The Moon is Down

Following his success with The Grapes of Wrath, Johnson wrote the screenplay for Steinbeck's The Moon is Down, a story of a small Norwegian town which is initially peaceable under Nazi occupation but then resists.

Right Nunnally with John Steinbeck and Irving Pilchel, director of The Pied Piper, Life Begins at Eight-Thirty, and The Moon is Down. 		Johnson, Steinbeck and Pilchel
Johnson, Pilchel, and Dorris Johnson meeting Crown Princess Martha Released during World War II, the film drew praise from the Allies.

"This film is worth an armored Division in the field."
     -- Winston Churchill, on seeing the film in 1943

The Moon is Down was "the greatest motion picture we have seen. It tells better than anything we have seen or read why we are fighting . . . . Please convey our thanks to those who produced and played in this wonderful motion picture."
     -- commandant of the Free Norway forces training in Canada to liberate Norway from Nazi occupation

Left Johnson with Pilchel and Dorris Johnson meet Crown Princess Martha, later Queen of Norway, and Crown Prince Olaf of Norway in New York City for a showing of The Moon is Down
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