The hell reef

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The hell reef
Original title Beneath the 12-mile reef
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1953
length 100 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Robert D. Webb
script AI Bezzerides
production Robert Bassler / Twentieth Century Fox
music Bernard Herrmann
camera Edward Cronjager
cut William H. Reynolds
occupation

Hell's Reef is an American adventure film from 1953 directed by Robert D. Webb .

action

The Petrakis family, who come from Greece, make their living by diving for sea sponges off Tarpon Springs in Florida . Father Mike and son Tony go out to sea with the crew of their boat “Aegli”, while mother Petrakis and daughter Penny take care of the household. Mike borrowed money from Demetrios Sofotes, who now insists on repayment. Mike and his crew not only complain about their disappointing catch rates. Your competition from the boat "Helios" is reaping a rich harvest that they have brought from the dangerous "Hell Reef".

At a church celebration held on the fishing boats, Tony wins a diving competition. He and his family are blessed. Tony makes his father promise to dive himself on the next tour. Mike believes the areas near the coast have been harvested. He takes his boat to Key West , where many Greek fishermen live. In fact, the next catch of the “Aegli” is very good. But two Americans, Arnold Dix and Griff Rhys, blackmail the team to surrender the sponges when they threaten to cut Mike's air tube. Tony and the crew release the catch. Mike lets the "Aegli" drive to Key West to supposedly celebrate their big catch there. Meanwhile, Tony is looking for the criminals and meets Gwyneth, Arnold's friend. The two fall in love. After a fight with Arnold, Tony and Gwyneth escape to a park. Mike can defeat Arnold in a fight and forces him to eat his cigar.

The “Aegli” should make the next trip on Hell's Reef. But there is a tragic diving accident in which Mike suffers from decompression sickness and dies from it. While Tony is in mourning, Arnold and Griff plunder the “Aegli” while other American divers engage his uncle Socrates in a scuffle. The “Aegli” catches fire and is almost destroyed. Gwyneth takes Tony to see her father, Thomas. The father is a just man and orders Arnold and his journeymen to pay for the stolen sponges. Arnold angrily attacks Tony and injures him. Tony manages to get to the docks. He and Gwyneth steal a boat, the "Conch". You start to dive for sponges on Hell's Reef. However, Arnold and his men soon find the two of them. There is a fist fight between Tony and Arnold in which they end up in the water. Arnold gets caught in seaweed and threatens to drown. Tony saves him. The two bury their enmity. Gwyneth wants to marry Tony, the two families are preparing the wedding party.

criticism

The lexicon of international films describes the film as "a sympathetic adventure story, amalgamated with a love and jealousy drama that lives mainly from the impressive underwater shots."

The film magazine Cinema about the film: “As one of the first CinemaScope productions, the film caused a sensation with its underwater images (Oscar-nominated camera!). However, the dialogues also got a little watery. "

The Variety praises the camera work, but at the same time criticizes the director's ineffectiveness in leading his young actors.

Bosley Crowthers of the New York Times is also impressed by the camera work, especially the underwater shots. But he describes the story of the film as banal and trite.

Awards

In 1954 Edward Cronjager was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Camera (Color) . There was another nomination at the International Film Festival in Cannes in the same year for the Grand Prix du Festival .

background

The world premiere took place on December 2, 1953. The film first appeared in Germany on April 13, 1954.

The film was shot on the original locations in Tarpon Springs and Key West.

Production designer Lyle R. Wheeler was responsible for the equipment. In the original version, Rock Hudson can be heard as a narrator describing the first underwater recordings .

The film is in the public domain and freely available to download from the Internet.

DVD

In December 2013, 20th Century Fox released the film in its Cinema Archives series under the title Beneath the 12-Mile Reef for the first time unabridged and restored in the original CinemaScope image format as MOD (Manufactured-on-Demand) DVD-R in the USA.

Before that, the film was released in full on DVD in Spain under the title Duelo en el fondo del mar and in France under the title Tempête sous la mer .

The German DVD by Inter-Pathé , which was released in October 2013, has been shortened as it is based on the censored British theatrical version, which corresponds to the public domain version on ARCHIVE.ORG .

However, the film was always broadcast unabridged on German free TV.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. The Hell Reef. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 1, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. http://www.cinema.de/kino/filmarchiv/film/das-hoellenriff,1304955,ApplicationMovie.html
  3. Beneath the 12-Mile Reef. In: Variety . December 31, 1952, accessed September 11, 2018 .
  4. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9503E4DA173CE43ABC4F52DFB4678388649EDE&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes
  5. http://www.archive.org/details/BeneathThe12-mileReef1953-FullScreenVersion
  6. sectional report .