DEEP WATERS was the kind of film that slipped by without much notice, a simple tale about an orphan boy (DEAN STOCKWELL) who longs for adventure on the high seas and has to be restrained by an old maid (ANNE REVERE) and a couple of townspeople who are carrying on an affair while arguing about the boy's future (JEAN PETERS and DANA ANDREWS).
Jean was an interesting actress at Fox who never quite reached her potential as a star--and given material like this, it's a wonder she achieved the success she did in a number of other films. The story is pedestrian, saved by the good child performance of young Stockwell and benefits from some location photography in Maine mixed with studio shot scenes.
She plays a young woman in charge of Stockwell who is engaged in arguments with Andrews over his being a lobster-man who won't seek a safer job on land and is even more incensed when he takes Stockwell along with him aboard his vessel. CESAR ROMERO shows up as a Portugese fisherman and manages to give the film's only spirited performance.
Unfortunately, they're all stock characters adrift in a story that doesn't really hold water, no matter how deep it is. Based on a novel by Ruth Moore called SPOONHANDLE and directed by Henry King, it really doesn't amount to much, even with its storm at sea sequence.
