User reviews

This film was a nice showcase for Ida Lupino--who normally was in second-tier films or played supporting roles in most of her films. Here, despite a relatively low budget, she has a nice opportunity to show her acting prowess.

The film is set in rural America. A road crew with convict labor is working near Lupino's home. She lives with her parents--an ineffectual and sickly mother (Fay Bainter) as well as an often cruel and moody father (Henry Hull). The father sees the foreman of the road crew (Wayne Morris) as a likely candidate to take his 'stupid' daughter off his hands--so he tries very hard to convince the two to spend time together. Odd, then, that instead of Morris, Ida falls in love with one of the convicts--one who has escaped and befriended her (Dane Clark). Much of the movie is spent with Clark hiding and meeting Lupino on the sly.

The plot is okay but the best part of the film is clearly Lupino--who plays a brow-beaten young woman extremely well. A great film? Nah...but for lovers of classic cinema, one well worth seeing.

Ida Lupino was one of the best screen actresses of her generation. If one should doubt it, take one look at "Deep Valley", which was filmed when she was about 32 years old. Ms. Lupino transforms herself into a much younger woman, who makes the viewer believe she is a girl in her late teens, or early twenties.

Jean Negulesco had a lot to do with the good work he extracted from his players. The film, which is rarely seen these days, presents us with a dysfunctional family living in an isolated farm in California. Libby, the young daughter of the family is seen tending to her sick mother who is bedridden; her father doesn't seem to talk to the mother, leaving Libby in a difficult position. To make matters worse, Libby suffers from stuttering and from shyness, as she feels trapped into duty and not having the same things other girls, her age, can do.

"Deep Valley" is a film that presents a plausible romance between Libby and Barry, a convict working on the road construction nearby. Also, Jeff Barker, one of the men from the highway project falls for the young woman's beauty. Things become entangled as Libby finds the escaped man, Barry, and they fall in love. The lovers are doomed from the start, as one realizes Libby and Barry have no chance in being together. What Libby feels for Barry makes her speech problem go away as she regains a confidence she never had.

The film is worth a look because of Ida Lupino. As Libby, she makes this girl come alive without ever striking a wrong note. Dane Clark is also quite good as Barry, the convict. Wayne Morris plays Jeff Barker, the man that loves Libby, but he realizes she doesn't care for him. Fay Bainter and Henry Hill play the older Sauls.

The film is helped by the musical score of Max Steiner and the black and white cinematography created by Ted McCord.

Ida Lupino (Libby) plays the socially isolated daughter of Henry Hull (Cliff) and Fay Bainter (Ellie). They live in the middle of the nowhere and Lupino is the glue that keeps the family together as her parents don't speak to each other and live on separate floors. She acts as a go-between. One day, after wandering through the woods, which is her only enjoyment in life, she stumbles across some convicts who are building a road. One of them, Dane Clark (Barry) takes her fancy. Can these two misfits get together? Wayne Morris (Jeff) also takes a shine to Lupino and her father wants to encourage this relationship. Lupino has other ideas.

The cast are good with the central performance of Lupino leading things along as she develops a relationship with Clark and we see her change into a happy girl. However, this is ultimately an unhappy story that you will probably be able to predict. It does provide tense moments, though. Personally, it was too obvious for me and I would have preferred a different ending. It's still worth keeping onto.

A touching story of people finding (or re-discovering) within themselves a capacity for love: low-keyed, underplayed, and presenting an extraordinary challenge to Ida Lupino as a young woman totally lacking in confidence or a sense of self-worth, an emotionally stunted creature whose needs and aspirations are internalized, until.....

Her marvelous performance must rely on nuance to acquaint us with what is going on within the character: a lowering of the eyes, a tilt of the head, an ungainly walk without swinging her arms, a halting, inarticulate stammer, and more - much more - the types of things that define excellence in acting, absent of any opportunity to chew the scenery.

Long acknowledged as a first-rate talent who never received her due (and whose career was never properly promoted), Ida Lupino demonstrates in this film just how much she was capable of achieving, if given the opportunity.

