Beneath the 12-Mile Reef

I am a Floridian who doesn't live all that far from Tarpon Springs...the small town in which "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef" was set. Even today, it's big claim to fame is their sponge diving trade. And, when you see the youths jump into the harbor to recover the crucifix tossed into the water, well, that's a tradition the Greek Orthodox community still celebrates to this day. It's a lot more touristy today and if you visit the quaint little shops, you'll notice many sell copies of this film.

According to this story, the quality of the sponges the divers are retrieving has declined and the 12-Mile Reef is a piece of virgin territory where the sponges still are abundant. Naturally, it's tougher and more dangerous to go there...and some of it is because thieves and/or folks claiming the waters are theirs sometimes set upon the boats and steal their harvests.

While I really wanted to love "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef", I felt very ambivalent about it after seeing it. The film was okay...just a time-passer and apart from nice nice local scenery and underwater shots, the story just never impresses nor does it annoy.





By the way, some scenes were filmed in the Keys as well as the Bahamas. I assume they were picked mostly because the water is far clearer there and much better for underwater shots. I've scuba dove the areas and know that there's a huge difference in the clarity of these waters.

2 rival groups of divers , a Greek family and the Conch family compete for sponge fishing beds off the Florida coast. But the the son , Robert Wagner, and the youngest daughter, Terry Moore, fall in love and both of whom replay Romeo and Juliet in Tarpon Springs Florida . As quarrells emerge between two families , Montagues and Capulets lookalike . Then , some thieves rob the valuable sponges and the Greek family decide to go fishing at the risked 12-mile reef.

This swimsuit love story results to be a plain , simple and lightweight entertainment with good actors and passable direction. It has thrills , fights , romance , constant quarrelling and a lot of diving . Being well worth watching for the notable Technicolor cinematography in CinemaScope by cameraman Edward Cronjager , the magnificent musical score by the great composer Bernard Herrmann , Hitchcock ordinary , adequate production design from Lyle Wheeler and George Patrick , as well as the young and extremely attractive protagonist duo . Starred by the beefcake and charming Robert Wagner ; by the time Wagner played a lot of adventure, Western and Wartime movies such as: The silver whip , The mountain , Prince Valiant , Broken lance , The white feather, Stopover Tokyo, , In love and war ,Between heaven and hell . It is best remembered thanks to gorgeous and incredibly young Terry Moore , stunningly shown in a bathing suit . Along with a long plethora of prestigious secondaries such as : Gilbert Roland, Richard Boone , Peter Graves , Harry Carey Jr , J. Carroll Naish Angelica Clark , Jay Novello , among others . And as narrator shows up Rock Hudson . The highlights of the movie are the impressive underwater scenes when Robert Wagner scrapping with an octopus and a fierce sea fight at the climax of the film in which Robert Wagner and Peter Graves battle each other surrounded by the ocean kelp that threatens to strangle them . It contains a thrilling and lively soundtrack by Herrmann providing a classic and sensitive score . Extraordinarily photographed in the Florida coastline filled with reef , keys and sea animals: guppy, urchin, carp , blowfish , carp , ray , shark , clownfish , goldfish , cleaner fish and other reef fish , all of them enhanced thanks to big screen , being one of the early CinemaScope pictures . The motion picture was lavishly produced by Robert Bassler and uncredited the powerful producer Daryl F Zanuck , being professionally directed by Robert D Webb . He was a fine craftsman and expert professional . At the beginning Webb worked as a director assistant , producer and subsequently filmmaker . He made all kinds of genres as Western : White feather, The proud ones, The jackals ; Adventures : Pirates of Tortuga , Seven cities of gold, The way of gold ; Noir : The Cape town affair ,The spider , The Caribbean mystery ; Warlike: The Glory brigade, 7 women from hell and Scifi: On the threshold of space. Although he also made documentary and TV episodes as Daniel Boone and Temple Huston series . Rating : 5.5/10 . Enjoyable family fare that will appeal to adventure fans . Well worth seeing .

An average movie overall, this is helped along quite a bit by its atmosphere, which makes a relatively creative setting work pretty well. The actual story consists entirely of very well-worn ideas, but they work all right because the setting and scenery give the story some extra life. The cast also has a couple of bright spots, and aside from being somewhat too long, it's a solid feature for its genre.

The story has a community of Greek sponge fishermen on the Florida coast facing intimidation, prejudice, and economic competition, with a budding cross-cultural romance that has the potential either to ease the tensions or to cause worse conflicts. A young Robert Wagner plays the main character, and while his performance is rather one-dimensional, he easily makes his presence felt. Peter Graves is his antagonist, with Terry Moore as the love interest.

Probably the best performance is given by Gilbert Roland, who plays Wagner's father. His character is a cocky but knowledgeable veteran of his trade, who is forced to take ever greater risks to provide for his family.

The atmosphere is helped by the color photography and by a lot of good detail in most of the various settings. For much of the movie, you are constantly reminded of the seaside setting and of the ways that it drives the characters and the action. All this helps the familiar story idea to take on a little more interest.

Robert Webb directs this terrific underwater adventure. Two families of different ethnic background rival for sponges in the Gulf of Mexico off the west coast of Florida. One family of Greek decent is led by Mike Petrakis(Gilbert Roland)and his son Tony(Robert Wagner). Their efforts of diving for valuable sponges are thwarted by Thomas Rhys(Richard Boone)and his team of divers. Arnold(Peter Graves)is the aggressive diver that leads raids on the Petrakis sponge hauls as well as competes with young Tony for the affection of Gwyneth Rhys(Terry Moore). Highlights are Wagner fighting with an octopus; Moore in a swimsuit; and the great underwater scenes. Notice Wagner's dyed black hair. In supporting roles are two veteran actors J. Carrol Naish and Jay Novello. It is said this is the third movie filmed in Cinemascope. It garnered critical acclaim for the breakthrough underwater cinematography.

it was nice to find out the stunt man in the water was my father nick karakos of tarpin springs Florida. it was nice to notice some of the buildings in the movie was at tarpin springs when i was 17 years old. i did notice that in the movie the word tarpin was mention 2x and every time the diver would go into the water a notation of word (Greek) was stated. when i visit my father back when i was 17 years old they would call him Greek. it was a nice movie to watch and i had a understanding of the plot. you can tell they showed some of the Greek life that was made living down in Florida. i don,t know if they still have the sponge diver boat they would give people tours and show how they would pull up spouges. overall i would give this movie a 6.