''Liar's Moon'' is a 1982 film directed by David Fisher and starring Matt Dillon,

Cindy Fisher Cindy Ann Fisher (born August 2, 1964) is the head women's basketball coach at the University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as ...

, Yvonne DeCarlo, and

Hoyt Axton Hoyt Wayne Axton (March 25, 1938 – October 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voic ...

. It tells the story of two star-crossed lovers in 1940s

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

—a working-class teen and the banker's daughter who elope to much strife. Texas band

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provided multiple songs for the film.

Synopsis

In 1940s east Texas, Jack Duncan, a high school graduate from a

blue-collar A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involving manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, electricity generation and po ...

family, falls in love with Ginny Peterson, who has just returned to town from four years of boarding school. Ginny's father Alex is the town's wealthy banker and was formerly

high school sweethearts High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

with Jack's mother, Babs. However, Alex strenuously objects to Ginny's relationship with Jack. At the end of the summer, Jack and Ginny elope in Louisiana—where 17-year-olds can marry without their parents' permission. Jack gets a job in the oil fields while Ginny earns money for household work in the boarding house they now live in. Alex hires private eye Ray Logan to find the couple. Meanwhile, Ginny learns she is pregnant. Before she can tell Jack, her doctor contacts her previous physician in Texas and reveals that she and Jack share the same father. Upon hearing this upsetting news, Ginny asks Lora Mae Bouvier, a resident in the boarding house who works as a prostitute, to direct her to a midwife who provides illegal

abortions Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregnan ...

. While Ginny goes to find the provider, the doctor gets an update from Texas that the couple aren’t actually related as Jack’s mother had his birth records changed out of spite when Ginny’s dad dumped her. Ginny goes ahead with the back-alley procedure, which goes badly and results in complications. Jack manages to find Ginny and she is taken to a hospital. Jack enters the hospital room, where Ginny tells him, "I bet there's a liar's moon out tonight", and the film ends with her survival implied.

Alternate ending

Two different endings were filmed and distributed. In the original ending, Ginny dies from complications after the unsafe abortion. This ending was deemed too dark for test audiences, and the happier ending where Ginny lives was screened in some theaters.

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airings have shown both the more positive ending or the original ending, depending on the television channel. VHS copies of the film also included both endings.

Cast

Production

According to the making-of featurette on the film's Blu-ray release, Billy Hanna wrote the screenplay with his daughter Janice, "drawing on his own experiences growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in Illinois." The film was shot in and around Houston, Texas. It was

Broderick Crawford William Broderick Crawford (December 9, 1911 – April 26, 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning portrayal of Willie Stark in '' All ...

's last film after 45 years and one of Matt Dillon's earliest films. ''Liar's Moon'' was choreographed by Patsy Swayze.

Critical response

In retrospective reviews, critics said ''Liar's Moon'' is "highlighted by some fresh young performances", but "veers into an abyss of melodrama in the final reel."

Home media

On February 8, 2022, the MVD Rewind Collection released the film in a high definition Blu-ray edition, which includes making-of featurettes and the alternate ending.

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0082656 *
Liar's Moon
' at AllMovie 1982 films 1982 romantic drama films American romantic drama films American teen romance films 1980s teen romance films 1980s teen drama films Films set in Houston Films shot in Houston Crown International Pictures films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films Teenage pregnancy in film Films set in the 1940s Films about abortion