Director Jean Negulesco always worked well with actresses and had a pretty eye for story detail, yet his visual flair never compensated for his narrative structure, which was shaky and lacking both suspense and (when needed) a touch of light relief. The intensity of his films usually slipped right through his hands, which is why "Deep Valley" is only good up to a point. Ida Lupino stars as a backwoods farm girl who falls in love for the first time with convict Dane Clark, who just escaped from a work camp. Handsome, well-written drama combines adventure and romance, though Lupino is ultimately too refined and intelligent to be convincing as a stutter-prone illiterate. Her performance improves as the picture continues, but Clark has the opposite problem: he strains too hard for effect, though his inadequacy is nearly poignant. Negulesco, true to form, smoothly transports the viewer back to another time and place, but the picture is so tremulous it tends to fade in the memory. **1/2 from ****

My vote would be less if this movie was made 10 or 20 years later, but the plot would not have survived 10 or 20 years later because of the setting. Well written, good casting, and some of my favorite actors -- Ida Lupino and Wayne Morris. I didn't recognize Morris at first; I loved him in "Kid Galahad" with Barbara Stanwyck, and I believe he was one of the most handsome actors that ever graced the silver screen. The plot was believable and there sure wasn't much that needed to be done to create the set, since most of it was outdoors. The costumes couldn't have been a challenge either. Overall, the story was believable when you consider the movie code in 1947. Good job again Ida Lupino!

Deep Valley is a kind of pastoral noir set in a mountainous glen right out of the Brothers Grimm. Isolated with her valetudenarian mother and coarse father in a tumbledown farmhouse, Ida Lupino is an introverted, unsocialized young woman whose awkwardness is symbolized by a stutter. Nearby a new highway is under construction by a forced-labor gang of convicts. One of them (Dane Clark) escapes; Lupino shelters him. Nature takes it course, as does the long arm of the law. The cinematography in Deep Valley is lush and evocative, and its score, by Max Steiner in an access of Wagnerism, may blow you out of your easy chair. Jean Negulesco directs with his usual high-gloss professionalism. But worthy as Deep Valley is, it's hard to work up much enthusiasm for it. Basically it's a quiet and sad little story that remains in its rural backwater and doesn't beckon us in.

I caught this on Turner Classic Movies, during a showcase of movies that are not yet available on video. And what a shame, because this is a remarkably vivid, extremely well produced effort, featuring a typically marvelous performance from the so called "poor man's Bette Davis" Ida Lupino - her last as a Warner Brothers star. As well as an intense, believable turn from one of the WB's preferred non-glamour, refreshingly regular Joe's, Dane Clark.

She plays a stuttering, socially backward young woman living in a dark household where her petty, nagging father (Henry Hull) gloomily inhabits the first floor and her helpless, self-pitying mother (Fay Bainter) occupies the second one. Her only function, beyond tedious daily chores, is to be the convenient target of her parents' scorn and disappointment, the scorn and disappointment they actually intend for each other but are too weary to express - as they literally haven't spoken for years. Not helping matters is the fact that there are no other neighbors for miles, as the three of them are fenced in, both physically and now emotionally by the surrounding hills.

Lupino's only refuge is the woods, where she often blissfully roams for hours with her dog. During one of her excursions she stumbles across a work crew of convicts on a construction project, supervised by an agreeable WW2 veteran played by Wayne Morris. She is instantly captivated by one of the men (Clark, who is friendly towards her dog) despite the fact that the undoubtedly more respectable Morris soon drops by the house to get water for the crew and is clearly taken with her. But she prefers the dangerous Clark (from afar - they've only made eye contact) and is concerned that he has been placed in isolation as a result of a violent, if provoked, rage.

Soon, a terrible storm hits. Clark escapes his confinement in the mayhem, as does Lupino, deciding she can no longer withstand the unrelenting hopelessness her parents are inflicting on her. She and Clark run into each other in the woods and ... well, they fall in love.

