Dark Waters (1944)

Dark Waters is a very minor suspense thriller from 1944 starring Merle Oberon and Franchot Tone. There are so many plot holes in this movie! The script is credited to five writers, including Joan Harrison and John Huston. Not sure if either of their work made it into Dark Waters. Harrison started out as a secretary to Alfred Hitchcock and worked her way up to being a script supervisor then co-writer. She came to the U.S. with the Hitchcock's in 1939 and eventually became one of the few women producers working in Hollywood during the forties and fifties; she produced Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Huston is known for directing many, many film classics and as the father of Anjelica and Danny Huston.

This is basically a B-movie with an A-list cast - it's fun to watch. One knows why and how Merle is being terrorized ; this is basically Gaslight set in the Louisiana bayous. Still there's pleasure watching Thomas Mitchell [Gone with the Wind] and Fay Bainter [Jezebel] and Elisha Cook Jr. Not Franchot Tone. He phones in his dull performance - he evidently doesn't take this movie too seriously; he was a stage trained actor aligned with the Group Theater who went to Hollywood, got married to Joan Crawford, and was best known for being Mr. Joan Crawford throughout his career afterwards. Merle Oberon is ravishing - definitely a creature of the studio system. Throughout Dark Waters Oberon just has to walk in a scene with a worried look on her face. Along with Hedy Lamarr she was one of the most exotic dark-haired movie stars of the WWII era.

First-rate collaborators are behind-the scenes and give the movie luster: composer Miklos Rozsa, winner of two Academy Awards, cinematographers John Mescall [The Bride of Frankenstein] and Archie Stout [Fort Apache], shoot some scenes from great angles :  In one, Merle Oberon is on the phone and the camera looks down on her from high in the balcony of the antebellum mansion she is staying in; the intended effect being she is being closely watched by others in the house. Costume Designer Rene Hubert, who designed costumes for Oberon, would receive two Academy Award nominations in his prolific career and work with Oberon again in Desiree for which he received one of his two nominations.

Hungarian born Andre de Toth, the director, was married to peek-a-boo star Veronica Lake during the 1940's, and would later direct the first 3-D movie in 1953: House of Wax. One scene in Dark Waters involves quick sand and foreshadows the director's 3-D venture into horror. Is there quick sand in the Louisiana bayous?

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