Robert Wagner (Tony Petrakis), Terry Moore (Gwyneth Rhys), Gilbert Roland (Mike Petrakis), J. Carrol Naish (Soak), Richard Boone (Thomas Rhys), Angela Clarke (Mama), Peter Graves (Arnold), Jay Novello (Sinan), Jacques Aubuchon (Sofotes), Gloria Gordon (Penny), Harry Carey, Jr (Griff), James Harakas (Card), Charles Wagenheim (Paul), Marc Krah (Fat George), Rush Williams (David Rhys), Jonathan Jackson, Guy Carleton, Frank Joyner, Jack Pappas, William Llewellyn Johnstone, Jack Burke.
Director: ROBERT D. WEBB. Screenplay: A.I. Bezzerides. Photography: Edward Cronjager. CinemaScope. Technicolor. Underwater photography by Till Gabbani. Music: Bernard Herrmann. Film editor: William Reynolds. Art directors: Lyle Wheeler, George Patrick. Wardrobe direction: Charles Le Maire. Costume design: Dorothy Jeakins. Make- up: Ben Nye. Color consultant: Leonard Doss. Assistant director: Joseph Rickards. CinemaScope lenses by Bausch & Lomb. Sound: W.D. Flick, Roger Heman. Producer: Robert Bassler.
Copyright 17 December 1953 and released in the U.S.A. same date by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 16 December 1953. U.K. release: 21 August 1954 (sic). Australian release: 15 April 1954. Sydney opening at the Plaza. 102 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Romeo and Juliet are locked among feuding sponge-fishermen off the coast of Florida.
NOTES: Fox's third CinemaScope feature. Cronjager was nominated for an Academy Award for Color Cinematography, losing to Loyal Griggs for "Shane". Despite negative reviews, "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef" rode the CinemaScope boom to become one of Australia's top box- office attractions for 1954.
COMMENT: No more than a curiosity on the by-ways of cinema history, "Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef" was CinemaScope film number three, following on from "The Robe" and "How To Marry a Millionaire".
More money was undoubtedly spent on promoting the film than actually making it. Indifferently directed, with a noticeably second-rate cast (all the leading performances are remarkably unconvincing), the TV print doesn't even have the CinemaScope locations to recommend it, and the underwater scenes seem even more tepid and boring.
Of course you shouldn't watch early CinemaScope on TV anyway. The players are often spread out right across the screen and the backgrounds filled with as much color as possible. As a CinemaScope feature on the big screen, "Beneath..." still has a bit of appeal and a fair amount of energy. Boone and Roland contribute vitality to their roles. Naish and Graves play with fervor too. Cropped on a TV screen, however, the movie has little to offer.
OTHER VIEWS: Fox director Robert Webb begins the story of feuding Greek and "English" fishermen off the Florida coast with a swing. The film is lively until it removes its most vivid character — Gilbert Roland's Greek captain.
The youngsters who take it on from there, look and behave like fugitives from the nearest juke-box. I have seldom seen anything more rueful than Wagner, a spindly little boy with a spindly little voice, trying to be the game, hot-blooded adventurer. Terry Moore is just another ingenue.
Best performances in what is largely a sponge-fishing travelogue: J. Carrol Naish, Peter Graves (as Arnold the villain), and that Technicolored Florida seaboard. — Josephine O'Neill.
Director: ROBERT D. WEBB. Screenplay: A.I. Bezzerides. Photography: Edward Cronjager. CinemaScope. Technicolor. Underwater photography by Till Gabbani. Music: Bernard Herrmann. Film editor: William Reynolds. Art directors: Lyle Wheeler, George Patrick. Wardrobe direction: Charles Le Maire. Costume design: Dorothy Jeakins. Make- up: Ben Nye. Color consultant: Leonard Doss. Assistant director: Joseph Rickards. CinemaScope lenses by Bausch & Lomb. Sound: W.D. Flick, Roger Heman. Producer: Robert Bassler.
Copyright 17 December 1953 and released in the U.S.A. same date by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 16 December 1953. U.K. release: 21 August 1954 (sic). Australian release: 15 April 1954. Sydney opening at the Plaza. 102 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Romeo and Juliet are locked among feuding sponge-fishermen off the coast of Florida.
NOTES: Fox's third CinemaScope feature. Cronjager was nominated for an Academy Award for Color Cinematography, losing to Loyal Griggs for "Shane". Despite negative reviews, "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef" rode the CinemaScope boom to become one of Australia's top box- office attractions for 1954.
COMMENT: No more than a curiosity on the by-ways of cinema history, "Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef" was CinemaScope film number three, following on from "The Robe" and "How To Marry a Millionaire".
More money was undoubtedly spent on promoting the film than actually making it. Indifferently directed, with a noticeably second-rate cast (all the leading performances are remarkably unconvincing), the TV print doesn't even have the CinemaScope locations to recommend it, and the underwater scenes seem even more tepid and boring.
Of course you shouldn't watch early CinemaScope on TV anyway. The players are often spread out right across the screen and the backgrounds filled with as much color as possible. As a CinemaScope feature on the big screen, "Beneath..." still has a bit of appeal and a fair amount of energy. Boone and Roland contribute vitality to their roles. Naish and Graves play with fervor too. Cropped on a TV screen, however, the movie has little to offer.
OTHER VIEWS: Fox director Robert Webb begins the story of feuding Greek and "English" fishermen off the Florida coast with a swing. The film is lively until it removes its most vivid character — Gilbert Roland's Greek captain.
The youngsters who take it on from there, look and behave like fugitives from the nearest juke-box. I have seldom seen anything more rueful than Wagner, a spindly little boy with a spindly little voice, trying to be the game, hot-blooded adventurer. Terry Moore is just another ingenue.
Best performances in what is largely a sponge-fishing travelogue: J. Carrol Naish, Peter Graves (as Arnold the villain), and that Technicolored Florida seaboard. — Josephine O'Neill.