I'd hate to give any more away but, as with all good movies, there are surprises in store and events to unfold. The characterizations are three dimensional, lived in, particularly those of Bainter and Hull as Lupino's folks. It would've been all too easy for them to have come across as simply nasty and grotesque, but they both do a wonderful job of shading their performances so that you can sense the buried humanity, the regret, the slender possibility of some kind of redemption. There's a tantalizing hint of mystery in Morris' nice guy supervisor as well. It's a relatively small role, but he seems TOO nice, TOO forgiving of and understanding of Lupino's stuttering and social backwardness. Though it's understandably left largely unexplored, you find yourself wondering about the guy's true intentions.

Wonderful film. There's a good amount of suspense too in the second half, as the authorities keep closing in and things get very tense. A colorful, cagey sheriff who appears to enjoy his work a bit too much comes out of nowhere and almost steals the show.

The director, Jean Negulesco, has put together a beautiful film. It's worth seeing for the stunning cinematography alone. Couple that with flawless performances across the board and an insightful, nuanced script ... "Deep Valley" has the richness and texture of an old hardback novel you pick off the shelves of a good used bookstore and can't put down. How do movies like this get so lost when mediocrities abound? (Didn't mean to rhyme.)

A film noir from 1947 starring Ida Lupino. Lupino is a downtrodden, plain daughter living at home w/a bedridden mother, Fay Bainter & an abusive father, Henry Hull. What brings a ray of hope to her life is the passel of convicts near their home on an extended stay (they're constructing a highway road) where she befriends one of the cons, played by Dane Clark who she feels sorry for after he gets reprimanded for an infraction (he's locked in a toolshed for it). After a row in the family partners w/some extreme weather outdoors, several convicts & their guards are killed in a landslide where the toolshed is demolished as well but Clark is nowhere to be found w/the edict going out that the presumption is that he's alive until a body is discovered. Lupino ends up at a remote cabin to calm down & after a swim in a nearby lake, she encounters Clark hiding out there but instead of turning him in, they appeal to each other's damaged upbringings & circumstances which eventually turns to love. After a posse nearly gets him at the cabin, Clark backtracks it to Lupino's manse where she hides him in a barn but w/the local sheriff & his posse closing in, it's only a matter of time before the lovers are caught. Lupino essentially would play the same part in a Western w/Joel McCrea called Colorado Territory 2 years later (which itself is a remake of High Sierra w/Humphrey Bogart) but instead of focusing on Clark, Lupino is front & center w/the outcome virtually the same. Director Jean Negulesco (Johnny Belinda/Three Coins in a Fountain) gets a lot of mileage out his dark compositions & Max Steiner's score w/Lupino a standout as a brittle woman finally coming into her own by falling in love w/the wrong man.

I was always a fan of Ida Lupino as she never disappointed me but on the contrary always excelled herself, and here in this film more than ever. In the beginning she is a plain girl suffering from a stutter, which she gradually overcomes by the shock of some hard experience. As she gets involved with the ordeals of a convict, she starts developing her character and ends up a mature woman ready to meet life.

The story is not very remarkable but actually rather banal, but the great tempest scene changes everything and especially the character of the film from rather a dull account of simple life out in the wilderness of pettiness and stagnant patterns into a thrilling drama.

The music by Max Steiner and especially the photography makes this film a great experience. It develops into something of a Frank Borzage style saga of great human pathos, and in every scene with Ida Lupino you shiver and feel her torture and anguish as her situation continuously grows more complicated and inextricable in its hopelessness, but somehow she comes out of it alive after all, and you can give a sigh of relief that at last the tremendous suspense is over.

Every actor besides makes a perfect job, they are all convincing in their very tiny world, the provincialism is extreme, but it is very well caught and realized in the film with great understanding. No one is entirely bad, and no one is entirely good, but they all have their problems. It's a very human film transcended into a masterpiece on a smaller scale by Ida Lupino and the director Negulesco.

