Dark Waters

Merle Oberon (Leslie) is a traumatized survivor of a sinking ship and Dr Alan Napier recommends that she goes to recuperate with her uncle and aunt on a plantation in the Louisiana swamps. Her mother and father have not survived the sea tragedy and she is loaded. However, she has never met her aunt or uncle. Does the visit do her any good……? Is her trauma sending her over the edge…?

Is everything as it seems in this film? No, it isn't but I don't think that it is the intention of the director to hide this. Perhaps this film could have been more suspenseful but the story still grips and has tense moments as we follow Oberon's awakening to what is going on around her. In fact, it is quite a rewarding moment when we watch her realize that things are not right. Thankfully, she has strength to take the situation on as opposed to crumble as a victim.

The cast are all good with the exception of that forever unconvincing loser that is Elisha Cooke Jr. In this film, he plays, once again, a heavy. How!!?? He's about 2 foot high, scrawny and more like a gimp than a threatening presence to anybody living in the real world. However, yet again, he turns up in a pretty decent film - see also "Phantom Lady" (1944), "I Wake Up Screaming" (1941) and "The Maltese Falcon" (1941). Check out "The Lodger" for another good film from this year starring Merle Oberon.

"Dark Waters" is a better film than I remembered it as being when I saw it around 10 years ago and so I recommend a viewing.

The imperiled woman in a great spooky house remains one of Hollywood's most honorable of hackneyed plots. These `jeps' ask us to accept that a woman, usually young, beautiful and sophisticated, sinks deeper into danger despite all the warning signals blinking around her. Still, a few directors have managed to elevate the material a notch or two above the predictable: Jacques Tourneur in Experiment Perilous, Fritz Lang in House by the River, Douglas Sirk in Sleep, My Love. Any hopes that Andre de Toth (The Pitfall, Crime Wave) might work the same black magic crumble, however, with his early Gothic noir, Dark Waters.

Merle Oberon – a classic Eurasian beauty but never much of an actor – is the survivor of a ship torpedoed by the Japanese in the East Indies (the ship set out from what the movie calls Batavia but we know as Jakarta). Somehow, she ends up in New Orleans, where an aunt and uncle keep a moldering plantation in nearby bayou country. She arrives there, under the care of a doctor (Franchot Tone; has it ever been remarked that he and Ralph Bellamy share the same set of vocal cords?). But, upon her arrival, we start to suspect , long before she, that ALL IS NOT AS IT SEEMS.

The aunt (Fay Bainter) and uncle extend her a back-handed welcome but seem preoccupied; they also seem to get pieces of the family history wrong. In addition, they're under the thumb of their plantation manager (Thomas Mitchell, who of course got his start running Tara) and his weasly assistant, Elisha Cook, Jr. (who does his expected shtik; did he never weary of playing this dumb but cocky chump?).

The story advances neither swiftly nor arrestingly. Attempts to `gaslight' Oberon amount to a bedside lamp that switches off then on again, and distant voices beckoning her to the quicksand which studs the surrounding swampland. Slowly, the light begins to dawn behind Oberon's big, perfectly made-up eyes...

And that's just about all there is to Dark Waters – hot spells and Spanish moss. De Toth, who was able to peer deep into the background of middle-class complacency in The Pitfall, a few years later, seems to have taken a case of the vapors amid all this languid Louisiana atmosphere. All he comes up with is this slow, flaccid film.

DARK WATERS is an engaging little movie with a great setting: the almost-deserted bayous of the American South, which provide a hostile backdrop to the hostile storyline. This is one of those descent-into-madness type movies, where you're never quite sure if the protagonist is losing his or her mind, or whether everyone really is out to get them. As such, it's one of the earliest variations on the theme I've seen.

The movie benefits from some strong players in the cast, notably Merle Oberon's lead, Leslie, who does the whole haunted-while-remaining-sympathetic thing very well. Franchot Tone, as the doctor who becomes involved in her case, is also very stalwart as a dependable hero type. Thomas Mitchell's villain has more than a touch of the Charles Laughtons about him, and of course there's a nice part for Elisha Cook Jr., too.

The story is quite slowly paced but it does take time to build the atmosphere and in the end it pays off with the doom-laden climax which finishes everything up as you would hope. As such films are usually all about the atmosphere, I think this one's readily up to the job.

With a dark pertinence for the time of its release, Oberon is the scarred, traumatized survivor of a German U boat attack, which took the lives of her parents.

Invited to stay with family, who she has never met, alarm bells are ringing almost immediately when nobody meets her at the station and her relatives deny any knowledge of the telegram she sent, prior to her arrival. Shortly afterwards, the aforementioned correspondence is clearly seen....being slung out with the garbage. Herein lies Dark Waters' fundamental dilemma, it simply shows its foreboding hand way too soon. There is something stereotypical about the characters: Thomas Mitchell, dapper, cultivated, avuncular and seemingly unflappable, until he explodes over a plate of fried chicken. (Check out Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine for further insight into this clearly sensitive subject). Faye Bainter is the affectionate, fussy, slightly eccentric aunt, who arouses Oberon's suspicions by putting her foot in it whenever she opens her mouth. Creepy, flirty Elisha Cook Jr, is the plantation boss, who Oberon finds deeply unsettling. At the opposite end of the spectrum, local doctor, Franchot Tone is a pillar of society and all round Mr Nice Guy.

Oberon feels increasingly threatened by otherworldly voices and a disconnected radio blasting out. Refusing food so often, that she must have been a prime candidate for Slimmer of the Year long before the final credits. Despite the impending doom, the movie never quite ignites or captivates. The waters may be dark, but they're not very deep. Everything comes off as mechanical and formulaic rather than spontaneous. In short the movie is missing that essential WOW! Factor, until.....the taut, tense exciting climax, amplified by its isolated and treacherous location, without which Dark Waters would be little more than a muddy puddle.

This film is often labelled as film noir; but this is incorrect. Dark Waters certainly has some elements of the genre; but not nearly enough for the film to be considered a part of it. That aside, however, this is still is still a very interesting melodrama/thriller. The film is directed by André De Toth, the director most famous for his remake House of Wax; but a director that also did plenty of work within the thriller genre. Dark Waters works well principally because of the atmosphere; but also benefits from a well worked script. The film focuses on Leslie Calvin. Leslie was fortunate enough to be the only survivor of a submarine accident. Naturally, she's emotionally distraught at the situation; and her doctor recommends that she recuperates with relatives. She looks up her aunt and uncle, who she has never seen, and goes to stay with them. However, her recovery soon starts to go awry after a series of strange events and Leslie comes to question her own sanity.

The film is slow to start and the first hour mainly focuses on the characters and their situation before the plot starts properly. However, getting there is at least interesting and the final third of the film certainly justifies the wait. The film is bolstered by a host of strong performances; especially Merle Oberon who takes the lead role. She has just the right atmosphere about her to take the role and convinces throughout the film. She gets good backup from Franchot Tone, Thomas Mitchell, Fay Bainter and the ever-talented Elisha Cook Jr who stands out as usual. Director André De Toth implements a thick atmosphere that benefits the film throughout. The film is set in a swamp and this provides an ideal location for it all to take place; as it is moody and ensures that we are always aware that everything we are seeing is taking place in an isolated location. As mentioned, the final third is really well worked and the director ensures that everything boils down to a suitable conclusion. Overall, this is an interesting little thriller and is well worth a look.