pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...
film from
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...
, directed by
Lloyd Bacon
Lloyd Francis Bacon (December 4, 1889 – November 15, 1955) was an American screen, stage, and vaudeville actor and film director. As a director, he made films in numerous genres, including westerns, musicals, comedies, gangster films, and c ...
, and starring
John Barrymore
John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen, and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly a ...
Walter Lang
Walter Lang (August 10, 1896 – February 7, 1972) was an American film director.
Early life
Walter Lang was born in Tennessee. As a young man he went to New York City where he found clerical work at a film production company. The business p ...
. The film is a sound remake of the 1926 silent movie, '' The Sea Beast'', which also starred Barrymore. It is the first film adaptation of
Herman Melville
Herman Melville (Name change, born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance (literature), American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works ar ...
's 1851 novel ''
Moby Dick
''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 Epic (genre), epic novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler ...
'' that includes a
soundtrack
A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...
.
Plot
The film tells of a sea captain's maniacal quest for revenge on the great white whale that bit off his leg.
After disembarking in
New Bedford
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, New Bedford had a ...
, Ahab Ceely meets and falls in love with Faith Mapple, the daughter of the local minister. Although courted by Ahab's brother Derek, she falls in love with the daring Ahab. She is heartbroken when he leaves on another voyage, but says she will wait three years for him to return. During this next voyage, Ahab loses his right leg to
Moby Dick
''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 Epic (genre), epic novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler ...
, a white whale. When Ahab returns to New Bedford, he mistakenly believes that the woman he loves no longer wants to see him because of his disfigurement, an opinion encouraged by Ahab's brother, who wants Faith for himself. Ahab vows revenge against the whale, to kill it or be killed in the process, and returns to sea. Eventually, Ahab raises enough capital to buy his own ship, but no one wants to sail with him because of his passion for destroying Moby Dick. On a resupply visit to New Bedford, most of the crew deserts the ship. Ahab directs his first mate to shanghai the necessary men and unknowingly takes his brother on board. During a storm, the crew mutinies and Ahab's brother tries to kill him; he fails, and Queequeg breaks his back. Ahab orders that Derek be taken to Ahab's cabin. Moby Dick is sighted, and Ahab leads the boats out to get him. Driven by bloodlust, he stands on Moby Dick's back and stabs him repeatedly with a harpoon as the dying whale's spouting blood covers him. The crew renders the whale for oil, and they return to New Bedford, where Ahab and Faith are reunited.
Cast
*
John Barrymore
John Barrymore (born John Sidney Blyth; February 14 or 15, 1882 – May 29, 1942) was an American actor on stage, screen, and radio. A member of the Drew and Barrymore theatrical families, he initially tried to avoid the stage, and briefly a ...
as
Captain Ahab
Captain Ahab is a fictional character and one of the protagonists in Herman Melville's ''Moby-Dick'' (1851). He is the monomaniacal captain of the whaling ship '' Pequod''. On a previous voyage, the white whale Moby Dick bit off Ahab's leg and ...
Noble Johnson
Noble Johnson (April 18, 1881 – January 9, 1978), later known as Mark Noble, was an American actor and film producer. He appeared in films such as '' The Mummy'' (1932), '' The Most Dangerous Game'' (1932), ''King Kong'' (1933) and '' Son o ...
Nigel De Brulier
Nigel De Brulier (born Francis George Packer; 8 August 1877 – 30 January 1948) was an English stage and film actor who began his career in the United Kingdom before relocating to the United States.
Biography
Nigel De Brulier was born in French ...
One foreign-language version of the 1930 film of ''Moby Dick'' was produced. The German version was titled '' Dämon des Meeres'' and was directed by
Michael Curtiz
Michael Curtiz (; born Manó Kaminer; from 1905 Mihály Kertész; ; December 24, 1886 April 10, 1962) was a Hungarian-American film director, recognized as one of the most prolific directors in history. He directed classic films from the silen ...
.
Box office
According to records at Warner Bros., the film earned $579,000 in the U.S. and $218,000 in other markets.
