Part of J Arthur Rank's attempt to storm America was sending over his top stars to Universal with whom he had a deal - but instead of decent ones like James Mason, Stewart Granger and Margaret Lockwood he gave them Phyllis Calvert and Pat Roc.
Actually Calvert is fine in the film - fine enough. But it's a crap movie. Robert Siodmak was forced to do it mainly because Calvert wanted him - she liked The Spiral Staircase - but no one is trying to kill anyone here. More's the pity it would've made it more entertaining.
It's a melodrama about a housekeeper (Calvert) who pines away endlessly at the man of the house (Robert Hutton) who wants to be a composer but is pressured into being a... fisherman. It was based on a novel by Rachel Field who also wrote the novels of All This and Heaven Too and And Now Tomorrow. Those films had the stars to pull it off but this doesn't.
Calvert might have been okay against a decent co star but Hutton is a wet drip - a weak man, which is the point, but he's supposed to pull through at the end. The film has no balls - would Jane Murfin, attached as producer but then booted - been able to fix it? Hutton is a drunk and weak and marries Helena Carter... all good "breaking Calvert's heart" stuff. She promotes his songs... then he has a climactic concert.
Siodmak and his DOP put in some arty angles but the film lacks atmosphere. You never believe its 1900 or that the family are fishermen or that Hutton is a composer.
What's the point of Ella Raines' possessive sister? She doesn't do anything. They should have combined her character with Carter's maybe - had her as a childhood friend who marries him and becomes a full on villain. Calvert should have had a fisherman who loves her. And Hutton should have stayed selfish and bad.
The ending is pathetic. Carter has arranged people to interrupt her husband's concert. Calvert stops it. And... she and Raines hold hands and watch the show. That's not triumph because Calvert's been a lap do. They needed another scene where Hutton rejected Calvert and she died - or something - something with more kick. I mean her and Raines being lesbians would've been awesome but that was off the table.
If Hutton had been more charismatic maybe this would have worked. Or if it had simply been better - for example you don't get a sense of the class difference you do in All This and Heaven Too.
I would have made Raines an out and out villain, had Hutton reject Calvert, and either given Calvert a nice fisherman to go off with or have her shoot Hutton.
Carter is fine in a role that doesn't require her to do much - at least she's alive, as is Raines. Hutton has dead eyes.
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