once she's out of danger, Bobo goes in search of Tiny, who he has discovered is Pop Kelly's real killer. In the end, the bad guy is vanquished, Bobo and Anna return to their cabin on the bait barge, and they live happily ever after.
Sounds like just another 1940s weepy, I know, but there's more to Moontide than that. There's a grittiness and a reality to it that you don't often get in movies from that time period. The dockside is shabby and dirty, and so are the people who live along it. Bobo's bait barge is a squalid little vessel, but there's a certain coziness in its squalor. And although Anna lives and gets to be with Bobo in the end, her back has been broken. There's no miraculous movie recovery here. It could take months, maybe years before she's be able to walk again. But Bobo and Anna don't care. This is their life, and it's better than anything they've ever had before.
A lot of bad things happen in Moontide. People are taken advantage of, people are hurt, people are killed. But a lot of good happens too. People are befriended and helped and saved from others and from themselves. Ultimately, Moontide is a movie about redemption, and about the power of love to save those who are lost and help them overcome all of life's heartaches and disappointments. Anna may never walk again, but the shabby little bait barge has been painted and fixed up, and - as Dr. Brothers said - there's always hope. And that's always a good note to end on.
Moontide is rated PG and is available in luscious black and white.
