Moment to Moment (1966) User Reviews

A romantic suspense tale in the mold of an Alfred Hitchcock thriller...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 28 August 2006]

For avid fans of Alfred Hitchcock's style of suspense, MOMENT TO MOMENT will fill the bill nicely--especially since it's lavishly photographed among some beautiful French Riviera surroundings and extremely well played by JEAN SEBERG (at her most radiant) and has HONOR BLACKMAN in an enjoyably campy role as her best friend and neighbor.

Seems that Jean is a bored housewife who drifts into a tender affair with a hunky sailor (SEAN GARRISON, whose career seemed to go nowhere except to TV roles), and when she kills him during an explosive argument she gets help from her neighbor to bury the body in a nearby ravine. From then on, it's a cat-and-mouse game with the French authorities that keeps the audience guessing right up until the finale.

Under Mervyn LeRoy's direction, this is a little slow-moving when it should have been more taut with suspense. Still, it's so attractively filmed and performed, and accompanied by an attractive Henry Mancini score, that it's recommended viewing for any fan of this sort of suspenseful romance.

Very good film

[muralitheran · 7/10 · 19 January 2008]

I remember seeing this film in 1966 (sic) We (my friend and I ) enjoyed it. We were then teens, I have been trying to see this film again. I have not been successful. I am delighted that there is this site where people still reminiscense about films seen almost half a century ago. Any way I enjoyed this film very much 40 years ago. I wish I will be able to see it again ( hopefully my taste has not changed.) We in Malaysia do not get the quality English films that we used to have forty years ago. It has something to do with the declining standards of English. As such it does not make economic sense to bring in quality films for the viewers.So thanks again for having this site

A fine thriller with wonderful actors and music

[JuguAbraham · 7/10 · 23 September 2020]

Second viewing after a 50 year gap. Still love it as a Hitchcock-like thriller. A film to remember for Jean Seberg's screen presence. And whatever happened to that handsome actor, Sean Garrison--he carried the film with his presence. Henry Mancini's score was lovely, too. And Honor Blackman is wonderful, too. The only unbelievable part of the film--that a school kid cannot recall a face he saw a few days ago. A great thriller--little else.

Never Forget It

[kennyteague · 15 April 2000]

I saw this movie 30 years ago and have been very anxious for it to come out on video. The plot is intriguing and wonderful. It is a story about a neglected wife who would behave as most bored wives would and have an affair and wind up in trouble. But the beautiful heart touching music by Henry Mancini sets this movie apart as a precious jewel.

We've seen this story many times, but when it's well done, it's worth seeing again.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 13 April 2022]

A spouse has a discretion which results in accidental death or something close to it, and the guilty party desperately tries to hide their involvement in the situation. That's the situation for Jean Seberg whose husband Arthur Hill is away, meeting Ensign Sean Garrison which results in him going ballistic when she tries to break things off after a weekend fling, and that results in her believing that he's dead and with neighbor Honor Blackman hiding the body. Inspector Grégoire Aslan suspects that's a bird knows more than she's telling when he spots her where the body was found, and somehow Hill ends up in the investigation. When Garrison shows up very much alive with Hill and Asian in tow, Seberg panics, afraid that his memory will return and expose everything.

This type of story line goes back to the silent era, and has been the subject of movies starring Crawford, Stanwyck, Turner and others. In fact, it's surprising that this Universal film was not produced by Ross Hunter because it has that feeling of an "Imitation of Life"/"Madame X" style film, including an exotic setting and romantic music oh, featuring a title theme song. The best thing about the film is Honor Blackman as the man crazy neighbor, loyal to Seberg throughout. Asian is quite amusing too. In spite of some serious cliches, this is a very enjoyable film, a little sleeper I had never heard of, but one I will recommend highly to friends.

