This movie is about a tragic romance that resulted because of lies. True love is found despite those lies, but the lies threaten to stop the love of Jack and Jenny. The viewer is hoping for the best and won't know until the very end of the movie. There were two endings made to this movie - one is sad and the other is happy. It all depends on what the doctor does when he comes out at the end. Watch to find out! It is a sweet movie of love and romance that'll leave the viewer in a teary suspense.
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clasik131 October 1999
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Red-Barracuda1 October 2016Liars Moon is probably most immediately notable these days for having a very early starring role from a young Matt Dillon just before he hit stardom. To be fair, it is a movie with a lot more to offer than that and certainly is one that seems to have gone under the radar. Set in the 50's in the rural American south, it tells the story of a poor boy and rich girl who fall in love but the boy's mother and the girl's father do not approve of this class crossing love affair.
This was another film from b-movie producers Crown International but it really is very different to most of the features they put out. It's a period set love story which is quite removed from their usual schlock genre offerings. The budget is modest but the production values are high enough to pull off the period setting effectively, while the cast are all very good. The story itself about young lovers from different sides of the tracks is a fairly common one but this one does have the added angle of playing its story out as a real tragedy with an ending that is thoroughly bleak! I do understand that there are two different endings out there for this one, the other being more conventional and happy. But despite the downer nature of the ending I saw, I think it's one that stays in your memory more and is more effective in dramatizing its theme of the way past lies of older generations can shape the present in terrible ways for their offspring. -
yonhope9 December 2016Matt Dillon looks great in this and he was the box office draw in 1982. The entire cast is very capable of getting the audience on their side or against them. Hoyt Axton is Matt's dad in this story of love that cannot wait.
The parents have secrets that will be problems for themselves and their children. The boy and girl seem to fall in love during a greased pig chase. Lots of down home humor, but this is a very serious movie that builds to a climax.
Good scenes of old cars and trucks and hair styles and life styles. This movie will probably be appreciated by today's young high school viewers.
This movie is in a new DVD set of 100 Awesomely Cheesy Movies for about $15 today in December of 2016. It probably will be available in the future. This is a very good movie that probably should be in a better video set. -
ringdinggirl1 March 2006I saw this movie on TV in the 80's and loved it. I was a young teen in love myself at the time and totally related. I taped this on a VCR and watched it over and over until the tape broke. One of the things I enjoyed most was the soundtrack, especially the love song which I have been trying to find out the name and artist for over 20 years! I had wanted to use it in 1984 as my wedding song but no band or DJ knew the song or movie... Can anyone help? The song name might be "I'll Love you Forever"?? I am not sure, but it had those words in the song....would appreciate any help. This song was also used years ago in an episode of the soap opera All My Children. It has stayed with me for so many years and when I saw this site I thought maybe I can finally put this lingering question to rest (and use it at my 2nd wedding!) Thank you!
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sleepingsunrise14 February 2023I watched this because I'm a fan of Matt Dillon and he did not disappoint. He played the shy dreamboat quite well. This movie is very much like The Notebook. Poor boy who falls in love with the rich girl who's way out of his league.
How did he win her heart? By being genuinely kind and respectful. It's really a beautiful love story. They end up eloping despite both their parents telling them not to.
SPOILERS: The shocking twist is that her father believes that boy is his son, making them brother and sister. This creates an urgency because she finds out she's pregnant and thinks she must have an abortion. She ends up getting one and it's hard to tell if she lives or not. The ending wasn't clear to me.
Overall I did enjoy this film but I wish there were maybe 30 more minutes where everything gets cleared up and they live happily ever after. -
nogodnomasters15 July 2018Ginny (Cindy Fisher) had been away at school and has come home. She is dating Richard (David Underwood) but has eyes for Jack Duncan (Matt Dillon). This is a small Texas community. Ginny is from money. Jack is not. The opening was a clue to the plot twist which one can figure out before the next clue at 30 minutes. The twist was apparent.
