Beneath the 12-Mile Reef

1953

Action / Adventure / Drama / Romance

4
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 23% · 5 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 23% · 250 ratings
IMDb Rating 5.7/10 10 1734 1.7K

florida reef cinemascope technicolor sponge divers

Plot summary

Mike and Tony Petrakis are a Greek father and son team who dive for sponges off the coast of Florida. After they are robbed by crooks, Arnold and the Rhys brothers, Mike decides to take his men to the dangerous 12-mile reef to dive for more sponges. Mike suffers a fatal accident when he falls from the reef leaving Tony to carry on the business. But now he has a companion, Gwyneth Rhys.

Director

Robert D. Webb Photo
Robert D. Webb

Top cast

Marc Krah Photo
Marc Krah as Fat George
Terry Moore Photo
Terry Moore as Gwyneth Rhys
Robert Wagner Photo
Robert Wagner as Tony Petrakis
Peter Graves Photo
Peter Graves as Arnold Dix
720p.BluRay
936.22 MB
1280*496
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 41 min
Seeds 2

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by matchettja 7 / 10

No masterpiece but entertaining

There are some films that can't be labeled as classics, but they have a good story and are generally entertaining. I would say this one falls into that category. Don't look for great acting. If you can imagine Robert Wagner as an ebullient young Greek, then you'll know what I mean. The story centers on some fishing families in coastal Florida and competition to get a good harvest of sponges. Most areas have been over-harvested and to get a good haul, father and son Mike and Tony Petrakis (Roland and Wagner) are forced to go to the 12-mile reef, a dangerous place where divers might slip off the reef and get the bends when they come back up. In the meantime, Tony falls for the non-Greek daughter (Moore) of a rival fishing family who stole their sponges from them. The cinematography, in Cinemascope, is attractive as is the music score, a treat for both eyes and ears. When the divers are in the water, composer Bernard Herrmann really whips it up, with harps and everything. While no masterpiece, "Reef" is, for me, satisfying.
Reviewed by bkoganbing 6 / 10

Sponge Turf

Although I would not want to minimize the dangers of deep sea diving which were even more before the invention of scuba gear, the idea that sponge diving is the most dangerous profession in the world as Rock Hudson's narration tells us is a bit much. Yet it's the underwater scenes in Beneath The 12 Mile Reef that hold the audiences attention. On the surface it's your average soap opera about two young people who get together despite the objections of the father of one of them.Robert Wagner is the boy and Terry Moore the girl. Wagner is the son of Gilbert Roland and Angela Clarke and Wagner and Roland are sponge divers, a trade brought over from the old country. They've settled in Florida and continue to work, but when they try to dive in another area Wagner and Roland find that it's been staked out by Richard Boone and his family who is protective of their turf in general and don't like the Greeks that have settled there. Moore's got a nasty boyfriend in Peter Graves, but she sure likes what she sees in Wagner who isn't named Adonis Petrakis for nothing. He certainly was a lovely sight for the teenage girls back in 1953.Beneath The 12 Mile Reef got an Oscar nomination for best color cinematography in 1953 but lost to Shane at the ceremony. It's because of those underwater sequences which still hold up well today. This film also gives you one of the very few opportunities to see Harry Carey, Jr. in a non-western film, playing one of Terry Moore's brothers. Peter Graves just does not cut it as a villain, except in Stalag 17 where his all American personality is what makes him the surprise informant. And J. Carrol Naish, Hollywood's all purpose ethnic plays a sidekick role to Wagner and Roland. I'm sorry Roland was not in the film all the way, he's a favorite player of mine, but his death scene is a frightening one and the best in the film out of the sea.Beneath The 12 Mile Reef is an average romantic soap opera with some really good color cinematography in the ocean depths. Would the players had a better story to go with the scenery.
Read more IMDb reviews

2 Comments

Be the first to leave a comment