Seberg is well-cast, but heavy-breather is lined with red herrings...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 10 August 2017]

Alec Coppel and John Lee Mahin concocted this screenplay from Coppel's short story "Laughs With a Stranger" about the lonely wife of an American psychiatrist in Cannes who takes an immediate liking to a sailor on shore leave; their friendship gets heated while hubby is away, but tragedy strikes after the sailor feels slighted and remembers the woman has a loaded gun in the house. Oddly-coiffed Jean Seberg was an excellent choice to play this guilty spouse, keeping a surprisingly cool head throughout the whirlpool of melodrama developing around her. Honor Blackman is lively as a vulnerable man-chaser, but Grégoire Aslan flounders with the nearly-unplayable role of a suspicious French inspector who pops in and out of the proceedings like a sneaky jack-in-the-box (is this the only case he's working on?). Some of the far-fetched circumstances are indeed fun, and yet when the writers attempt to lend credibility to the story's details via the dialogue, it gets all balled up. A plot-thread involving amnesia strikes one as a tired movie gimmick (one that ranks right up there with sleepwalking); however, the film does improve as it goes along, and it plays the amnesia-card to rather amusing effect. Henry Mancini's lovely score is a plus, and the intermittent location footage and cinematography are attractive--though both are nearly ruined by the compromise of obvious sets and poor back-projection. **1/2 from ****

The missing heart.

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 1 December 2022]

Far -fetched but entertaining thriller ,which takes time to take off ,but when it hits its stride, it will keep you glued to your chair till the last piece of the puzzle in the airport (a good trick) ;well played by gorgeous Hitchcockian blonde Jean Seberg and good support by Honor Blackman ,fresh from "Goldfinger" and keeping her Pussy Galore sexy look.

Good use of the French Cöte d'Azur , not only for the places where the action takes place ,but also for the officers' drawings which will play a prominent part in the last third . Sean Garrison is rather bland and unconvincing ,particularly in the fatal scene .But Miss Seberg can display her perfect command of French (she married two French men)and she is very good at the petanque , southern French 's favorite sports.

And she shone like a gem in a 5 and dime store

[grahamclarke · 4/10 · 3 January 2010]

What makes this rather preposterous movie so highly watchable is its fortunate casting of Jean Seberg in the lead and Honor Blackman in a supporting role. Seberg with her own particular mystique is riveting, even making the absurd story palatable - and that is no easy feat since the plot is risible to say the least. She really is the gem in this 5 and dime store of a movie.

Perhaps in the hands of a Douglas Sirk or an Alfred Hitchcock it could have been compelling. (Seberg would have made an intriguing Hitchcock blonde.) Director Mervyn Le Roy simply does not have the skill to elevate this hokum.

Honor Blackman has the looks and presence to milk the most out of her part but Sean Garrison and Arthur Hill are pretty leaden.

Still it is highly watchable and a definite must for Seberg fans.

A movie to remember

[iamalexhong · 8/10 · 21 June 2005]

First time I saw this movie, I was in my early twenties and of course in a pretty romantic stage. I ran into it again on TV once back in the 1980's & I found it was equally enjoyable. It is a movie, which has the romance & suspense in a perfect rapport. People may think the acting lacks depth and the story is out of date. However, what do they matter if the story is wonderfully played out and the feeling of the characters is believable? I may not be as naive and romantic as before, but, every time I hear Henry Mancini's "moment to moment", the beauty of Jean Seberg's profile & French Riviera comes out of my memory and henceforth the story. The love, forgiveness & understanding among all the characters make me think that the world I'm leaving in is a beautiful place.

Momment to Momment

[sunabeee · 9/10 · 5 July 2006]

I too have loved this movie ever since I saw it.

The difference is that I fell in love with the scenery and THe old French style House and of course the music .

Will be purchasing it but am waiting for a DVD version if that will ever happen. The acting is phenomenal.

The scene at the fountain has stayed with me for a long time . I too was a teenager when I first saw it. The cinematography was so great in the beginning scene. The intensity is felt and you feel like your right there with them.

And the actor is so handsome.

Like Hitchcock? You will love this.