I thought Cindy Fisher had an unconvincing performance. I half expected for someone to throw something off the Tallahatchie Bridge with Bobby Gentry doing a closing tune. Low grade drama.
Guide: Brief Nudity (Tonja Walker ?) -
Chase_Witherspoon4 February 2024I saw the 'lighter' version of this period drama which was still a somewhat depressing saga, but nonetheless bittersweet tale of romance between the classes in conservative 1950's Texas. Fisher and Dillon make a charming couple who run afoul their disapproving parents who've more in common than they realise.
Connelly is solid as Fisher's protective father, unable to endorse his daughter's newfound love, whilst country singer/actor Axton has a comparably much smaller role playing Dillon's hard-working, more understanding dad. I also really enjoyed the antics of Dillon's roustabout friends Greenleaf and Atkins, and then Tyrrell later in the film as the 'entertainer' who befriends Fisher. The film's big stars have small but sympathetic roles, Crawford playing a compassionate family patriarch, whilst DeCarlo has a strangely superficial role (looks like it may have been edited down) as a kindly landlady.
Attractive sets and a likeable cast make it a little easier to consume what is otherwise a rather disturbing drama which doesn't always handle its subject matter as effectively as the plot demands - the cliffhanger unfolds too quickly, despite there being sufficient time for greater suspense, especially given how unsettling the consequences were to contemplate. Instead, the plot threads connect too conveniently in the film's rushed climax, which doesn't do the rest of the otherwise carefully curated film justice.
Nevertheless despite some mishandling of the more sensitive moments, the overall film is still compelling viewing and worth a watch, although having only seen what's referred to as the 'happy' version, the alternative ending could be too much to endure, all things considered. -
BandSAboutMovies19 February 2021In East Texas, young lovers Jack (Matt Dillon) and Ginny (Cindy Fisher, who was already menaced by a one-sided love affair in Bad Ronald) realize that the world will never let them be. Jack's mother (Margaret Blye, The Italian Job) was once in love with Ginny's father (Christopher Connelly, who speaking of Italian shows up in some of our favorite movies from that country, including Manhattan Baby and 1990: The Bronx Warriors) and knows how these things end. But our loveable scamp head off to Louisiana, where they can get married without permission and Jack starts working in the oil fields, just like his dead father, who was played by Hoyt Axton.
This tale of a working class boy and a banker's daughter is livened up by some casting that genre fans will appreciate, like Richard Moll - who must be in every 80's movie as the heavy that Robert Englund turns down - as well as Molly McCarthy (from one of the strangest film noir movies ever, Blast of Silence), Jim Greenlead (Tag: The Assassination Game, Surf II, Joysticks), Yvonne De Carlo (Guyana: Cult of the Damned, Silent Scream, The Munsters), Dawn Dunlap (Barbarian Queen, Forbidden World), Broderick Crawford (in his last role) and Susan Tyrrell (who I'll obviously be making a Letterboxd list all about sooner than later).
Director David Fisher only made one other movie, Toy Solders, which has teens - like Tim Robbins and Tracy Scoggins - join up with Father Karras to escape from terrorists. Yeah, you better believe I'm hunting that one down.
Oh yeah. Liar's Moon also has a soundtrack by Asleep at the Wheel and two endings. Spoiler mode on*: Jack lives in one and dies in the other. I watched the Mill Creek Rare Cult Cinema version, which has him live. I have no idea how the one on Tubi ends, so why don't you, as Morrissey sang, find out for yourself?
*Perhaps an even bigger spoiler is...
Seriously...this might ruin the film and I'm shocked that I missed this angle...
Jack and Ginny, remember how I said their parents dated? Yeah, the reason their respective mother and father were so against them dating is because they're brother and sister. My God, another incest movie. It's as if our site is...yeah, I guess I did watch that whole VC Andrews set. Two of them, actually.
