The Deep Blue Sea (1955)

A woman unhappy in her passionless marriage leaves her husband for a younger and more ardent lover.

Director:

Anatole Litvak

Writers:

Terence Rattigan (play), Terence Rattigan (screenplay)

Stars:

Vivien Leigh, Kenneth More, Eric Portman

Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview:
Vivien Leigh	...	Hester Collyer
Kenneth More	...	Freddie Page
Eric Portman	...	Miller
Emlyn Williams	...	Sir William Collyer
Moira Lister	...	Dawn Maxwell
Arthur Hill	...	Jackie Jackson
Dandy Nichols	...	Mrs. Elton
Jimmy Hanley	...	Dicer Durston
Miriam Karlin	...	Barmaid
Heather Thatcher	...	Lady Dawson
Bill Shine	...	Golfer
Brian Oulton	...	Drunk
Sidney James	...	Man outside bar
Alec McCowen	...	Ken Thompson
Gibb McLaughlin	...	Clerk

Storyline

A woman unhappy in her passionless marriage leaves her husband for a younger and more ardent lover.

---

Plot Keywords:

marriage | royal air force | officer | discontent | redemption | 

---

Taglines:

Trapped Between Infidelity and - [The Deep Blue Sea].

---

Genres:

Drama | Romance

---

Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 November 1955 (USA)

Also Known As:

L'autre homme

Filming Locations:

Cremorne Road, Chelsea, London, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

London Film Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (magnetic prints) (Western Electric Recording) Mono (optical prints) (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Alexander Walker in 'Sex in the Movies', Marlene Dietrich turned down the film "on the grounds that she could never be convincing as a woman who tries to gas herself because she cannot keep her lover or find other men."

---

Quotes

Mrs. Elton: I wish I could understand what it was that possessed you to do a dreadful thing like that
Hester Collyer: What possessed me, Mrs Elton? The Devil, I suppose
Mrs. Elton: I should just think it was
Hester Collyer: I'm not sure I meant quite that kind of devil. But when you're between any kind of devil and the deep blue sea, the deep blue sometimes looks very inviting. It did last night
Mrs. Elton: I can't make you out. You're not a wicked woman. What you did last night was wicked and cruel. Now supposing it had been Mr Page and not you that we found ...
[...]

---

Connections

Version of Vathia galazia thalassa (1979)

---

Soundtracks

The Deep Blue Sea
Music by Francis Chagrin
Lyrics by Roy Bradford

User Reviews

Underrated, underviewed, unavailable

This film suffers from the lingering taint of tepid critical response upon its initial release, based largely on the facts that (1) Rattigan's original play was "opened up" (including a ski trip to Switzerland) and shot in CinemaScope and (2) that the beautiful and glamorous Vivien Leigh played a heroine created on stage by the talented but dowdy Peggy Ashcroft.

Leigh's performance was deemed cold - too controlled - yet she provides the cold fire, hot ice quality that always made her a fascinating film actress. More's performance as the lover was overrated - he won a prize at the Venice film festival, and made it plain that he and his co-star did not get along during filming, mainly because he protested Leigh's desire to look her best. Such a desire is all the more understandable given the fact that her last completed film was A Streetcar Named Desire, as the faded beauty Blanche, and that she had subsequently broken down during the filming of Elephant Walk and been replaced by the much younger Elizabeth Taylor.

There were dissenting critical opinions. Pauline Kael called Leigh's performance here "brilliant" when later reviewing The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and finding the Karen Stone performance wanting in contrast. (I beg to differ with Pauline on that point, being a Karen Stone enthusiast myself.) In any case, The Deep Blue Sea deserves to be seen. It was produced by Alexander Korda in Britain, but distributed by 20th Century Fox in the U.S.A., so maybe there are copyright issues blocking its release on video.

Here in America the film would seem a likely staple of the American Movie Classics cable station, if for no other reason because it stars the woman who played Scarlett O'Hara. (20th Century Fox CinemaScope films of the same vintage play regularly on the station, e.g., How To Marry a Millionaire, Three Coins in the Fountain, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Anastasia, et al.) The critical success of David Mamet's adaptation of The Winslow Boy may stir interest in Rattigan once again - let's hope so.

The play itself was and remains a strong acting vehicle, especially for the woman who plays Hester. Faye Dunaway nearly did it in NYC for Roundabout, but somehow the star and the theater couldn't come to terms over contract demands, and it was revived instead with Blythe Danner (aka Ma Paltrow).

Let's hope that Vivien Leigh's performance will be available for viewing by movie fans and serious film and theater scholars alike in the near future. After all, she is one of the great actresses of the twentieth century cinema, and this is one of but eight films she made following Gone With the Wind.

An interesting footnote: Arthur Hill appears briefly in this film; later, when Vivien Leigh won a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway musical Tovarich, Hill won the Tony for his dramatic turn in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. There is an amusing photograph of Leigh, Hill, and fellow winners Zero Mostel and Uta Hagen at the awards ceremony, circa 1963.