[droche-3 · 8/10 · 20 November 2005]

This is a good movie in the Hitchcock vein, in which small details form the key to intense pathos. Will the husband notice the thing she mentioned in passing? Will her child inadvertently play with the wrong toy? Will the best friend keep the story straight? It takes a tangled web of lies and omissions to keep silent an impulsive affair--and a possible murder--when everything is so interconnected. No real villains here, but faulted humans trying to be happy, and not upset the house of cards that comprise their private lives. Good performances by Honor Blackman and Jean Seberg. You will be on the edge of your seat, and clutching a hankie at the same time. Great retro-fun when it comes out on DVD!

moment to moment 1965

[congenial666 · 10/10 · 8 April 2005]

It is the most amazing movie I have ever seen,the actress Jean Seberg has done beautiful work in this movies and all the star are great.The reason i like is the struggle a wife does to save her sincerity to her husband and her happy marital life.And also how she saves herself from marital infidelity.I like the minute details of this movie.The charming Mark and his excellent acting in the movie.Also i like the over all details of the farm house which is in accordance to the story back ground.It is very thrilling movie specially when inspector comes to the scene.Kay's neighbor has played a very proper role of a women who keeps herself loyal to her friend and keeps looking for a suitable match for herself ,she is a very charming character in the film.The characters are selected in the best possible manner and it sure provides a moral and lesson to every person who so ever sees this movie.It is simply a classic movie.

A rare gem

[aa_elmekki · 10/10 · 12 July 2003]

Now at 53, I seem to belong to days of 'The Night of Iguana, Splendour in the Grass, Moment to Moment, Becket, A Lion in Winter, The Guns of Navarone, Zorba the Greek, Z and Les Misrables `The Miserables..'.. I watched Moment to Moment, in Sudan `in its good old days' when I was a medical student, in the `Coliseum', a movie house within a short distance walk from the college dorms I think in 1966 or 67. My judgment: It is a rare gem. The violin piece of music, the flying doves reflecting the blushing sunset hue could not be forgotten.. That I liked most.. The list above is haunting me: I searched for video tapes, for these films from London HMV to JFK free shop, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Calgary, Montreal, Manila, Paris, Brussels and most of the European capitals, during international conferences, in vain.. I have visited the French Riviera where I think some of the footage were taken.. Can anybody help me finding a place or a site where I can get these masterpieces in any form i.e digital or analog? Since I play violin, I also searched for the audio tracks of 'Moment to Moment' without success. I got fed up from watching cobs, gangsters and drug dealers killing each other. I watch some classic movie channels and yet again without any syccess. Is Hollywood suffering from the consequences of the prevailing 'Violence culture' or that I am as out of date as bow and arrow?

I look forward for the readers' help and advice.. And thank you in advance..

Dr. Awad A. El-Mekki.

The Search Is Over!

[ellie-31 · 26 July 1999]

I have been searching for this movie for years! I saw it when I was in college and have never seen it since. I am so happy to finally locate it and now I would like to purchase the video, if available. If anyone knows where to obtain it, please put it on this site and I will order it. Anyway, this movie is a real tear jerker - I remember sobbing at the end; course I was young and impressionable then. But seriously, for anyone who loves a tragic love story, this is it!! In general I don't remember too many movies but this one has literally haunted me for over 25 years! I even had the sheet music and used to play the theme on the piano. Thanks IMDb for having the information!

a romantic dream

[nycsf · 9/10 · 28 July 2002]

When I saw this film when it was released, I was twenty, and I promised myself that one day I would sip a glass of wine on the terrace of the beautiful Colombe d'Or restaurant in St. Paul de Vence, just as Jean Seberg and her sailor did. Several years later, there I was, and so I will always remember this film fondly not only for the initial enjoyment of seeing it, but also for the pleasure it provided me when I got to fulfill the romantic dream it inspired.

