BENEATH THE 12 MILE REEF: Robert Wagner as The Joker

BENEATH THE 12 MILE REEF (Blu-ray)

1953 / 127 min

Leomark Studios

Available at MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😼

For those of you who’ve never heard of this movie and tend to judge books by their covers, rest assured there is nothing in Beneath the 12 Mile Reef as cool as that Blu-ray artwork. Sure, a ticked-off octopus eventually shows up, but this ol’ relic is largely a sudsy romantic adventure film about two competing families of sponge divers.

It’s the Greeks vs. the Conches in a fight for sponge supremacy off the coast of Florida, with a very young Robert Wagner (looking about as Greek as a salad) playing Tony, who falls in love with his rival’s daughter, Gwyneth (Terry Moore) along the way. He also has to contend with Gwyneth’s jealous boyfriend, Arnold (Peter Graves, in a somewhat rare villainous role). 

"I just wanna watch the world burn, Dad."

Beneath the 12 Mile Reef is a silly film with goofy dialogue and mostly bland performances. In his first starring role, Wagner is the exception. Instead, he’s guilty of overemoting in every scene that doesn’t require a diving helmet. Whenever he smiles, like when he’s ogling Gwyneth, I’m reminded of The Joker (or maybe the face on that truck in Maximum Overdrive). But let’s not judge Wagner too harshly, because he eventually did get better.

Conversely, the underwater sequences are beautifully shot and the film is genuinely engaging - even suspenseful - during those sequences. If nothing else, it makes excellent use of CinemaScope, which was new at the time. It looks equally vibrant and colorful on Blu-ray (though the sound quality sucks), so even if there are no toothy beasts or scantily clad swimmers, Beneath the 12 Mile Reef is still lovely to look at. But like other public domain titles Leomark Studios has acquired and released on Blu-ray, this disc has no bonus features, chapters, subtitle/language options or a main menu.