Ring Around the Moon

Ross Graham, reporter with the New York Clarion, just got fired. He also just got engaged - to Gloria Endicott, daughter of the paper's owner. The wedding is the social event of the season, but both bride and groom are convinced it's a mistake. "We're in it," Ross reasons, "we might as well make the best of it."

Ross and Gloria part amicably, but their individual circumstances unexpectedly and suddenly change: Ross rises to great success as a playwright and screenwriter, while Gloria is unexpectedly reduced to poverty. It is then that the ties that bind come to the fore. Sometimes true love takes time to grow, and all that's needed is just one more chance.

This lost classic features the stylish direction of Charles Lamont. Lamont began in Hollywood as an actor during the silent era before turning his attention to writing and directing. During the 1940s and 50s he was one of Universal Studios' principal comedy directors, working extensively on the Ma and Pa Kettle series and several classic Abbott & Costello comedies, including Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion (1950), Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951) and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955). He closed out his career in the late 1950s directing the popular "Zorro" television series for Walt Disney.

RING AROUND THE MOON was based on the once-popular novel by Vera Hobart. The story endeavors to invite comparisons between the high-toned romantic adventures of wealthy Gloria Endicott (Erin O'Brien-Moore) and more earthy amours of low-born Kay Duncan (Ann Doran). Caught between both ladies is confused hero Ross Graham (Donald Cook). In her first major feature-film role, Ann Doran was drubbed by the critics, but she survived to become one of Hollywood's busiest character actresses (best remembered as James Dean's mother in REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE). Produced by failing Chesterfield Pictures, RING AROUND THE MOON was released by up-and-coming Grand National.