I did enjoy this film but I thought its big weakness was that there was no motive for the scam. Or at least the audience was not told what it was. There had to be a reason behind the fraud. Like if Thomas Mitchell's character had been swindled by the victims, or if he had been an illegitimate member of the family, so he killed them off with an idea to sell the plantation and get what was rightfully his. None of those reasons are even remotely suggested.I assumed that Merle Oberon's character just happened to show up at the wrong time, so the husband and wife were enlisted to pose as her aunt and uncle. But how would they know whether or not she had ever seen a photograph of them, even if she had never met them? Plus it seems a little too convenient that the first man she meets at the train station in the beginning is a kind doctor who will save her. I guess we have to overlook some of this in order to enjoy the film as a piece of entertainment.It does work as entertainment. The story is stretched out over ninety minutes, but it allows us to glimpse different levels of society in the bayou. Sure, there are stereotypes, but the whole thing is still compelling enough to maintain our interest.

I'll just get right to the spoilers.First off we know right from the beginning that the aunt and uncle at the bayou estate aren't her real relatives. This was too easy to figure out. De Toth didn't set it up well enough to make us believe any way else.Second, you know if Elijah Cook Jr. is in the film, he's up to no good. Seein' that he knows all the people in the house and they vouch for him, it was safe to assume that they were all in whatever they were up to.Third...Seeing that the first shot in the film you see is "oil man" and wife drown in submarine accident but the daughter survives. This wasn't to hard to figure out why the fake relatives were at the country estate. MONEY!!!! this is hardly a film-noir. A suspense/drama/thriller..yes. For me, this film wasn't anything to write home about, but at least I can say..." I saw it".

Dark Waters is an OK suspenser, helped quite a lot by its atmospheric bayou setting and the against-type casting of Thomas Mitchell. One can't help feeling that a director like Alfred Hitchcock would probably have made a better job of the suspense side of things, while a director like Jacques Tourneur would most likely have done more with the Gothic noir-ishness. However, in the event the film is directed by Andre De Toth who does a solid and workmanlike job without ever really lifting the film above its station.Following a terrible shipping accident from which she emerges the sole survivor, Leslie Calvin (Merle Oberon) goes to recuperate at her aunt and uncle's plantation in the middle of Louisiana. Leslie never really knew her aunt and uncle that well, but in spite of this when she arrives she is troubled by their distant behaviour and the way that they constantly keep getting small details about the family history wrong. Also amiss is the way that Aunt Emily (Fay Bainter) and Uncle Norbert (John Qualen) seem strangely intimidated by the plantation manager Mr Sydney (Thomas Mitchell). At first, Leslie thinks that perhaps her mental state is not right because of the traumatic accident she was involved in. But later, she begins to suspect that something very serious is wrong at the plantation…. maybe even that her very life could be in jeopardy. With the help of her kind and caring doctor, George Grover (Franchot Tone), she attempts to unravel the mysterious happenings before her sanity is tipped over the edge.The film has a reasonably absorbing storyline, courtesy of Frank and Marian Cockrell (plus an uncredited John Huston). A passable level of interest is created regarding Oberon's predicament. The question of whether she is in real danger, or merely imagining that she is, is kept hanging over the proceedings. Miklos Rozsa provides a characteristically melodramatic score that adds drama to the events on screen. It is also good to see Mitchell playing a more ruthless, shady type of character compared to the ones he portrayed in Stagecoach and Gone With The Wind. However, Dark Waters suffers a little from its dated air, with the two leads – Oberon and Tone – particularly guilty of the kind of bland, stiff performing that plagues so many minor films of the era. The shadowy lighting is over-used like some tiresome gimmick and generates only half-hearted excitements, while the photography of John Mescall and Archie Stout mistakes darkness for suspensefulness. But on the whole Dark Waters remains a passable suspense flick in the old-fashioned mould, worth catching on one of those rainy afternoons when there's nothing else to watch.

A shipwreck survivor, trying to re-cooperate from a horrible experience, visits her relatives in the bayou. While there, she begins to see & hear things that make her question her sanity. Along with the help of a doctor, she begins to investigate all the weird goings on at her family estate. For those of you that have seen this genre before, you won't be disappointed. Oberon does a good job here. I've seen her in so many period pieces that this film was a breath of fresh air for me. Also, Thomas Mitchell plays her uncle. You may remember him from "Gone with the Wind". His character is a very ruthless man. So ruthless, he'll stop at nothing to get the result he wants. The contrast between his character & Oberon's are very disturbing & fun to watch.This film is full of suspense & will leave you guessing as to if our heroine will get out of this one.Watch & see...