Moby Dick (1956) AUDIENCE SCORE 73% liked it Average Rating: 3.5/5 User Ratings: 8,233 Movie Info Previous film versions of Moby Dick insisted upon including such imbecilities as romantic subplots and happy endings. John Huston's 1956 Moby Dick remains admirably faithful to its source. "Call me Ishmael" declares itinerant whaler Richard Basehart as the opening credits fade. Though slightly intimidated by the sermon delivered by Father Mapple (Orson Welles in a brilliant one-take cameo), who warns that those who challenge the sea are in danger of losing their souls, Ishmael nonetheless 1976 theatrical re-release poster signs on to the Pequod, a whaling ship captained by the brooding, one-legged Ahab (Gregory Peck). For TOMATOMETER lo these many years, Ahab has been engaged in an obsessive pursuit of Moby Dick, the great white whale to whom he lost his leg. Ahab's dementia All critics spreads throughout the crew members, who maniacally join their captain in his final, fatal attack upon the elusive, enigmatic Moby Dick. Screenwriter Ray Bradbury masterfully captures the allegorical elements in the Herman Melville original without 84% sacrificing any of the film's entertainment value Average Rating: 7.1/10 (Bradbury suffered his own "great white whale" in the Reviews Counted: 19 form of director Huston, who sadistically ran Fresh: 16 roughshod over the sensitive author throughout the Rotten: 3 film).Cinematographer Oswald Morris' washed-out color scheme brilliantly underlines the foredoomed bleakness of the story. Moby Dick's one major Top critics shortcoming is its obviously artificial whale-but try telling a real whale to stay within camera range and hit its marks. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi Rating:G 80% Genre:Action & Adventure , Classics , Drama Average Rating: 0/10 Directed By:John Huston , Franc Roddam Reviews Counted: 5 Written By:Ray Bradbury , John Huston Fresh: 4 In Theaters:Jun 27, 1956 wide Rotten: 1 On DVD:Jun 19, 2001 Runtime:116 minutes Studio:MGM Critics Consensus: It may favor spectacle in [www.rottentomatoes.com] place of the deeper themes in Herman Melville's novel, but John Huston's Moby Dick still makes for a grand movie adventure. Peck was initially surprised to be cast as Ahab (part of the studio's agreement to fund the film Moby Dick was that Huston use a "name" actor as Ahab). Peck later commented that he felt Huston From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia himself should have played Ahab. Ironically, Huston had originally intended to cast his own Moby Dick is a 1956 film adaptation of Herman father, the actor Walter Huston in the role, but Melville's novel Moby-Dick. It was directed by his father had died by the time the film was John Huston with a screenplay by Huston and made. Peck went on to play the role of Father Ray Bradbury. The film starred Gregory Peck, Mapple in the 1998 television miniseries Richard Basehart, and Leo Genn. adaptation of Melville's novel, with Patrick Stewart as Ahab. The music score was written by Philip Sainton. Welles later used the salary from his cameo to Plot fund his own stage production of Moby Dick, in which Rod Steiger played Captain Ahab. Set in 19th-century New England, the story follows the whaling ship Pequod and its crew. The Pequod was portrayed by, appropriately, Leading them is Captain Ahab, who was almost the Moby Dick. Built in England in 1887 as the killed in an encounter with the "great white Ryelands, the ship came into the hands of the whale", Moby Dick. Now he is out for revenge. film industry in the 50s, and was also used in With the crew that has joined him, Ahab is out to Treasure Island. It was destroyed by fire in destroy the huge sea mammal, but his Morecambe, England in 1972. obsession with vengeance is so great that he cannot turn back, eventually leading to the death The schooners used were Harvest King and of Ahab and all of his crew, save his newest able James Postlethwaite, both from Arklow, Ireland. seaman, Ishmael. Gregory Peck, comparing his performances in Cast this film and the 1998 Moby Dick miniseries, said he liked the miniseries better because it • Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab was more faithful to the novel. • Richard Basehart as Ishmael • Leo Genn as Starbuck Production • James Robertson Justice as Captain Boomer During a meeting to discuss the screenplay, Ray • Harry Andrews as Stubb Bradbury informed John Huston that regarding • Bernard Miles as The Manxman Melville's novel, he had "never been able to read • Noel Purcell as Ship's Carpenter the damned thing". According to the biography • Edric Connor as Daggoo The Bradbury Chronicles, there was much • Mervyn Johns as Peleg tension and anger between the two men during • Joseph Tomelty as Peter Coffin the making of