Moonfleet is a 1955

1955 in film

The year 1955 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 3 - The musical Guys and Dolls, starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, debuts.* June 27 - The last ever Republic serial, King of the Carnival, is released....

 film directed by Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang

Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...

 which was inspired by the novel Moonfleet

Moonfleet

Moonfleet is a tale of smuggling by the English novelist J. Meade Falkner, first published in 1898. The book was extremely popular among children worldwide up until the 1970s, mostly for its themes of adventure and gripping storyline...

by J. Meade Falkner

J. Meade Falkner

John Meade Falkner was an English novelist and poet, best known for his 1898 novel, Moonfleet. An extremely successful businessman as well, he became chairman of the arms manufacturer Armstrong Whitworth during World War I.-Life and works:Falkner was born in Manningford Bruce, Wiltshire and spent...

, although significant alterations were made in the characters and plot.

A gothic melodrama set in Britain during the eighteenth century, the film is about John Mohune, a young orphan, played by Jon Whiteley

Jon Whiteley

Jon Whiteley was a child actor in films.Whiteley appeared in five films during his brief career, and it was for the second of these, The Little Kidnappers that he, along with co-star Vincent Winter, was awarded an Academy Juvenile Award for this film...

, who is sent to the Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

 village of Moonfleet to stay with an old friend of his mother's, Jeremy Fox. Fox, played by Stewart Granger

Stewart Granger

Stewart Granger was an English-American film actor, mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was a popular leading man from the 1940s to the early 1960s rising to fame through his appearances in the Gainsborough melodramas.-Early life:He was born James Lablache Stewart in Old...

, is a morally ambiguous character, an elegant gentleman involved with smugglers and pirates.