In Dee
Valley Ida Lupino plays a young girl named Libby Saul. Libby lives out in
the middle of nowhere in a valley no one wants to buy. Her mother claims to be
sick and stays upstairs so she will not have to speak to her husband. Libby’s
father stays downstairs and works the farm. She has a stammer and her parents
are always criticizing her asking why she cannot talk like a normal person. Libby
did not always stammer. When she was younger she saw her father hit her mother.
Her father and mother have not been in the same room together for seven years.
To
get away from her parents and the farm Libby likes to go out into the woods
where it is quiet. She goes down to the edge of a cliff by the water and
watches the construction work that is going on. Some of the men working the
site comment that Libby has been following and watching them for the last four
miles. Some of the men working on the
site are criminals. Libby likes one of the criminals a guy named Barry (Dane
Clark).
Some
nights during the week her father has an officer named Barker come over for
dinner. Libby’s mother pushes her to be sociable with the officer. She finds
out that the criminal she likes is being put back in jail for another five
years instead of two because he hit an officer on the work site. Barker likes
Libby. He asks her out but she becomes afraid and runs away into another room.
Her father yells at her, she talks back, and he hits her. Her mother calls for
her. Libby has had enough. Before she goes upstairs to her mother she puts her
raincoat on to leave. Libby tells her mother that she is leaving for good.
That
night there is a torrential downpour. The work site turns into a gigantic
mudslide. Several of the officers and prisoners have been killed. Since Barry
had struck an officer he was put into a small shack while he waited to be
brought back to the jail. The next morning Barry cannot be found. The police
begin an intensive search for him.
Libby
finds a house in the woods that no one is occupying. She takes a swim in the
lake. Barry, on the run from the law, has also found the house. He can see
Libby swimming. They are a little wary of each other. Barry thinks Libby will
run away and tell the police where he is. She reassures him that she is running
away from home she will not tell on him. Barry tells Libby he was sent to
prison after he had gotten into a brawl with someone. He does not know if the
person is alive or dead. They talk about running away together somewhere where
no one will find them. They talk about getting jobs and building their lives together.
Barry says if they are to start a new life together he needs new clothes he is
still in his prison clothes. Libby agrees to go back home to find some food and
to grab a pair of her father’s clothes for him.
Unfortunately
Libby does not get to Barry right away. When she gets home that night she finds
her mother has come downstairs and has cooked dinner for her and the father. Libby
learns from her father that Barker has put together a posse to go looking for
Barry.
The
posse finds Barry in the house in the woods. Fortunately he is able to escape
and he makes his way to Libby’s house. Libby keeps Barry on the second floor of
the barn where no one will see him. They plan to get away just as soon as
everything settles down.
Of
course things do not go as planned for poor Libby and Barry.
The
story of Deep Valley is quite boring
the acting by Ida Lupino and Dane Clark make up for it. They were both
excellent. I have yet to see Lupino act poorly in a film. She was thirty years
old at the time she made this film and Libby was supposed to be twenty-two.
Lupino looked like she could have been twenty-two she looked fantastic. She was
completely believable in the role. Dane Clark was very good. I do not believe I
have ever seen him in a film before, I would not mind seeing him again. Deep Valley is a film I only suggest
seeing for the acting by the entire cast because the story is weak. It is worth
seeing at least once.
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