The Deep Blue Sea (1955 film)

Last updated

The Deep Blue Sea
The deep blue sea.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Anatole Litvak
Written by Terence Rattigan
Produced by Alexander Korda
Starring Vivien Leigh
Kenneth More
Eric Portman
Cinematography Jack Hildyard
Edited by Bert Bates
Music by Malcolm Arnold
Production
company
Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox
Release date
  • 23 August 1955 (1955-08-23)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£400,000 [1]

The Deep Blue Sea is a 1955 British drama film directed by Anatole Litvak, starring Vivien Leigh and Kenneth More, and produced by London Films and released by Twentieth Century Fox. The picture was based on the 1952 play of the same name by Terence Rattigan.

Contents

Currently unavailable on DVD, the film was given a rare screening as part of the BFI Vivien Leigh Season in 2013, introduced by Sean O'Connor, producer of the 2011 version of the film by Terence Davies. [2]

Premise

The movie tells the story of a woman unhappy in her passionless marriage leaving her husband for a younger and more ardent lover.

Cast

Development

The play had been very successful and a number of companies expressed interest in obtaining the film rights. Alexander Korda offered £40,000 plus £10,000 to write the screenplay. He intended for Anatole Litvak to direct and Olivia de Havilland to star as Hesther. However negotiations stalled when 20th Century Fox refused to let Litvak direct the film. [3]

Some time later Korda approached Rattigan and again and he bought the screen rights for £7,500 plus £4,000 to Rattigan to write the script. Korda wanted Vivien Leigh to play Hesther, Kenneth More to play Freddie, and Charles Boyer to play Mr Miller, but said Leigh would not accept Rattigan's preferred director, Anthony Asquith. Rattigan started working on the script after the premiere of Separate Tables. Korda sold the project on to 20th Century Fox, which made him an instant profit. Fox insisted the film be directed by Anatole Litvak, and that it be in colour and CinemaScope. Boyer turned down the part of Mr Miller so Eric Portman was cast. Litvak's influence meant Rattigan "opened up" the story incorporating scenes such as Freddie and Hesther in a ski resort, and Freddie testing planes. [4]

Kenneth More was the only key member of the original cast (who had also appeared in a BBC Television version in 1954) to be hired for the film, as Alexander Korda wanted to use names that were more recognisable to movie goers. (More had just been put under contract to Korda.) [5] More always felt this was a mistake, particularly the casting of Vivien Leigh rather than Peggy Ashcroft. He later wrote:

The casting of the beautiful Vivien Leigh was absurd. She was supposed to be an outwardly ordinary but secretly highly-sexed woman who meets a young pilot on the golf course and falls for him. My first lines on meeting her were to say: ‘My God, Hes, you’re beautiful.’ She had never been told this before —- and understandably it had a remarkable effect on her. But when the part is played by a woman generally held to be one of the most beautiful in the world, the whole meaning is lost. [6]

Shooting

More did not enjoy filming, feeling that the use of CinemaScope and changes made to the original play detracted from the intimacy of the story. He also felt he had poor chemistry with Leigh. [7] "We were never in complete accord," wrote More. "I thought her interpretation was wrong, and so when we played a scene together we had the wrong chemistry between us." [8]

Reception

The film was a box office disappointment in the US. "It was a tricky subject for American audiences", said More. [9]

More later said the film "just didn't come off". [10]

Awards

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vivien Leigh</span> British actress (1913–1967)

Vivien Leigh, styled as Lady Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress twice, for her performances as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in the film version of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), a role she had also played on stage in London's West End in 1949. She also won a Tony Award for her work in the Broadway musical version of Tovarich (1963). Although her career had periods of inactivity, in 1999 the American Film Institute ranked Leigh as the 16th-greatest female movie star of classic Hollywood cinema.

<i>Separate Tables</i> Play written by Terence Rattigan

Separate Tables is the collective name of two one-act plays by Terence Rattigan, both taking place in the Beauregard Private Hotel, Bournemouth, on the south coast of England. The first play, titled Table by the Window, focuses on the troubled relationship between a disgraced Labour politician and his ex-wife. The second play, Table Number Seven, is set about 18 months after the events of the previous play, and deals with the touching friendship between a repressed spinster and Major Pollock, a kindly but bogus man posing as an upper-class retired army officer. The two main roles in both plays are written to be played by the same performers. The secondary characters – permanent residents, the hotel's manager, and members of the staff – appear in both plays. The plays are about people who are driven by loneliness into a state of desperation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rex Harrison</span> English actor (1908–1990)

Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play French Without Tears, in what was his breakthrough role. He won his first Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as Henry VIII in the Broadway play Anne of the Thousand Days in 1949. He returned to Broadway portraying Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1956) where he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terence Rattigan</span> British playwright and screenwriter

Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background. He wrote The Winslow Boy (1946), The Browning Version (1948), The Deep Blue Sea (1952) and Separate Tables (1954), among many others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Korda</span> British film director (1893–1956)

Sir Alexander Korda was a Hungarian–born British film director, producer and screenwriter, who founded his own film production studios and film distribution company.

