Preminger's first independent production can be coyly summarized as a bubbly sex comedy that talks about bedding down but never turns a sheet back. However, the furor surrounding the film leaves the impression that a full-scale orgy had occurred. The Moon Is Blue concerns the attempted seduction of the militantly virtuous Patty O'Neill (played by Audrey Hepburn double Maggie McNamara) by two bachelors, the self-confident Donald (William Holden) and the aging tippler David (David Niven). Deceptively ingenuous, Miss O'Neill manages to outwit her two suitors, disarming them with her aggressively candid queries (“Would you try to seduce me?”). Daring verbiage like “virgin” and “pregnant” is modestly sprinkled throughout the film, but barely a prim kiss is exchanged. The real kiss was a kiss-off: when the Production Code Administration told Preminger The Moon Is Blue wouldn't receive a seal of approval because of its “moral indifference,” he told them he'd distribute it anyway. Like an inept father, the PCA was losing control over its “children.”