the film, allegedly due to Huston's • Francis de Wolff as Captain Gardiner bullying attitude and attempts to tell Bradbury • Philip Stainton as Bildad how to do his job, despite Bradbury being an • Royal Dano as Elijah accomplished writer. Bradbury's novel Green • Seamus Kelly as Flask Shadows, White Whale includes a fictionalized • Friedrich von Ledebur as Queequeg version of his writing the screenplay with John • Orson Welles as Father Mapple Huston in Ireland. Bradbury's short story • Tamba Allenby as Pip (uncredited) "Banshee" is another fictionalized account of • Tom Clegg as Tashtego (uncredited) what it was like to work with Huston on this film. • Ted Howard as Perth (uncredited) In the television adaptation of the story for The • Iris Tree as Bible woman (uncredited) Ray Bradbury Theater the Huston character was • John Huston as the voice of Peter played by Peter O'Toole and the Bradbury Coffin and a Pequod lookout surrogate by Charles Martin Smith. (uncredited) Huston had always wanted to make a film of artificial whale came loose from its tow-line and Moby-Dick, and wanted to cast his father Walter drifted away in a fog. Peck confirmed in 1995 as Ahab. Unfortunately, Walter had died in 1950, that he was aboard the prop. According to before the film was financed. The film was Morris, after the prop was lost the Pequod was bankrolled by brothers Walter, Harold, and followed by a barge with various whale parts Marvin Mirisch, who financed Huston's Moulin (hump, back, fin, tail). 90% of the shots of the Rouge. The Mirisches made a deal with Warner white whale are various size miniatures filmed in Bros. in order to release the film. Under the a water tank in Shepperton Studios in London. agreement, Warners would distribute Moby Dick Whales and longboat models were built by a for seven years, after which all rights would special effects man, August Lohman, working in revert to the Mirisch brothers' company, Moulin conjunction with art director Stephen Grimes. Productions. Studio shots also included a life-size Moby jaw and head - with working eyes. The head The film began shooting in Wales at Huston's apparatus which could move like a rocking horse request. Parts of the movie were shot at the sea was employed when actors were in the water in front of Caniçal, a traditional whaling parish in with the whale. Gregory Peck's last speech is Madeira Islands, Portugal, with real action of delivered in the studio while riding the white whaling, done by whalers of Madeira Island. It whale's hump (a hole was drilled in the side of was also filmed in Las Canteras beach, Las the whale so Peck could conceal his real leg). Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain. Captain Alan Villiers commanded the The film's problems were further escalated by ship for the film. rising costs. The film went overbudget, from $2 million to around $4.4 million, which crippled Many exterior scenes set in New Bedford were Moulin Productions; Moby Dick was ultimately shot on location in Youghal, Co. Cork, Ireland. sold to United Artists in order to recoup some of The town has a public house, originally called the Mirisch brothers' debt (Warners still Linehan's and at that time owned by Paddy distributed the film, corresponding to their Linehan, whose exterior appears in the movie. It original licensing agreement). Moby Dick did not was renamed Moby Dick's shortly after filming recoup its budget upon its initial release. by Mr. Linehan. It is still owned and run by the Linehan family and boasts a fine collection of Peck and Huston intended to shoot Herman photographs taken of the cast and crew during Melville's Typee in 1957, but the funding fell the making of the film. While there, John Huston through. Not long after, the two had a falling out. used the bar as his headquarters to plan each According to one biography, Peck discovered to day's filming. The town's harbor basin, in front of his disappointment that he had not been Moby Dick's bar, was used to stand in as New Huston's choice for Ahab, but in fact was thrust Bedford's harbor, and some local people appear upon the director by the Mirisch brothers to as extras in the ship's departure scene. secure financing. Peck felt Huston had deceived Youghal's nineteenth century lighthouse also him into taking a part for which Peck felt he was appears in a scene of the Pequod putting to sea ill-suited. Years later, the actor tried to patch up (at sunset) on her fateful voyage. his differences with the director, but Huston, quoted in Lawrence Grobel's biography The A myth that was put to rest in cinematographer Hustons, rebuked Peck ("It was too late to start Oswald Morris' autobiography, Huston, We over," said Huston) and the two never spoke to Have A Problem, is that no full length whale each other again.