I can see why Alex Korda thought Vivien Leigh would be ideal in the lead. She'd just won an Oscar playing a woman who goes crazy in part due to her lust for a younger man, in real life she had a breakdown over her love for Peter Finch despite being married to Laurence Olivier. She was a big star.
And yet... She doesn't work here. Kenneth More felt she was too pretty. Or at least was once pretty. I don't think that's the issue so much as she simply didn't nail the role. I didn't believe her. She has no chemistry with More. She didn't really act needy. Anatole Litvak didn't nail it. I kept trying to imagine it with Laurence Olivier and Peter Finch - that could've worked as a film. But it's not the story. The Deep Blue Sea is basically about a woman who falls in love for the first time only thing is she's married and the object of her affection is not her husband.
Would Olivia de Havilland have done better? It's all very well to say "get Peggy Ashcroft" but I understand they needed a star. I think Korda only kept on Kenneth More because he had More under contract.
CinemaScope doesn't help but I'm not sure that's the fault as much as opening it up - setting scenes at air shows, and bars and ski resorts. Black and white Cinema Scope using the cramped world of the apartments would've been fine.
Emlyn William doesn't quite work as the husband, nor does Eric Portman as the man in the building. It's all a bit... off.
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