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Dark Waters
Dark Waters
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Andre de Toth
Screenplay by	Marian B. Cockrell; Joan Harrison; Arthur Horman
Based on	The Saturday Evening Post serial Dark Waters; by Francis M. Cockrell; Marian B. Cockrell
Produced by	Benedict Bogeaus
Starring	Merle Oberon; Franchot Tone; Thomas Mitchell; Fay Bainter; Elisha Cook, Jr.
Cinematography	John J. Mescall; Archie Stout
Edited by	James Smith
Music by	Miklós Rózsa
Production; company	Benedict Bogeaus Productions
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date	November 21, 1944 (United States);
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$800,000

Dark Waters is a 1944 American Gothic film noir based on the novel of the same name by Francis and Marian Cockrell. It was directed by Andre de Toth and starred Merle Oberon, Franchot Tone, and Thomas Mitchell.^[2]

Plot

Leslie Calvin, the shaken survivor of a ship sunk by a submarine, travels to her aunt and uncle's Louisiana plantation to recuperate, but her relatives, whom she has never met, have other ideas. She is befriended by a young local doctor, George Grover.

Thomas Mitchell, who played the congenial Gerald O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, is a mysterious and fussy guest at the plantation. In a subtle nod to Gone With the Wind, the aunt tells Leslie that "Tomorrow is another day."

Cast

Merle Oberon as Leslie Calvin
Franchot Tone as Dr. George Grover
Thomas Mitchell as Mr. Sydney
Fay Bainter as Aunt Emily
Elisha Cook, Jr. as Cleeve
John Qualen as Uncle Norbert
Rex Ingram as Pearson Jackson
Nina Mae McKinney as Florella
Odette Myrtil as Mama Boudreaux (credited as Odette Myrtle)
Eugene Borden as Papa Boudreaux
Leigh Whipper (uncredited)

Reception

The film was generally well received as accomplishing what it intended, with the New York Times stating it was "neatly produced and directed – and well played by an excellent cast."^[3]

Critical response

Slant Magazine's film critic, Glenn Heath Jr., liked the film writing, "Mood dictates narrative in Andre de Toth's Dark Waters, a hallucinatory jigsaw puzzle set in the deep swamps of 1940s Louisiana that becomes a perfect breeding ground for noirish shadows and deceptive wordplay ... Dark Waters ends with multiple dead bodies sinking into the bayou and Leslie directly confronting what one character calls her "persuasion complex." The bravura finale through the oozing locale is a stunner, and despite some surface romance that feels a bit forced, the film stays true to its mystically dark mood, a slithering distant cousin to Tourneur's I Walked with a Zombie.^[4]