Moby Dick

1930's "Moby Dick" is a very, very loose translation of the Herman Melville story. In fact, so much is different, it's practically a different story! It's based more on John Barrymore's silent film, "The Sea Beast", and he's returned for this sound version.

When the film begins, it's obvious that the Captain Ahab in the film isn't the one in the novel. Instead of being a stern, joyless man leader as Gregory Peck played him in 1956, Barrymore's Ahab is a common sailor....more like Popeye or Bluto! He's a fun-loving galoot with tattoos galore and a lust for life. But this happy demeanor does change when he later meets up with the whale, Moby Dick. There's also a romance...and I know most people do NOT think of this story as a romance!! But these aren't the only major changes from the book....the ending is also 100% different!! Apparently, the studio didn't like the novel very much and decided to very liberally change it.

In many ways, this is much more a John Barrymore film than a Herman Melville novelization. On the positive side, the novel is pretty dull reading...and this film isn't dull. But it also misses so much of the point of the story and instead is a showcase for Barrymore's flamboyant acting and personality.

So is it any good? Well, for American Literature professors, it's probably a bad choice of films to watch! Others, however, might enjoy it very much provided they don't care about the source material. The special effects, for 1930, are very impressive and the film captures the look of the 1840s quite nicely. A few scenes were actually lifted directly from "The Sea Beast" (such as when Ahab is attacked by the whale). And, the amputation scene is amazingly vivid and effective. My advice is to watch the film and enjoy it for what it is.

This is a remake of the 1926 film THE SEA BEAST. John Barrymore stars in both of them. The movie is actually based on a stage play which explains a great deal about why the plot was changed so, dare I say it?, dramatically. Herman Melville contributed the title and a studio scriptwriter added everything else.

48 year old Barrymore plays 20-something Ahab Seeley, a happy go lucky sailor who is also a hard drinking woman chaser. We first see him doing acrobatic stunts from the crows nest of a ship (John is doubled by action film star Richard Talmadge). Ahab also has a brother named Derek (Lloyd Hughes) who stays on land and works in the local church. Plot complication 1: Ahab and Derek both fall for the same girl, the ministers daughter Faith (Joan Bennett). She rejects dull brother Derek for the more adventurous Ahab. ("But I'll always be putting out to sea." he says. "And I'll always be waiting for you." she says. Isn't love wonderful?)

Plot complication 2: On his next voyage Ahab gets his leg bitten off by (wait for it) a giant white whale named Moby Dick. At least they used something from the novel! Plot complication 3: When Faith Mapple sees Ahab with his peg leg she screams and runs off. This drives Ahab insane and he swears vengeance on the white whale.

Years pass and Moby continues to elude Ahab. He buys his own boat and becomes a skipper even more hated than Captain Bligh. His crew jumps ship leaving only his brutal First Mate Stubbs (Walter Long) and Ahab's only true friend Queequeg (Noble Johnson). Stubbs visits bars and brothels to shanghai a crew and accidentally grabs Derek Seeley who apparently has been drinking his troubles away since Faith rejected him (hmmm, should I make that plot complication 4? Oh never mind). During a storm at sea Derek tries to kill his brother but loyal Queequeg breaks his back. Oh and what about Moby Dick? Don't worry we haven't forgotten him; he finally shows up again so we can tie up all these loose ends. What happens? I won't spoil it for you; this movie runs now and then on TCM so you can "sea" for yourself (bad pun, I admit it).

John Barrymore overacts but what else is new? He loved his "mad" scenes and this time he gets to be looney for half the picture. After he goes insane his character begins to resemble Mr. Hyde, whom he played 10 years earlier. He even seems to be trying to re-create the Hyde character by stomping around the deck in a top hat and flowing cloak.

Noble Johnson is surprisingly good as Queequeg. He is constantly beating a drum to placate the sea gods and he is fiercely loyal to his captain. (When this movie was remade in 1956 German actor Friedrich Ledebur played the role and the character was expanded even more.) Lloyd Hughes is best remembered (by me anyway) for the 1925 version of THE LOST WORLD where he played reporter Ed Malone. Joan Bennett had a long career in movies and TV and is probably best remembered now for the terror/soap opera "Dark Shadows". Watch for silent film actor Nigel de Brulier as Elijah, the mad "prophet" who predicts trouble for Ahab early in the film.

I like this movie, now I wish I could see that 1926 version. Anyone know if it still exists?

