The Sea Beast

Ahh!!! This silent film was released to DVD by Televista. That means that the print will be god-awful--which is true of the two dozen or more silents I've seen from this company. HOWEVER, at least the films are being released, as the films were not available any other way. So, if you can bear with the fuzzy, scratchy and occasionally shaky print, you might want to try this film. But, if you want a film that is in moderately good shape...look a bit further.

Another very important thing you must know about the film is that it is sort of like the antithesis of the old "Dragnet" maxim "...the names were changed to protect the innocent". Instead, the original names of the characters were all there BUT almost everything in the story is different from the novel!! It is Moby Dick in name only--and it's an abomination to say this is the Melville tale. The many, many, many dissimilarities are too many to name in this short review--but suffice to say that the entire meaning behind the story is gone as well as the symbolism. Instead, it's just a mess...a mess that has huge sections about an abortive love affair for Ahab in which he loses the girl to his half-brother (who is crazy--not Ahab) and Ahab is portrayed as a sad and likable guy--NONE OF WHICH was in the book.

So, you can only enjoy this film if you can ignore that it is clearly NOT "Moby Dick" and you don't mind watching one of the ugliest quality prints money can buy! And, as a film which bears no similarity to the classic tale, it's okay...just okay. While there is some nice sea footage, there also is the gratuitous use of irrelevant whale processing footage at the beginning. Overall, it's really not worth your time.

While this is not very faithful to Herman Melville's novel, indeed, Ishmael isn't even a character, this is a good film. Barrymore, of course, is perfectly cast as Ahab, with Dolores Costello, his lover at the time, as Esther, the woman both he and Ahab's brother (where did he come from)fighting for her love.

The print isn't perfect. It's washed out in places, but overall, it's not bad, and the score is terrific. I waited a long time to see this and really enjoyed it! If you want to see a Moby Dick that's closer to the book, there are the 1956 version with Gregory Peck, which is excellent, and the TV version starring Patrick Stewart, which really follows the book!

Orson Welles also wrote a stage adaptation that's exciting. Now why hasn't that been one on a PBS Theatre in America program?

Hmmm. This is what we would call a "re-imagining" nowadays. Herman Melville's classic "Moby Dick" underpins this far more romantic story as John Barrymore "Ahab" has to battle his brother "Derek" (George O'Hara) for the affections of "Esther" (Delores Costello) on land whilst joining in the battle against the great white whale from the novel at sea. I found the romance just a bit too drawn out and tedious, but when the film takes us to sea it comes alive with some cracking cinematography that depicts the dangers the sailors faced doing their jobs (including plenty of rats milling aboard amongst the injured and/or sleeping men). I can't say the print I saw was great, and the accompanying score was so soporific as to remind me of the music played at the dentist to calm me when I'm having root canal treatment! Barrymore is good, though. His maniacally obsessive expressions when tracking the whale (which, by now, has relieved him of his lower leg) are genuinely menacing - though clearly not so much for the whale. The ending is far removed from the book, too - and that removes much of the potency from the the whole thing, leaving us with a rather slushy maritime drama that just doesn't have enough of action and adventure for me.

This film is rarely seen and not available on video. I made a personal copy on Beta tape (from a 16mm print) over 20 years ago to assist in the writing of my master's thesis on the adaptations of Moby Dick. Although it has some interesting maritime visual elements including some documentary footage of the butchering of sperm whales - it has very little to do with Melville's story or characters. Ahab is given a more heroic and romantic treatment. A love interest (Esther) and a rival half-brother provide a conflict never dreamed of by the novelist. The 1930 sound version is similar in most respects although shorter. I won't spoil the ending but you can again be sure it has nothing to do with Melville.

Young sailor Ahab (aka John Barrymore) loves lovely Dolores Costello, but his black hearted brother Derek wants her too. So, when the dangerous SEA BEAST (aka Moby Dick) raises its vicious head from the briny deep, awful brother is around to make sure Barrymore suffers at the hands of the white whale. Will true love triumph, or will Barrymore's Mr. Hyde makeup as the obsessed Capt Ahab scare off lovely Dolores?

Since the print I watched had both dreadful music, and a frequently washed out picture, it is impossible to evaluate this movie fairly. It is quite slow (slow enough that I questioned whether it was recorded at the right speed), and the first two-thirds of the movie are devoted to the younger Ahab, his true love for Dolores, and the machinations of the villainous Derek. That part is, except for a few moments of hot romance, and the whale hunt, quite dull. The second part, featuring Barrymore's Mr. Hyde as Ahab, stays on the right side of risible, and thrives on Barrymore's ability to be as scary as Lon Cheney. Some rousing storm scenes, and a final confrontation between Ahab and Derek make this part quite fun in a rousing old movie way.

This is worth seeing, if you like Barrymore, who is excellent throughout. But you might have more fun if you fast forward things through the many tedious bits in part 1.