The Deep Blue Sea begins with neighbours discovering the body of Hester Collyer (Vivien Leigh)who has tried and failed to commit suicide. Some time before, she left her husband, a respectable High Court Judge, for a semi-alcoholic former R.A.F. pilot. The relationship was physical and passionate but his ardour has cooled, leaving her emotionally stranded and desperate. The aftershocks of her attempted suicide unravel even the remnants of this relationship, but by the end she is brought to a hard decision to live, partly through the intercession of another resident of the tenement house, Mr Miller, an ex-doctor, struck off for what seems to have been a homosexual offence. These two outcasts, socially ostracised for their 'excessive' loves, find a curious and moving kinship.

Director:Anatole Litvak
Writer:Terence Rattigan (also play)

Cast (in credits order)
Vivien Leigh ... Hester Collyer
Kenneth More ... Freddie Page
Eric Portman ... Miller
Emlyn Williams ... Sir William Collyer
Moira Lister ... Dawn Maxwell
Arthur Hill ... Jackie Jackson
Dandy Nichols ... Mrs. Elton
Jimmy Hanley ... Dicer Durston
Miriam Karlin ... Barmaid
Heather Thatcher ... Lady Dawson
Bill Shine ... Golfer
Brian Oulton ... Drunk
Sid James ... Man outside bar (as Sidney James)
Alec McCowen ... Ken Thompson
Gibb McLaughlin ... Clerk

Runtime:96 min
Country:UK
Language:English
Color:Color (Eastmancolor)
Sound Mix:4-Track Stereo (magnetic prints) / Mono (optical prints)
Certification:Finland:K-16 / Sweden:15 / USA:Unrated
plain packaging