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Moby Dick (1930 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Moby Dick' is a 1930 American pre-Code film from Warner Bros., directed by Lloyd Bacon, and starring John Barrymore, Joan Bennett and Walter Lang. The film is a sound remake of the 1926 silent movie, 'The Sea Beast', which also starred Barrymore. It is the first adaption film of Herman Melville's 1851 novel 'Moby Dick' which includes a soundtrack.
Plot
The film tells of a sea captain's maniacal quest for revenge on a great white whale that has bitten off his leg. Ahab meets and falls in love with Faith, the daughter of the local minister, after disembarking in New Bedford. She falls in love with him and 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 leg to Moby Dick, a white whale. When Ahab returns to New Bedford, he mistakenly believes that the woman he loves no longer wants to see him due to his disfigurement, an opinion encouraged by Ahab's brother, who wants Faith for himself. Ahab vows revenge against the whale, and to kill it or be killed in the process, and returns to sea. Eventually, Ahab raises enough capital to buy and be captain of his own ship, but no one wants to crew with him because of his passion for destroying Moby Dick. Nonetheless, he directs his first mate to shanghai a crewand unknowingly takes his brother on board. Although the crew mutinies, Moby Dick is sighted, and Ahab heads the harpoon boats out to spear him; driven with a bloodlust, he harpoons Moby Dick and kills him. The crew boils him down for whale oil, and they return to New Bedford, where Ahab and Faith are reunited.
Cast
*John Barrymore as Captain Ahab Ceely
*Joan Bennett as Faith Mapple
*Lloyd Hughes as Derek Ceely
*Noble Johnson as Queequeg
*Nigel De Brulier as Elijah
*Walter Long as Mr Stubbs
*May Boley as Whale Oil Rosie
*Tom O'Brien as Starbuck
*John Ince as Reverend Mapple
Foreign-language versions
One foreign-language version of the 1930 film of 'Moby Dick' was produced. The German version was titled 'Dmon des Meeres' and was directed by Michael Curtiz.
Box office
According to Warner Bros. records. the film earned $579,000 domestically and $218,000 foreign.
Preservation status
The film survives intact and has been broadcast on television[https://archive.org/details/mediahistory&tab=collection?and%5B%5D=subject%3A%22Motion%20pictures%20--%20Catalogues%22 1957 MOVIES FROM AAP Warner Bros Features & Cartoons SALES BOOK DIRECTED AT TV] and cable and is available through Warner Archive DVD-on-demand. A print has long been preserved at the Library of Congress.'Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress', c.1978 by The American Film Institute
Comparison to novel
'Moby Dick' was considered a loose adaptation of the novel; Marc Di Paolo said it was "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 said 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." Metz also said that the film created Ahab's back story, having a love story that does not appear in the novel.
References
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