El valle de las sombras

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.

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.

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.

Ida Lupino was nearing the end of her Warner Bros. career when she did 'Deep Valley' with Dane Clark, Wayne Morris, Fay Bainter and Henry Hull. Sensitively directed by Jean Negulesco (who did 'Johnny Belinda'), she is a repressed farm girl with a speech impediment who befriends an escaped convict (Dane Clark). She blossoms as romance slowly develops, his love helping her to emerge from her shell, away from her bickering, embittered parents (Hull and Bainter).

A forgotten film, it derives much of its power from Ida Lupino's intense, believable performance in a strongly sympathetic role as the girl who is cured of her affliction by the love of a convict. It has the same kind brooding atmosphere that director Jean Negulesco would bring to 'Johnny Belinda' the following year. Variety called it "a first-class melodrama marked by distinctive performances". Jack Warner was so impressed, he wanted Lupino to extend her contract but she refused, tired of being treated as a second-class Bette Davis. She turned her back on the studio, intent on finding artistic freedom elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the film itself has become one of those "lost between the cracks" kind of things instead of being released to video. It was a bit too bleak and perhaps too downbeat to achieve any sort of popularity at the box-office and it's really too slim a story to sustain a one hour and forty-four minute running time. However, Ida's luminous performance makes it worth catching. Wayne Morris is wasted in a supporting role but Dane Clark does well with the male lead.

Why this isn't on tape is a mystery. I saw this movie in first-run as a teenager. My friends and I sat in the theatre for 15 minutes afterward, crying our eyes out. The love story and the struggles of the two main characters are heart-wrenching. So well acted, Ida Lupino was an actress who never was truly recognized. She was perfect in this role. My friends and I had a movie-star crush on Dane Clark afterwards. He too was a better actor than he was credited for.

Try to see this movie! You'll never forget it.

How can we get this on VHS (or DVD)?