This story, based on a novel by California author Dan Totheroh, could have failed miserably if it had not been cast correctly, since the entire tale hangs on the believability of the girl played by Ida Lupino. Jean Negulesco does his usual excellent job of directing. But directing would not have sufficed, if the entire film had not been suffused with the mysterious 'Lupino Essence'. Many words come to mind to try to describe what she does on screen, words like 'integrity', 'intelligence', perceptive', 'authentic', 'genuine', 'spontaneous and uncontrived'. But how does one define magic? Lupino is the traumatised daughter of two quarrelling and cantankerous people who live on different floors of a tumbledown farmhouse in a deep and isolated valley in the north of California. The mother and father have not gone upstairs or downstairs to see one another for seven years, and Lupino is their only go-between, which has reduced her to extreme shyness, withdrawal, and stuttering. Fay Bainter plays the mother very well, with her expressive eyes the size of saucers, that is, saucers which are always sliding around all over the place, as if on shipboard in a storm. The profound isolation of the family is shortly to come to an end, because one of those California coastal highways is being constructed, with much dynamiting, landslides, and convict labour with picks on the obdurate rocks. The road will go through their front meadow, and they will actually see people! The love-starved and pathetic Lupino falls for an escaped convict, brilliantly portrayed by Dane Clark. Lupino's father is played by Henry Hull, who is chiefly remembered for appearing in 'The Fountainhead' (1949), two years later. Here he has little scope to be memorable. This is a very harrowing and moving tale of desperation, both emotional and of the life-and-death variety, as Lupino and Clark struggle to prevent his being shot or captured. It is a doomed love story between two young people who are at the very extremes of life. The film is superb in every way, and qualifies as a minor classic. If only Negulesco had stayed with this kind of intense dramatic films instead of wasting his time with such later things as the appalling and revolting cream-puff, 'Daddy Long Legs' (1955).

Though "Deep Valley" aired as part of TCM's Noir Alley, it's really more moody romantic melodrama than true noir for my taste.

Ida Lupino seems too old for the role she's playing, a young woman bored to sobs on her parents' run down farm who gets the hots for a chain gang fugitive (Dane Clark) who hides out in her barn. This movie goes about where you'd expect it to, but it does have the guts to go for the downer ending.

There's a sweet little side story about the parents who rediscover affection for each other when their daughter becomes too distracted to continue being their go-between.

Even if she's not the right age, Lupino is an appealing actress and makes pretty much anything she's in worth watching, and she and Clark have chemistry together.

Grade: B.

A down-trodden girl, a mutt dog, and a criminal fugitive on the run. Sounds a lot like 1941's High Sierra, even down to lead actress Ida Lupino. But it doesn't matter that these elements got recycled, because Deep Valley is a really watchable 90 minutes of Hollywood melodrama. Sure, it's hokey at times, especially the weepy ending that's squeezed for all its worth. But the movie is also a testimonial to the demandingly high standards of Hollywood studio production-- scope out the great farm house that almost looks like Katrina hit it, and the road project that looks so real, I expect it was. There's also the exquisite b&w photography from cameraman Ted Mc Cord, along with expert direction from studio ace Jean Negulesco. But most of all, it's the absolutely luminous performance from Lupino in the central role. Was there anyone ever better at playing soulful parts. Here, her stuttering, long-suffering farm girl whose only joy is her dog and the great outdoors, is enough to move the Rock of Gibraltar, and is surely Oscar-worthy. Speaking of the outdoors, it's also a measure of the film's underlying romanticism that the lovers seek refuge in the liberating openness of nature, and away from the blessings of civilization. For each has been brutalized by societal forces larger than themselves. Dane Clark is very good too, even if he never got past second fiddle to John Garfield-- then too, his strictly blue-collar personality was a poor fit for the upwardly mobile 1950's, and by that white-collar decade, he was gone. Anyhow, this super-slick film again demonstrates how wonderfully vital B-pictures of the studio era could be, and is well worth a look see.

This 1947 release shines when taken in context. Yes, it's Ida Lupino's show. Plenty of Hollywood formula here, but it's done in an enticing way.

Good story; good script. Good acting; good actors. Good production; good directing. Good music. Good costuming and cinematography.

If it feels a little dumbed-down, it's actually not. Dane Clark works it in this movie. A huge shout-out to Fay Bainter.

An awkward young woman (Ida Lupino) growing up in an isolated area between estranged parents unexpectedly finds love with a convict who has escaped a coastal road project (Dane Clark). The law is closing in, and to add to the drama, the woman has another suitor in the man who was engineering the effort (Wayne Morris).

