Moonlighting *solved*

[Nitehawk]

Good Morning all!



Am requesting some assistance in identifying a British Film, done in Black & White, in the late 1940's or early to mid-1950's.



A construction crew of Polish Nationals immigrants are in a major English urban setting and our contracted to rebuild a multi-story town house. The crew consists of possibly five or six workers all of whom, delegate leadership to one of their own. The foreman does all the communications with the home owner and also is the treasurer. The crew lives a dull existence with time divided between work, eating and sleeping . There is also a weekly timed telephone call to Poland.



Near the end the homeowner can not or choses not to pay for the completed work as contracted. This leaves the group without the where withal to go home!



Any help will be greatly appreciated as to the film's title or any suggestions to how research may continue! Thank you in advance.

[DB7]

Sounds like Moonlighting from the 80s.

[sippog]

Definitely MOONLIGHTING (1982) directed by Jerzy Skolimowsky. It's in colour though - maybe you saw it on a B&W tv ? Available on DVD Region 1 'cos I recently bought a copy.



By coincidence I was discussing it with David Calder who plays the supermarket manager. He says that Skolimowski had never heard of the English term "moonlighting" until David explained it to him but he was very taken by it and that's obviously where the title comes from.

[Rennie]

name='DB7']Sounds like Moonlighting from the 80s.

There is a DVD of it up for grabs on eBay but I am a bit dubious as to its quality, or its format.





Jeremy Irons * MOONLIGHTING * Rare Sealed RC2 DVD on eBay, also, DVDs, DVD, Film TV (end time 26-Dec-07 07:43:54 GMT)

[DB7]

name='Rennie']There is a DVD of it up for grabs on eBay but I am a bit dubious as to its quality, or its format.





Jeremy Irons * MOONLIGHTING * Rare Sealed RC2 DVD on eBay, also, DVDs, DVD, Film TV (end time 26-Dec-07 07:43:54 GMT)

To the best of my knowledge it's not had an R2 release, the image is from the VHS so it's probably a videotape>dvd transfer.

[batman]

There was a 1993 French DVD release ...



Amazon.fr*: Moonlighting: DVD: Jeremy Irons,Eugene Lipinski,Jirí Stanislav,Eugeniusz Haczkiewicz,Dorothy Zienciowska,Edward Arthur,Denis Holmes,Renu Setna,David Calder,Judy Gridley,Claire Toeman,Catherine Harding,Jill Johnson,David Squire,Michael Sar



... but as I have seen this seller advertising this title in the past I would agree with DB7 that it is probably a video-dvd transfer.



Bats.

[JamesM]

I did not think the first commercial DVDs did not come out until at least 1996. Perhaps it was a laserdisc.



That eBay copy has to be a copy of the French release (it mentions French subtitles). It also claims to be a region 2 disc (is that the satisfy eBay?). If it was an oroginal DVD, why is it on a 'buy it now' if it is no longer available?

[Rennie]

A few copies also available on Amazon UK:



Amazon.co.uk: moonlighting jeremy irons: DVD

[batman]

name='JamesM']I did not think the first commercial DVDs did not come out until at least 1996. Perhaps it was a laserdisc.



That eBay copy has to be a copy of the French release (it mentions French subtitles). It also claims to be a region 2 disc (is that the satisfy eBay?). If it was an oroginal DVD, why is it on a 'buy it now' if it is no longer available?

I just had a quick look and 1997 is listed as the date for the first commercially produced DVDs. They must have put the wrong date on that DVD entry as the VHS didn't come out in France till 1997. Via Rennie's link the French DVD was released in 2003.



The ebay one is almost certainly a dvd-r copy.



Bats.