A Bad Movie to Love

[Mankin · 18 February 1999]

"Moment to Moment" (1966: *** out of ****) is a forgotten gem that has just recently been released through Collecter's Choice video. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, an old pro from Hollywood's Golden Age, this is one of the best of the glossy guilty pleasures of the 60's, the golden decade of such films. Jean Seberg plays a bored housewife and mother vacationing on the French Riviera with her neglectful psychiatrist husband (Arthur Hill). While Hill is away on one of his frequent long business trips she drifts into an affair with a hunky sailor (played by an actor named Sean Garrison, one of those leading men of the time who get the big buildup, make one or two pictures, then disappear for good). As they motor around the area taking in the sights, they're accompanied by one of Henry Mancini's catchiest title songs. In fact, it is played so often that at one point Seberg asks the bandleader at a café the name of the tune. He ,of course, replies "Moment to Moment." After a bad lover's quarrel Seberg accidentally shoots the sailor and then she and her neighbor (Honor Blackman) drop his body in a nearby ravine. To reveal any more would spoil the unpredictable twists and turns of a deliciously absurd but completely absorbing plot. Suffice it to say that nothing that occurs in the first half of the film is wasted in the second half. Highly recommended for connoisseurs of the "good-bad" movie.

excellent, I could watch over and over again.

[mcosenz1 · 10/10 · 19 August 2000]

I saw this movie years ago and it has always stuck in my mind. I would love to see this movie come back to television. I was in my teens when I first saw it; I am now 47. Please bring it back!I would recommend this movie to people who love thrillers and love stories in one.

Lovely Performance by Jean Seberg

[oliverpenn · 8/10 · 10 December 2006]

What an incredible theme song this lovely picture has. Henry Mancini, along with other major composers, wrote some of the best movie themes during this era (50s & 60s). Also, during that era, songs that went on to get nominated for Oscars were first rate - unlike today's non-descript dreck.

"Moment to Moment" is a lovely movie. I loved the scene at the café when the white doves flew up into the sun (turning golden) to say "goodbye to the day." That glorious theme music crept in all through the picture, making the mood extra special.

I recently bought a Mancini CD just to get the theme from this film. Jean Seberg was a beautiful actress with perfect looks which matched the astonishingly handsome, Sean Garrison, playing the man she cheats with and believes she's killed.

I could see Lana Turner playing this role, it was her kind of picture, but Seberg was just fine. I'm just disappointed that I can't have this on DVD with possible "extras" of outtakes, interviews, etc., especially with Mancini who created this impassioned music. The music theme set the entire mood for the movie and that theme is available on Henry Mancini's A Legendary Performer CD. I just love it.

Waiting with All of You......

[inspiredbyall · 10/10 · 24 April 2008]

As with many others, I purchased "Moment to Moment" on VHS a couple of years ago ...when it was reasonably priced at $16.00. I have been anxiously waiting for it to come out on DVD along with everyone else. Has anyone heard ANYTHING about this movie being released on DVD? Seems like someone could find out something.......I have been trying to find a way to blog a website for Mervyn LeRoy and his great films...just anything to get someone's attention that we NEED this movie on DVD! All the trash that's out there these days.....so wonderful to enjoy a really Good suspenseful movie - with all the wonderful things we look forward to in a good plot!! C'mon people - lets all start researching this together and see if we cannot find a way to put some pressure on someone to RELEASE THIS MOVIE ON DVD !!!!!

Wonderful ... A NEGLECTED TREAT

[timshelboy · 10/10 · 20 August 2008]

I can't recommend this one enough - I paid £40 for a VHS original of it (they can change hands for £200 !) AND IT IS WORTH EVERY PENNY AND MORE.

I have had it about ten days and watched it 5 times already - in fact I have watched it the last three nights in a row !- no other film will satisfy me! Essential ingredients: A bored, neglected wife; a psychiatrist husband away from home; a handsome sailor; flashbacks; amnesia; infidelity; guilt; a gunshot; a body that disappears; a body that comes back to life, a child witness; some dazzling Yves St Laurent frocks; the Riviera setting; Henry Mancini's lovely music; a campy neighbour; men in uniform; ever more ludicrous plot twists; Jean Seberg at her most gorgeous and charming... its like a checklist of everything I want in a movie.

The scene in the Columbe D'or restaurant where Jean shows Garrison the doves turning gold as they are caught by the setting sun's rays "as they say goodbye to the day" is utter bliss - I'm already bracketing it with Liz & Monty on the balcony as a peak in romantic film making.