Reception
In his August 15, 1930, review, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' critic
Mordaunt Hall
Mordaunt Hall (1 November 1878 – 2 July 1973) was the first regularly assigned motion picture critic for ''The New York Times'', working from October 1924 to September 1934.The Sea Beast'': “Enhanced by a variety of sounds and the power of speech, the audible picturization…(is) a far more impressive melodrama than the silent version, which was presented here three and a half years ago. And John Barrymore, who fills the rôle of the indomitable, half-crazed Ahab Ceeley, gives a performance that puts his work, even the latter part of the mute offering, in the shade. With all the liberties taken with the original story, … It is a well-knit tale of the men who went down to the seas in whaling ships and when one hears the man in the main top shouting, "Thar she blows!" it creates a thrill such as the screen is seldom capable of affording. One is willing to overlook melodramatic glimpses, for the picture as a whole is splendidly handled. Twice during the unfurling of this story the screen is enlarged and compelling scenes are projected. Sometimes it is the whaler under full sail silhouetted on the sun-silvered, choppy sea. Another time it is the wild-eyed Ahab's ship battling against a realistic storm. Then there are flashes of the shanghaied crew, a gang of cutthroats described as more accustomed to murder than hurling harpoons at whales.The story races along, and it matters not if the whale is real or not, for the effect is there, whether the white monster of the deep is pulling the small boat through the water at amazing speed, dashing it to bits with a swish of its tail, or, when its great bulk is seen with what looks like a Lilliputian sticking something that looks no larger than a good-sized needle into its half-submerged form. Then follow close-ups that last night caused more than one woman to cover her eyes with her program, for in these glimpses Ahab is seen vigorously getting his revenge on the white whale that had bitten off half his right leg in an earlier cruise.The scenes in New Bedford and the romance of Ahab and Faith are capitally pictured and flawlessly acted….Lloyd Hughes has a real opportunity this time, in the part of the treacherous Derek, to reveal his histrionic ability…There is also a clever dog, (whose devotion)… is subtly portrayed in contrast with the conduct of Faith when she is shocked by the realization that Ahab has returned with a peg-leg. Lloyd Bacon, the director, has done an excellent job. He has inculcated feeling into his picture as well as lending to it sterling photographic effects. Moreover, he has taken full advantage of the chances for sound, whether it is the lapping of the water, the noises aboard ship during the excitement of sighting a whale or those on the vessel when the whalers return joyously to their home port. Mr. Barrymore is Mr. Barrymore of the stage in this film, and not the great silent lover who is made to turn his profile to the camera on the slightest provocation. Words bring out his true talent, …There is no shilly-shallying in his portrayal of the character, which makes a whaler a man of the seas, one who gloats over the tattooed figures of women on his arm and who evidently only represses oaths when confronted by the charming presence of Faith. Although there is the sequence where a red-hot iron is used on the stump of Ahab's leg, it is filmed less extravagantly than it was in the old silent film. True, there is the agony and the director does not mince matters in giving the details, but once it is over he shifts quickly to a gentle scene depicting Faith in her home. (Miss Bennett's) …acting is enough to make even a hardened soul wish for a happy ending. ''The Sea Beast'' was a huge success…but this vocalized "Moby Dick" should reap an infinitely greater reward.”
Preservation status
The film survives intact and has been broadcast on television and cable and is available through Warner Archive DVD-on-demand. A print has long been preserved at the Library of Congress.
Comparison to novel
This ''Moby Dick'' bears little resemblance to the novel. The filmmakers even put words in Melville's mouth. Marc Di Paolo describes it as "a poorly conceived ''and'' unfaithful version...in which Ahab...slays the white whale at the end and goes home to his true love." Walter C. Metz observes that the film excludes the novel's central character Ishmael and "produces a conventional Hollywood love story between Ahab and Faith, the invented daughter of Rev. Mapple, whose moral purity reforms Ahab from a bawdy sailor into a marriageable man." The filmmakers created Ahab's back story, creating a love story that does not appear in the novel.
TCM Movie Database
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...