Devil and the Deep
| Devil and the Deep | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Marion Gering |
| Screenplay by | Benn W. Levy |
| Story by | Harry Hervey |
| Based on |
Sirenes et Tritons by Maurice Larrouy |
| Starring | |
| Music by |
Herman Hand Rudolph G. Kopp John Leipold |
| Cinematography | Charles Lang |
| Edited by | Otho Lovering |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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78 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Devil and the Deep is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film directed by Marion Gering and starring Tallulah Bankhead, Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, and Cary Grant. Based on the novel Sirenes et Tritons by Maurice Larrouy, the film is about a Naval commander who has alienated his wife due to his insane jealousy over every man she speaks to. After his obsessive behavior drives her to the arms of a handsome lieutenant, tragic drama ensues.
Charles Sturm (Laughton) is a naval commander whose jealousy and abuse makes life miserable for his wife Diana (Bankhead). His suspicions fall on his own subordinate, Lieutenant Jaeckel (Grant). Although his suspicions are baseless, Sturm has Jaeckel transferred. After Charles falls into another fit of paranoid rage and strikes Diana, she wanders off into the streets during a festival and soon encounters another officer, who turns out to be Jaeckel's replacement, Lieutenant Sempter (Cooper). Learning of their affair, which this time is real not imagined, Charles plots a terrible revenge.
On the night Commander Sturm's submarine is to sail, Diana goes aboard to warn Sempter of Sturm's dangerous frame of mind. But when Sturm arrives, he immediately orders the sub out to sea before Diana can return to shore. In the busy channel outside the harbor, Sturm deliberately maneuvers into the path of an oncoming ship, which rams and sinks the sub. Several compartments are flooded, but the crews are able to get out in time.
Trapped on the bottom, the survivors gather in the control room; Sempter and Sturm square off, asserting command, while Diana exposes Sturm's madness. Sempter takes control and organizes the crew's escape. In a detailed and substantially accurate technical sequence, Diana and the crew exit through the sub's escape trunk using Momsen lungs, and are rescued at the surface. Refusing to leave the ship, Sturm stays behind and lapses into raving insanity; he opens a watertight door to let in the sea, laughing maniacally as the water rises.
Afterwards, cleared of most charges by a court martial, Sempter encounters Diana again in a shop on the street. Soon it begins to rain, and they depart in a cab together.
This is the only film featuring both Gary Cooper and Cary Grant as the movie's leading men but they never appear together onscreen. However, in the following year's film version of Alice in Wonderland, Grant played the Mock Turtle and Cooper played the White Knight, having their only movie scene together (of sorts) as the entire cast appears in the tea party scene (including W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty).
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