It's an atmospheric film noir, one where shadows and darkness emphasize a feeling of being trapped in a world with few choices, but ultimately it falls a bit short. I liked seeing Lupino, but her range is limited, and I don't think this was all that fine a performance from her. It's interesting to consider her as being in a prison of her own, and indeed she identifies with Clark for that reason, but the film gets predictable and melodramatic as it plays out.

My favorite shot from director Jean Negulesco is at dusk, low angle, with the barn and plants in shadow and the mother (Fay Bainter) approaching. My favorite quote was from the mother, as she's adjusting one of her dresses for her daughter, and says, "All you young girls want everything lower in the front, and tighter in the back. What are you so proud of?" Unfortunately, there are just not enough of these moments to strongly recommend the film. It's not awful, but just average.

The new Pacific Coast highway is being built and a meadow is being sacrificed from Henry Hull's farm for the job though he got some good money for it. Looking at the place it's kind of depressing and hopefully he'll fix the place up.

It's probably most depressing for Ida Lupino in one of her best films Deep Valley. She's a shy withdrawn girl with a stammer and she doesn't have outlets for socialization. She lives on said farm with her parents Hull and Fay Bainter who is one of those women perpetually sick. With a road crew under the direction of engineer Wayne Morris all of them at the farm actually lighten up with the arrival of human contact.

The crew on the road is convict labor and one of them, Dane Clark is a person of violent temper which is why he's there on a manslaughter rap. He escapes during a landslide and the whole county under sheriff Willard Robertson is on the hunt.

The shy and and backward Lupino discovers Clark and befriends him. She just wants to see the world and Clark is really a tragic figure, as socially regressed as she except that his temper makes him lash out.

Though some of the character development of the supporting players isn't quite well rounded when director Jean Negulesco is concentrating on his stars Lupino and Clark he's got a winner in Deep Valley. Color cinematography might have really given this film a boost, especially the outdoor scenes. On the other the black and white does accent the tragic elements of the story so take your choice.

This is definitely one of Ida Lupino's five best roles. For her fans Deep Valley is a must.

Deep Valley is directed by Jean Negulesco and adapted to screenplay by Stephen Morehouse Avery and Salka Viertel from the novel written by Dan Totheroh. It stars Ida Lupino, Dane Clark and Wayne Morris. Music is by Max Steiner and cinematography by Ted McCord.

Libby Saul (Lupino) lives in a run down farm house with her unfeeling and estranged parents. Having developed a stammer due to her stmyied life, her only solace comes from walking in the woods with her dog. Then one day she happens upon a convict work party and takes interest in one of them, Barry Burnette (Clark).

He's free too...

Off the bat you have to be warned that this is very slow going for the first two thirds - almost painfully so. So with the story hardly being compelling in the first instance, or credible of course, it's on shaky ground and becomes tough to recommend with confidence. However, there's plenty to enjoy as it plods along and the final third is well worth waiting for.

The whole look of the piece is an atmospheric delight, McCord bringing some monochrome magic. The inside of the cottage is oppressive, director and cinematographer neatly marrying the visuals up to how Libby feels. Other scenes are pure visual treats, such as out in the barn as the sunlight shines through gaps in the wood to reveal a ghostly mist, or subtle shots like river ripples reflected onto Libby's face, there's enough tech skills on show to keep you interested. Add in yet another superb performance from Lupino and you should want to stay all the way here.

Narratively it comes down to finding love under trying circumstance, and that of the big decisions we face in life. Libby is faced with a choice, the bad boy or safe boy conundrum rearing its potent head. It all builds to a finale of substance that tantalises the heart and head in equal measure. No great film by any stretch of the imagination, the tech credits better than the actual play itself, but it warrants respect and worth a viewing for sure. 6/10

From 1947, Warner Brothers' Deep Valley is a bit of a High Sierra ripoff, but the story is beautifully told by director Jean Negulesco.

