Here's the problem with Devil and the Deep: Tallulah Bankhead's character. She's so incredibly stupid and weak-willed, there's no way anyone in the audience can root for her! Tallulah is married to Commander Charles Laughton, and while he's jovial and entertaining to others, at home he's a different animal entirely. He's jealous to the point of paranoia, and at the start of the movie he fires Cary Grant because he believes he's slept with his wife. Tallulah is very upset because she's shared nothing but friendship with Cary. After a fight with Charles, she flees from the house. Now, if you had an extremely jealous husband and you'd just seen him ruin a man's career over a nonexistent affair, wouldn't you immediately run to town and sleep with the first man you ran into? Obviously that's the smart thing to do!
The other major problem with the movie is Gary Cooper. He's supposed to be irresistible-he's not-and he's supposed to be able to act his way through the movie-he can't. His monotone delivery would have been laughable if it wasn't painful. Charles Laughton is very good, and he receives an introducing credit for this, his first American film. But, since he is very clearly written to be the bad guy, and I was very clearly on his side rather than his wife's, I didn't end up liking this movie.
I feel so sorry for Charles Laughton. In almost every single movie he made, it was written into the script that he was overweight and unattractive. I've seen male characters call him "tubby", female costars call him "ugly", and he's on countless occasions had to call himself both. In Devil and the Deep, he laments to Gary Cooper, "It must be a happy thing to look like you do. I suppose women love you. I've never had that; it must be a happy thing." During this very sad speech in which he confesses he's "sick and tired of living," he completely won me over. How are the adulterers the couple you're supposed to root for? It's Charles, the sad, tortured, loving, pitiful husband who steals my heart.
The other major problem with the movie is Gary Cooper. He's supposed to be irresistible-he's not-and he's supposed to be able to act his way through the movie-he can't. His monotone delivery would have been laughable if it wasn't painful. Charles Laughton is very good, and he receives an introducing credit for this, his first American film. But, since he is very clearly written to be the bad guy, and I was very clearly on his side rather than his wife's, I didn't end up liking this movie.
I feel so sorry for Charles Laughton. In almost every single movie he made, it was written into the script that he was overweight and unattractive. I've seen male characters call him "tubby", female costars call him "ugly", and he's on countless occasions had to call himself both. In Devil and the Deep, he laments to Gary Cooper, "It must be a happy thing to look like you do. I suppose women love you. I've never had that; it must be a happy thing." During this very sad speech in which he confesses he's "sick and tired of living," he completely won me over. How are the adulterers the couple you're supposed to root for? It's Charles, the sad, tortured, loving, pitiful husband who steals my heart.