Deep Waters – 1948
OK, am I being punked? What is going on here? This movie was one of only two that were nominated for Best Special Effects in 1948. Am I to believe that there was only one other movie that year with visual or sound effects as good as this one? The visual effects came down to a single scene! A single five minute scene! Other than a small handful of standard rear-projection shots, there was nothing!
This movie was a reality-based drama with no need for special effects. Outside of that one sequence, there was no action, no stunts, no fires, no floods, nothing that required any kinds of special effects at all. So why was it nominated for the Oscar? I don’t know. My online research turned up nothing, and so I simply don’t know.
So lets talk about that one scene. The young orphan boy, played by Dean Stockwell, steals a rowboat and heads out to sea. Dana Andrews and Cesar Romero see him going and rush to catch up with him as they see a storm brewing on the close horizon. The storm hits, the wind starts to howl, the rain commences, the waves begin to churn, bolts of lightning strike, and thunder rumbles. As special effects go, they were done well enough.
The violence of the storm was real. I’m actually not certain whether miniature models were used for the scene or not. Scale model shots in scenes with water are usually pretty obvious because the water looks and behaves differently in the camera lens when shot at close range. But I didn’t see any of this tell-tale effect. But at the same time, when the large lobster boat is nearly thrown onto the rocks, it looked like a miniature. The little black figures of the men on the craft looked stationary, though the shots showing them were brief, wide-angled, and clouded by rain and sea-spray.
However, the shots of the child clinging to the capsized row-boat were surely real. Not only did he move, but you could see Stockwell’s face quite clearly. And there was even one shot in which it felt like the camera was actually on a boat that was being tossed around on the waves. It was chaotic and jerky, as if it was a hand-held camera. It had to fight to keep the overturned row-boat in the frame. It stood out because most of the shots showing Andrews and Romero were steady enough to see them easily.
I admit that the scene was done very well. There’s no denying that. But it was the only scene in the entire hour and twenty-four minute film that required anything more than simple rear-projection. And not even very much of that was used, as the film made a point of letting us know in the opening title credits, that all the outdoor scenes were filmed on location in the state of Maine, the locale in which the story takes place. I hate to say it, Academy, but where’s the beef???