Fascinating to think how Hitchcock might have made more of the second - thriller - half (the first - romantic - half is perfection as it is).. and also speculate about what a splendid Marnie or Melanie Daniels Seberg would have made.

And check out the love for it on the IMDb comments board - only 97 of us might have seen it but boy, do we love it! This is definitely the jewel in the crown of my Seberg project so far (although 5 more of the available ones still to see) and indeed my new movie of the year, obliterating such weighty competition as Angel Angel Down We go, Orgasmo and The Green Slime.

Get yourself a copy, take the phone off the hook, open a box of Terry's All Gold, uncork The Harveys Bristol Cream and wallow in this lush, neglected treat.

Interesting movie, great acting, suspenseful and exciting

[woodbutcher52 · 10/10 · 15 July 2007]

I have always loved this movie for some reason. I love the characters and think the storyline is a good one with several twists. I have tried to find this movie on television for a long time to no avail. I haven't been able to find a VHS or DVD of it, even though I do have a copy of it I recorded many years ago on a VCR but the first several minutes of the movie were without sound due to technical difficulties with the station airing it. That was the last time I saw it which was around 15 years ago. I would love to see it again. Anyone know of a way to find out why it is never shown on television anymore AND does anyone know how to get a copy of this movie? I would greatly appreciate any information. Thank you!

Young Love

[islandlures · 9/10 · 28 December 2006]

I was a very young 20 year old college student in the Philippines and very much in love, when I first saw this movie. The 50's thru the 60's to me was just the right time to fall in love. So many good movies then, so many good movie themes, so many good actors and so many good songs. Life was so easy then and falling in love was so simple.

I loved watching this movie just as I did many other movies from that period. So when recorded VHS movie tapes became available over 30 years ago, I made sure I bought all the movies that I enjoyed watching then. I have the VHS of this movie and of many other classic movies of that era, including a few of earlier and later years. Just as I do with all my other movies, I watch this at least two or three times a year or whenever I am in the mood, to cry, to laugh or to love. I know I will enjoy watching these movies for many more years or at least until my tapes give up on me.

I also have a few CD's and LP's of soundtrack and movie themes from many movies. I love the theme from this movie as well. Henry Mancini was a great Songwriter and Composer. "Moment To Moment" was one of his best work. He has done so many movie themes and I enjoy listening to each one of them as well. The man is a genius.

Watching this movie and listening to its music take me back to many good memories.

There are still a few elusive movies that I still have to own. "Tender Is The Night", "Tiara Tahiti", "My Geisha", Bonjour Tristesse" and many more,including many soundtracks. I hope I find them soon for they don't make movies or write songs as they used to, or like these, anymore.

A Movie ~> some how find space/stays in my memories

[tayyaba_asif · 10/10 · 23 April 2020]

71 now ~> then, it was about time to enter my Sea-career ; indeed a remarkable movie ; a lot of memories attached; so-difficult/almost impossible~> to forget the moment at Cafe/ music + the intense story+ so much more ; so strongly wish to get the movie and watch it along with my wife( have no idea where to find it ! ! )🌹🦋

One of my all time favorites...but why no DVD or Blu-ray?

[karloff-88255 · 10/10 · 20 October 2020]

It's been 50 years since I've seen this film. Like others, it has stayed with me for decades. I remember watching it on tv with my Mom and reveling in its beauty and mystery. This movie had it all...fear, romance, regret and longing with a touching performance by the lovely Seberg. Honor Blackman costars, fresh off her Bond girl stint in Goldfinger and her presence here really adds to the film's allure. Throw in one of the most heartfelt and haunting musical scores by Henry Mancini eternally cementing this memory in my heart and soul. I would so love to see it again as it would make me feel like I was with Mom again.

One of the most

[morrison-thompson · 9/10 · 4 June 2021]

Sought after movies for anyone's collection. The title song is still a fan favorite from the incomparable Johnny Mathis. It was a film that everyone thought would lift the career of Sean Garrison but fell short. Definitely one of Jean Seberg's best films in her career.