Wait a second. Nope. The poor mom had been screwing with the rich dad for twenty years so that he'd feel pain for how he treated her. Everyone in this movie is ridiculous. They even shoot a color tinted flashback to show how it happened!
Oh Mill Creek. You brought me into this movie just to complete a box set and you reward me with a rich cup of scuzzy eighties wonderment. -
fertilecelluloid1 January 2005This modest pic left me in a dreamy, relaxed state, and I felt like I'd experienced a minor gem.
It was not widely released, but it played cable TV outlets in the early 80's and features one of Matt Dillon's earliest screen personas.
It's not brilliant, but it's extremely unusual and stylishly directed. It has an atmosphere that reminds me of Jack Fisk's underrated RAGGEDY MAN.
A dark, haunting tale of forbidden love, it describes the love affair between dirt poor Matt Dillon and the lovely Cindy Fisher, daughter of a wealthy banker who is the keeper of a terrible secret.
Stunning photography and a terrific cast elevate this provocative film into the ranks of "minor classic". -
BriarDan13 August 2001This is one of my favorite movies. I saw it on cable when it first came out. The first time I saw it, it was one of those feel good movies. Then the next day when I settled in to watch it again it turned into a sad movie because of the different ending. When it came out on video I bought it hoping the feel good ending was used. It was not. I recently found out that the DVD version doesn't have both ending available on it but it DOES have the feel good ending. Now I HAVE to buy a DVD player!
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bkoganbing19 September 2007Liar's Moon is a coming of age film set in the early Fifties of the Truman administration in rural East Texas. In a role that bares a small resemblance to Cybill Shepherd's in The Last Picture Show, Cindy Fisher is the daughter of the wealthiest man in town, Christopher Connelly and Molly McCarthy.
For reasons he won't articulate Connelly takes an unreasoning dislike to dirt poor farm boy Matt Dillon whose parents, Hoyt Axton and Margaret Blye are so far the opposite side of the tracks they're in another zip-code. Still the two young people feel a strong attraction for each other and run off to elope in Louisiana. That drives Connelly into a rage. But it turns out a lie about a past indiscretion told Connelly by McCarthy sets in motion a horrific tragedy.
The young leads Dillon and Fisher are perfectly cast in this film about more innocent times. Oddly enough the innocence of those times also contributes to the tragic climax of Liar's Moon.
Also in the cast are two Hollywood veterans in small roles, Broderick Crawford as Fisher's grandfather and Yvonne DeCarlo as the proprietress of a motel the two young people elope to.
But it's the playing of Fisher and Dillon as a Texas version of Romeo and Juliet that really drives this very neglected and underrated film. -
gavin-imdb23 October 2004As the apprentice editor. My boss, Steve Rosenbloom, went on to edit most of Ed Zwick's films and supervise the editing of Bedford Falls shows (thirtysomething). The editor, Chris Greenbury, was English and was known for the occasional temper tantrum. I didn't know it at the time, but he was one of the fastest cutters in the business.
I was seventeen and studying film at HSPVA, Houston's High School for Performing and Visual Arts. There was an actors' strike going on in Los Angeles, so the cast and crew were really top rate for a low-budget local film.
I ran the edge coding machine. We worked on Moviolas in two rooms of a large hotel near Sharpstown. Cindy Fischer smiled at me once, and I saved enough money to make a 16mm film the next semester, before coming out to LA and going to film school at USC.
I gradually fell into the world of software development, which I love, and recently ended up at DreamWorks. So, if you watch the title crawl at the end of Shark Tale, way below the HP logo, you'll see my second feature film credit -- nearly 25 years after my first.