160 years ago, Herman Melville put all humanity on a ship and sent them off to find out what God was thinking. In 1930 the Warner Bros. figured since nobody had read this book but might have heard of it, why not make a ripping sea movie with John Barrymore? Barrymore spends a great deal of the movie drinking and/or drunk, which I'm sure cut down on rehearsal time since it came naturally to him. The rest of the time he is the shell of the legendary actor that we have come to know. The love story is ridiculous, Noble Johnson is at least an interesting Queequeg and when at sea the film is undoubtedly salty. Just forget the source material and it's an enjoyable bit of early sound film making.

As others have mentioned, this is a very loose adaptation of the novel. The main reason to watch is Barrymore's performance as Ahab in this, the oldest surviving sound film in which he is featured. He transforms from a crusty lusty happy sailor into a very dark soul after Moby Dick bites off his right leg from below the knee. There is a scene relating to the cauterization of that wound that I find hard to watch today, so I can just imagine how 1930 audiences reacted. Ahab always fancied himself a bit of a ladies man and now he fears not so much how women in general will react to him but how his fiancée Faith(Joan Bennett) will react. His worst fears are realized when she first sees him after he loses his leg and she runs away screaming in horror. The complicating factor here is that Ahab's brother Derek considered Faith to be his girl before Ahab came into port and won her heart. Derek's pride was hurt when Faith picked Ahab over himself, and now he has an opportunity for revenge.

The precode elements in this filmed version include a heathen fellow whom Ahab becomes friends with and the fact that Ahab enlists the supernatural powers this fellow has via his gods on his worldwide quest to find and kill Moby Dick. You really have to marvel at the production values in this one. The sound mix is still Vitaphone - sound on disc - yet there are quite a few outdoor scenes and the film is not static at all. To put it mildly, the Warners were known for thrift, yet they took the time to make this one look good.

I don't understand the rather low rating on this one as I found it thoroughly entertaining and would recommend it for anyone who appreciates the early talkies and John Barrymore's acting talents.

This film & it's silent predecessor, "The Sea Beast"(1926), both starred John Barrymore. Some have said while the films' took liberties with Melville's text, the visualizations were superb on these two films, particularly the silent version. In fact John Barrymore created the very personification of Captain Ahab and to many was more of what Melville envisioned than Gregory Peck's fine but (Lincolnesque) Ahab 26 years later. The success of "The Sea Beast" was a huge hit for Warner Brothers in 1926 and when talkies arrived they, like other Hollywood studios ie MGM, carted out recent previous silent successes for sound remake. Douglas Fairbanks Jr once said that between "The Sea Beast" & "Moby Dick", that "The Sea Beast" was the superior movie and that he had seen it numerous times. Audiences agreed with Fairbanks Jr at the box office and this made the silent version of the Melville story, butchered though it may be, a likely candidate for an early talkie remake. Barrymore is obviously older in the talkie after having been more svelte in the silent The Sea Beast. His face is now beginning to take on it's 1930s jowlish appearance due to the effect of his continuing alcoholism. He had recently been very ill after a cruise with wife Dolores(who costarred in The Sea Beast)on their yacht. This film offers Barrymore an opportunity to use his marvelous voice to impart the character of Ahab but denies him the opportunity to get to do some really outlandish 'mad-man' makeup as he had done in "The Sea Beast" and other silent films lke "Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde". The Moby Dick prop used in this remake is superior and way more convincing than in the silent film. But it's still not on a par with John Hustons 1956 whale prop filmed in believable muted colors.

Since this is a rearranging or reinventing of what Melville intended it would be fun to speculate if he would get a chuckle out of showing Ahab as a young man with both legs intact as well as having a female love interest. Purists don't like this tampering of Melville text but 1920s audiences were either ignorant or just didn't seem to mind good storytelling through the medium of motion pictures. Thus the part of Moby Dick concerning Ahab's dallying as a young man and his love for this girl Esther is enough to fill a prequel book or movie leading up to the famous encounter with the Great White Whale. The last part of the movie after they kill Moby Dick and Ahab lives and arrives back home to Esther is a far fetched sequel story in itself. I think Melville & everybody would disagree with the fact that Ahab lives but it would still be enough for a separate story and possibly leaving enough future story open for Ahab to perhaps hunt down and kill 'the son of Moby Dick'. In this age of Sequels & Prequels we live in , a surviving Ahab killing Moby's son is not pablum but perhaps just good fantasy story telling.