Deep Waters which stars Dana Andrews and Jean Peters is a modest story with some special effects that earned the film an Oscar nomination. But for that the film would probably be forgotten today save for its one surviving cast member Dean Stockwell.
Peters is a social worker who comes from a Maine lobster fishing family who lost her father at sea. Stockwell is an orphan who lost his father and uncle at sea. Dana Andrews is a lobster fisherman who takes a liking to the troubled kid.
For reasons having to do with her own issues on the subject Peters places Stockwell in foster care in places that are nowhere near the sea. Running out of them she places him with Anne Revere as a foster mother. Still Stockwell wants to go to sea, it's in his blood and when he doesn't get his way he acts out in ways that will send him to reform school.
I don't think you need a road map to see where this film is going. The special effects of the storm at sea where Andrews and partner Cesar Romero rescue Stockwell are nice and the film's exteriors are done on the Maine coast. Cesar Romero had an interesting character in the Portugese fishing partner of Andrews, shades of Captains Courageous. I wish we had more of him in the film.
Deep Waters is a modest film that kids may like, but can be safely passed over by adults if they're not fans of any of the cast.
