The Deep Blue Sea Reviews

Anatole Litvak isn’t exactly the most exciting film director of the studio era, he’s a man happier to simply point-and-shoot and does filmed versions of plays, but he always managed to get great work out of his actors. James Cagney showed range in City for Conquest, Olivia de Havilland was fabulous in The Snake Pit and Ingrid Bergman had a comeback with Anastasia. Following this logical through line, The Deep Blue Sea is beautifully acted but awkwardly filmed.

Here is a story that seemed like a great choice for a hauntingly filmed black-and-white character study, but is filmed in CinemaScope and bright Technicolor. Much of the intimacy is gone, which harms the film’s overall impact. As does the Production Code’s enforced censorship which dulls much of the erotic longing and romance involved in the extramarital affair at the heart of the story. It still gets its major points across, but I couldn’t help feeling like this film needed a more evocative, moody touch to really sell it.

Luckily though, Litvak has come to the property with Vivien Leigh, an actress rarely, if ever, not in top form. Leigh makes her society dame a woman who is all ice on the surface, but a jumbled mess of neediness and naked emotion underneath. The moments when her façade cracks are miniature masterpieces of character detail in which we see the damaged heart, the ugly, naked need for a connection. Her character’s sexual frustrations are born from a place of rejection by the men in her life, and Leigh’s slow burning realization that she will only be a complete person when she learns to live and value herself without a man is a marvel. Too often when talking about Leigh’s film accomplishments the conversation begins with
Gone With the Wind and ends with A Streetcar Named Desire, two of the all-time great performances, but miss out on the smaller films and works like this or Waterloo Bridge. Kenneth More and Emlyn Williams are the two men in her life, and their work is just as richly textured and delivered, but they’re wise enough to realize that they’re supporting players to Leigh’s tragic central figure.