<i>The Deep Blue Sea</i> (play) 1952 play written by Terence Rattigan

The Deep Blue Sea is a British stage play by Terence Rattigan from 1952. Rattigan based his story and characters in part on his secret relationship with Kenny Morgan, and the aftermath of the end of their relationship. The play was first performed in London on 6 March 1952, directed by Frith Banbury, and won praise for actress Peggy Ashcroft, who co-starred with Kenneth More. In the US, the Plymouth Theater staged the play in October 1952, with Margaret Sullavan. The play with Sullavan subsequently transferred to Broadway, with its Broadway premiere on 5 November 1953, and running for 132 performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth More</span> British actor (1914–1982)

Kenneth Gilbert More, CBE was an English film and stage actor.

<i>The V.I.P.s</i> (film) 1963 film by Anthony Asquith

The V.I.P.s is a 1963 British comedy-drama film in Metrocolor and Panavision. It was directed by Anthony Asquith, produced by Anatole de Grunwald, and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film was written by Terence Rattigan, with a music score by Miklós Rózsa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anatole Litvak</span> Soviet film director

Anatoly Mikhailovich LitvakOBE, better known as Anatole Litvak, was a Ukrainian-born American filmmaker who wrote, directed, and produced films in various countries and languages. He began his theatrical training at age 13 in Petrograd, Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Portman</span> English actor

Eric Harold Portman was an English stage and film actor. He is probably best remembered for his roles in three films for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger during the 1940s.

<i>The Sleeping Prince</i> (play) 1953 play

The Sleeping Prince: An Occasional Fairy Tale is a 1953 play by Terence Rattigan, conceived to coincide with the coronation of Elizabeth II in the same year. Set in London in 1911, it tells the story of Mary Morgan, a young actress, who meets and ultimately captivates Prince Charles of Carpathia, considered to be inspired by Carol II of Romania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodney Ackland</span> English dramatist (1908–1991)

Rodney Ackland was an English playwright, actor, theatre director and screenwriter.

<i>Storm Over the Nile</i> 1955 film by Zoltan Korda, Terence Young

Storm Over the Nile is a 1955 British adventure film adaptation of the 1902 novel The Four Feathers, directed by Terence Young and Zoltan Korda. The film not only extensively used footage of the action scenes from the 1939 film version stretched into CinemaScope, but is a shot-for-shot, almost line-for-line remake of the earlier film, which was also directed by Korda. Several pieces of music by the original composer Miklos Rozsa were also utilized. It featured Anthony Steel, Laurence Harvey, James Robertson Justice, Mary Ure, Ian Carmichael, Michael Hordern and Christopher Lee. The film was shot on location in the Sudan.

<i>The Man Who Loved Redheads</i> 1955 British comedy film

The Man Who Loved Redheads is a 1955 British comedy film directed by Harold French and starring Moira Shearer, John Justin and Roland Culver. The film is based on the play Who is Sylvia? (1950) by Terence Rattigan, which is reputedly a thinly veiled account of the author's philandering father. The film follows the play fairly closely, its main difference being the turning of Sylvia into a redhead.

Sean O'Connor is an English producer, writer, and director working in theatre, film, television and radio. He was the editor of the long-running BBC radio drama, The Archers from 2013 to 2016. He replaced Dominic Treadwell-Collins as the executive producer of EastEnders in June 2016. During his tenure, O'Connor was responsible for killing off two of the show's most popular characters, sisters Ronnie and Roxy Mitchell, a decision which has been consistently criticised. It was revealed in June 2017 that O'Connor had left EastEnders to focus on his career in feature films.

Deep Blue Sea or The Deep Blue Sea may refer to:

<i>The Deep Blue Sea</i> (2011 film) 2011 British film

The Deep Blue Sea is a 2011 British romantic drama film written and directed by Terence Davies and starring Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston, and Simon Russell Beale. It is an adaptation of the 1952 Terence Rattigan play The Deep Blue Sea about the wife of a judge who engages in an affair with a former RAF pilot. This film version was funded by the UK Film Council and Film4, produced by Sean O'Connor and Kate Ogborn.

A film of Macbeth with Laurence Olivier as director and in the lead role was a project for which Olivier was ultimately unable to gain financing.

"The Deep Blue Sea" is a 1954 British TV play based on the play by Terence Rattigan starring Kenneth More, reprising his role on stage.

Heart to Heart is a 1962 television play. It was written by Terence Rattigan, directed by Alvin Rakoff and starred Kenneth More.

References

  1. Wansell, Geoffrey (1995). Terence Rattigan. p. 260.
  2. "Vivien Leigh adrift: The Deep Blue Sea". British Film Institute.
  3. Wansell p 239
  4. Wansell p 259-262
  5. Vagg, Stephen (16 April 2023). "Surviving Cold Streaks: Kenneth More". Filmink.
  6. Kenneth More, More or Less, Hodder & Staughton, 1978 p 163
  7. Kenneth More, More or Less, Hodder & Staughton, 1978 p 163–167
  8. More p 166
  9. Schallert, E. (18 August 1957). "English star amazes in chaneylike portrayal". Los Angeles Times.
  10. More, Kenneth (29 October 1959). "Stormy Deep Blue Sea". Liverpool Echo. p. 4.