Disperato d'amore

Ida Lupino was nearing the end of her Warner Bros. career when she did 'Deep Valley' with Dane Clark, Wayne Morris, Fay Bainter and Henry Hull. Sensitively directed by Jean Negulesco (who did 'Johnny Belinda'), she is a repressed farm girl with a speech impediment who befriends an escaped convict (Dane Clark). She blossoms as romance slowly develops, his love helping her to emerge from her shell, away from her bickering, embittered parents (Hull and Bainter).

A forgotten film, it derives much of its power from Ida Lupino's intense, believable performance in a strongly sympathetic role as the girl who is cured of her affliction by the love of a convict. It has the same kind brooding atmosphere that director Jean Negulesco would bring to 'Johnny Belinda' the following year. Variety called it "a first-class melodrama marked by distinctive performances". Jack Warner was so impressed, he wanted Lupino to extend her contract but she refused, tired of being treated as a second-class Bette Davis. She turned her back on the studio, intent on finding artistic freedom elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the film itself has become one of those "lost between the cracks" kind of things instead of being released to video. It was a bit too bleak and perhaps too downbeat to achieve any sort of popularity at the box-office and it's really too slim a story to sustain a one hour and forty-four minute running time. However, Ida's luminous performance makes it worth catching. Wayne Morris is wasted in a supporting role but Dane Clark does well with the male lead.