Gavin Doughtie -
ptb-815 May 2008LIARS MOON is a genuine rarity: a very well produced teenage "Romeo and Juliet' drama made in 1981 and set in the deep south of the good ol' USA in 1950 - and thank god, nobody jumps off the Tallahatche Bridge a-la Ode To Billy Joe. I do believe this gorgeous film made no impression at the time... and I recently found this exquisite film on DVD in 2008 - and I am thrilled to tell ya all, this is a really really good film. There are many excellent and interesting aspects to LIARS MOON: the fantastic and accurate set design and art direction; the astute casting; the fact that the film is also made on genuine locations that really add HUD and RACING WITH THE MOON big studio quality imagery; and then there is Matt Dillon... aged about 18 and on the cusp of super-stardom thanks to THE OUTSIDERS and RUMBLEFISH. Other great acting parts belong to Broderick Crawford, Yvonne de Carlo and Susan Tyrrell, each equally effective in this beautifully created film. The photography and the lighting especially add authenticity with superb photography and image ideology. The costumes and use of real locations are the sort of quality wish-list we all want to see in a film of this style and emotion. It all works because this film is made with love care and some healthy budget. Find it and show it to teenagers.. especially daughters and nieces who will swoon squeal and cry on cue for a delicious family night at home on DVD ..in a film that does not flinch from difficult topics and good romantic suspense. In the credits you will also find Patrick Swayze's mum as choreographer.
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Interesting story, has some elements of "Lone Star", then diverges. Dillon plays a high school boy from an ordinary farming family in 1949 Texas. He and the banker's daughter get sweet on each other but the banker does whatever he can to keep them apart. So they elope to Louisiana while still 17, he gets a job as a pipeline laborer, they are deeply in love, then after 3 months she finds out she is pregnant.
Meanwhile banker dad has hired a two-bit detective to find and bring his daughter back. He catches up with them about the time her new doctor calls her old doctor for medical records, only to find out the banker has apparently fathered both of the young couple, they are half-siblings, that's why he was trying to keep them apart! So the only solution is an abortion. In a silly scene at night, after an illegal back-room procedure leaves young wife bleeding and in serious danger, the two-bit detective tries to run them off the road as Dillon's character tries to get her to a hospital.
Turns out Dillon's mother had lied, and colluded with the nurse to switch blood types of the possible fathers, and Dillon and his young wife were not related after all. Moral -- see what lies of the father and mother can do to the son and daughter.
At the end, young wife recovers, and we see that they will live happily ever after.
Not a great movie, only marginally interesting, shot entirely in the Houston area, bad caricatures of Louisiana folk, but interesting for the young Matt d Dillon. -
Woodyanders18 December 2013Earnest working class poor boy Jack Duncan (an excellent and engaging performance by Matt Dillon right before he became a big star) and sweet wealthy lass Ginny Peterson (a fine and appealing portrayal by the fetching Cindy Fisher) fall in love and decide to get married despite the protestations from both of their families. However, a dark secret concerning Jack's lineage threatens to destroy the couple's potential for finding happiness with each other. Writer/director David Fisher delivers a strong and flavorsome evocation of the rural Texas region, likewise offers a vivid and convincing depiction of the early 50's period setting, maintains a pleasant sincere tone throughout, and for the most part manages to handle the story in a tasteful and restrained manner, although the narrative does falter a bit in the last third with a rather clumsy and lurid incest subplot. Fortunately, the enchantingly dreamy atmosphere and the endearing wide-eyed innocence of the central adolescent characters prevents the more melodramatic elements from ruining the picture. The sound acting from the tip-top cast also holds the film together: Dillon and Fisher make for extremely personable leads, with stellar support from Hoyt Axton as Jack's jolly pop Cecil, Maggie Blythe as Jack's forlorn mother Ellen, Christopher Connelly as Ginny's strict and disapproving banker father Alex, Broderick Crawford as amiable old-timer Col. Tubman, Susan Tyrell as brash prostitute Lora Mae Bouvier, Yvonne De Carlo as friendly boarding house owner Jeanene Dubois, Richard Moll as sleazy private eye Roy Logan, and Mark Atkins as surly punk Bobby Adams. John Hora's gorgeously vibrant cinematography provides a wealth of breathtaking visuals. A real sleeper.