AllMovie

Deep Waters is not a very deep film, but it's a perfectly reasonable way to wile away a bit of time. Fans of "troubled youth gets straightened out" films will especially be taken with Deep, which follows all of the tried and true twists and turns of this subgenre. As a matter of fact, it's a bit too faithful to the constraints of the subgenre; much of Deep is awfully predictable. Also common for such a film, it gets a bit too sentimental a bit too often. And, to add on more to the list of drawbacks in the script, the relationship between the two adult leads is rather pedestrian. All that said, Deep does benefit from an excellent performance (another excellent one, it could be said) from young Dean Stockwell, who certainly knew how to light up a screen given half a chance. There's also a very lively and uplifting turn from Cesar Romero, and a rather touching one from Anne Revere. Hamstrung by their parts, Dana Andrews and Jean Peters don't come out as well, but their work is more than acceptable. Henry King's direction is generally solid, keeping things more low key than usual for such a picture, and clearly enjoying the opportunity to ratchet things up for the "storm at sea" segment. Film's finest asset, however, remains Joseph :aShelle's photography of some lovely, atmospheric Maine locations.