Based on the amount of reviews ( only 16), it is amazing how few people have seen The Devil And The Deep. Why? It has Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton and Cary Grant. It is yet another Cooper ( Lieutenant Sempter) movie thst I saw years ago and is now available on YouTube ( just like another sea picture ( His Woman) I saw today). The highlight spoilers ahead: Is the submarine scene when it is being sunk by insane Commander Charles Storm ( Laughton who in this film makes his Captain Bligh seem normal). The problem with the movie, was the leading lady Tallulah Bankhead who played Charles's wife. This is only the second film of hers I have seen and like Kay Francis and Ann Harding absolutely does nothing for me. She is also not particularly pretty ( unlike Harding). I am sure that I would have preferred the movie if Paramount would have cast Claudette Colbert, Carole Lombard or Clara Bow ( all of whom were at the studio at the time and all worked with Cooper). The best acting belongs to Laughton who is usually too over the top for my tastes, but is more restrained here, basically playing a sociopath, so his behavior is hidden most of the film ( except in scenes where he was alone or with Diana) (until the end of course)). Laughton's very distinctive crazy laugh is there in his final scene where is alone on the sinking submarine, when he tries to take a picture of Diana and cut it up with a hatchet ( he fails as he drowns. As for Gary Cooper, he plays Gary Cooper ( almost always the hero), and does end up with Diana ( but with no future in the Navy due to being found guilty in a Court Martial of "Conduct Unbecoming Of An Officer" ( the same fate as Lieutenant Jaeckel (Grant early in his career)). I give the movie 8 of 10 stars. Mostly for Laughton and the ending.
Review of Devil and the Deep
