The Raging Moon 1971

Bruce Pritchard is a 24-year-old working-class man and amateur football player whose zest for life is crushed when he is struck by an incurable degenerative disease, leaving him in a wheelchair for the rest of his days. He enters a church-run home for the disabled, believing his immediate family cannot cope with his care. The strict rules and the sense of confinement deepen his bitterness and isolate him further. Inside, he meets a fellow patient, Jill Matthews, a 31-year-old woman from a wealthy family who is also a wheelchair user due to polio. Bruce begins to harbor romantic feelings for her, but she leaves the institution to return home and marry her longstanding fiancé, Geoffrey. However, Jill soon realises that Geoffrey is not fully committed, and she breaks off the engagement and returns to the institution. Gradually, Jill is able to crack through Bruce’s shell of cynicism and his distrust of rules, bringing new vitality back into his life. In the process, the two grow closer, and their friendship deepens into love. They decide to get engaged, celebrating a glimmer of hope amid their difficult circumstances. Tragically, Jill dies from a virus, leaving Bruce to confront the void she leaves behind. Yet the courage he discovers through their love helps him choose to go on living, transformed by what she taught him about resilience and hope.