Libby Saul lives a lonely, sad life with her parents in the middle of nowhere, in a house that looks like it should be condemned. Her mother Ellie (Fay Bainter) lives upstairs, a quasi-invalid; her father Cliff (Henry Hull) downstairs. They don't speak. Her father is always angry. And Libby stutters. She is only happy when she is in the woods with her dog, Joe.

A new road is being built through the mountains, and Libby and Joe watch the construction nearly every day. The road is being built by prisoners. The foreman, Jeff Barker (Wayne Morris) befriends Cliff Saul, and Cliff sees him as a potential match for Libby.

Libby, however, has caught the eye of a prisoner, Barry, and when she sees him disciplined, it traumatizes her. One night, her father strikes her. Libby realizes that she can't stay there anymore and leaves for the woods with Joe. There she runs into the escaped Barry, and the two fall in love.

Ida Lupino gives a sympathetic performance as Libby - vulnerable, but smart enough to realize she can't stay in the life she has. Libby's falling in love brings about massive changes for her parents, though they don't realize that's why.

Without Libby around, Ellie has to go downstairs and actually communicate with Cliff. And the presence of Jeff brings hope from Ellie that Libby will have a different life. Meanwhile, she's helping Joe hide and bringing him clothes and food.

Dane Clark was a poor man's John Garfield - he was very good as the impulsive, short-tempered Barry, but he lacked the gravitas for stardom. Someone said that his "tough" guy type went out of style. I'd say not really - Marlon Brando could be pretty tough, as could Rod Steiger. Clark had a good career, but not as a movie star. Hull and Bainter are excellent, and Wayne Morris does well as a good guy.

Beautifully photographed with some stunning images. Ida Lupino never achieved superstardom, but she had an interesting career as an actress and director.

Highly recommended.

Part fairy tale romance, part road gang movie, "Deep Valley" stars Ida Lupino (young and fetching) as Libby, a quiet girl living a sheltered existence with her unhappily married parents in a cabin deep in the woods. While off exploring one day she spies a road gang working nearby and can't take her eyes off the group's troublemaker, a stubborn con played by Dane Clark. Sensing an opportunity to experience something new, she helps him when he tries to escape. Lupino is lovely and fragile, Clark is all grit, grime, and determination, and the scenes of the men toiling away in the sun may be enough to make you want to mop your own brow once or twice. The cinematography is wonderful, too. As Libby's mother says of their remote surroundings, there's "no way to get in, no way to get out"; part of the excitement stems from seeing if Libby can get out. Not a great movie, but certainly watchable. See it.

Once again, Ida Lupino shines in an understated, yet evocative role. She can do anything, from this to high glamor in "The Man I Love" or "The Hard Way." The story is interesting and showcases Dane Clark, who was a rising star then - holding his own with Ida here as he did with Bette Davis in "A Stolen Life". The rest of the supporting cast is also excellent, from the great Fay Bainter and Henry Hull to Wayne Morris.

I wonder what color would have done for this film, but it's good anyway. Again, thank God for TCM and now it's on WB archive video DVD, in a no frills package, but good enough. Jean Negulesco gives it a vibrant, professional treatment.

And, as always, Max Steiner's score puts the icing on the cake.

Libby Saul (Ida Lupino) is a shy 22 year old spinster with a stutter. She lives with her emotionally abusive parents in a rundown farmhouse. It is a family of bitterness and anger. She likes to escape into the woods and watch the convicts constructing a nearby road. Her parents try to set her up with the road engineer Jeff Barker but he turns out to be a creep. Eventually, she has had enough and runs away to a cabin in the woods. She is shocked to find convict Barry Burnette (Dane Clark) who escaped after a deadly landslide. She was already taken with him from before and helps him to hide from the search party.

That family is so uncomfortable and so good. The only weak spot in the whole movie is Dane Clark. He has a sad face and isn't strictly leading man material. He's not physically impressive. He's being a poor man's James Dean before James Dean. On the other hand, Ida Lupino is amazing. She's great at projecting a lot of changes in the character. It gets a bit too melodramatic at times and a bit too long. The third act drags. The best is the uncomfortably dark first half. I really love the best parts and I can overlook some of its flaws.