Technicolor Tarpon Springs epic to screen Saturday

The Anclote River, downtown Tarpon Springs and the sponge docks are as charming and photogenic today as they were in 1953, when a Hollywood film crew immortalized them for the world to see in a widescreen CinemaScope spectacular called Beneath the 12-Mile Reef.

This Technicolor movie, the fourth sponge-diving drama shot on location in Tarpon Springs and in the Gulf of Mexico off Pinellas County, is being screened Saturday at the Clearwater Historical Society Museum and Cultural Center, and co-sponsored by Friends of the Tampa Bay Aquatic Preserve.

Starring Gilbert Roland and Robert Wagner as father-and-son sponge divers, Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, while beautifully photographed, is simply not a very good movie. Even the score by the renowned Bernard Hermann barely registers. It’s more or less an ocean-going West Side Story, as the Greeks (Roland, Wagner et al) square off against the no-goodnik Conchs (with patriarch Richard Boone), a rival group of fisherman who want to drive the good-hearted Greeks out of business.

Wagner, 22 at time of filming, plays Adonis “Tony” Petrakis, who happens to meet and fall for Gwyneth Rhys (Terry Moore), the spunky yellow-haired daughter of the head Conch.

And before you can say “I feel pretty,” there are quarrels, fistfights, crimes, misdemeanors and assorted tragedies, including but not limited to Tony’s encounter with a giant octopus.

The underwater scenes were filmed in the Bahamas. Said the New York Times film critic: “The scenes shot above the surface, while large and imposing, are routine, and the drama developed in the screen play is hackneyed and banal.

“And, unfortunately, most of the picture takes place above, not below, the reef … There is nothing at all fascinating or edifying here.”

Still, Beneath the 12-Mile Reef is nice to look at, from an historical perspective. The religious Epiphany Celebration and competitive dive is shown.

Saturday’s 6 p.m. event, on the lawn (bring a chair or blanket) includes a Greek dinner. Tickets are here.

Tarpon Springs and the spongers went all Hollywood in Down to the Sea (1936, with Anne Rutherford and Russel Hardie) and, two years earlier, in 16 Fathoms Deep (starring Creighton Cheney, soon to be better known as Lon Chaney Jr.)

In 1948, Lloyd Bridges came to Tarpon Springs to star in 16 Fathoms Deep, another film with the same title, albeit with a bigger budget. It’s a potboiler set in the cutthroat world of the Sponge Exchange, where buyers from all over the world come to buy Gulf of Mexico sponges (this was true for much of the 20^th century).

Although it’s in black and white, the second 16 Fathoms Deep has a lot going for it. Many scenes are set on the docks, on boats and at the Sponge Exchange (it’s like a 1940s Tarpon Springs home movie, and the Epiphany is shown). A local diver and shopowner, John Gonatos, has a memorable part as one of Bridges’ dive mates.

And although he was the hero in the 1934 version, in this one Chaney plays the bad guy.

READ MORE: Vintage Pinellas: The Tarpon Springs Sponge Industry

J. Carrol Nash, far left, assists Robert Wagner with his diving helmet in “Beneath the 12-Mile Reef.” 20th Century Fox publicity photo.