Deep Valley is a kind of pastoral noir set in a mountainous glen right out of the Brothers Grimm. Isolated with her valetudenarian mother and coarse father in a tumbledown farmhouse, Ida Lupino is an introverted, unsocialized young woman whose awkwardness is symbolized by a stutter. Nearby a new highway is under construction by a forced-labor gang of convicts. One of them (Dane Clark) escapes; Lupino shelters him. Nature takes it course, as does the long arm of the law. The cinematography in Deep Valley is lush and evocative, and its score, by Max Steiner in an access of Wagnerism, may blow you out of your easy chair. Jean Negulesco directs with his usual high-gloss professionalism. But worthy as Deep Valley is, it's hard to work up much enthusiasm for it. Basically it's a quiet and sad little story that remains in its rural backwater and doesn't beckon us in.
Review of Deep Valley
