The Moon and Sixpence served as the first of many collaborations between Tiomkin and the film’s associate producer, Stanley Kramer. It also marked the directorial debut of the producer Albert Lewin, who would go on to helm The Picture of Dorian Gray. Tiomkin previously had worked with Lewin on Spawn of the North. For The Moon and Sixpence, Lewin himself adapted the screenplay from W. Somerset Maugham’s novel of the same name. The film chronicles the excesses of Charles Strickland, an abusive artist who abandons his wife and family, cavorts with a friend’s wife (who in turn commits suicide), and then sets off for Tahiti, where he marries a native teenage girl.