20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)

Captain Nemo has built a fantastic submarine for his mission of revenge. He has traveled over 20,000 leagues in search of Charles Denver - a man who caused the death of Princess Daaker. ... See full summary »

Director:

Stuart Paton

Writer:

Jules Verne (based on: "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" by)

Stars:

Allen Holubar, Dan Hanlon, Edna Pendleton

1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Dan Hanlon	...	Professor Aronnax
Edna Pendleton	...	Aronnax's Daughter
Curtis Benton	...	Ned Land
Allen Holubar	...	Capt. Nemo
Matt Moore	...	Lieutenant Bond
Jane Gail	...	A Child of Nature
Howard Crampton	...	Cyrus Harding
William Welsh	...	Charles Denver (as William Welch)
Lois Alexander	...	Prince Daaker's Daughter as a Child
Wallis Clark	...	Pencroft (as Wallace Clark)

Storyline

Captain Nemo has built a fantastic submarine for his mission of revenge. He has traveled over 20,000 leagues in search of Charles Denver - a man who caused the death of Princess Daaker. Seeing what he had done, Denver took the daughter to his yacht and sailed away. He abandoned her and a sailor on a mysterious island and has come back after all these years to see if she is still alive and if the nightmares he has will stop. The daughter has been found by five survivors of a Union Army Balloon that crashed near the island. At sea, Professor Aronnax was aboard the ship 'Abraham Lincoln' when Nemo rammed it and threw the Professor, his daughter and two others into the water. Prisoners at first, they are now treated as guests to view the underwater world and to hunt under the waves. Nemo will also tells them about the Nautilus and the revenge that has driven him for all these years.

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Plot Keywords:

national film registry | revenge | submarine | captain nemo | underwater | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

24 December 1916 (USA)

Also Known As:

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Filming Locations:

New Providence Island, Bahamas

Box Office

Budget:

$200,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$8,000,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Williamson Submarine Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min 84 min (video)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White (tinted and toned)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

J. Ernest Williamson sued the Universal Film Manufacturing Company for breach of contract, and was awarded $3715 in November of 1917. Williamson's contract had called for $150 per week for eight weeks, but a jury decided he was entitled to extra compensation since the film took almost 40 weeks to complete.

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Goofs

In one scene on the island the balloon survivors are at a table and a black servant appears. He never shows up again and is not rescued at the end of the film with the rest of the survivors.

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Crazy Credits

The opening titles announce "The First Submarine Photoplay Ever Filmed".

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Connections

Version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1997)

User Reviews

An interesting adaptation of 20000 Leagues Under The Sea, and The Mysterious Island

This is the first adaptation of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea as Melies 1907 eponymous short film only shares with Verne's book a submarine called Nautilus. The film does not follow strictly Jules Verne's two books. The two main differences are that the end of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea is omitted, i.e. when the Nautilus disappears in the Maelstrom off the coast of Norway, and that two characters are added, Nemo's daughter and the evil Denver. Quite strangely, an inter-title informs the viewer towards the end of the film "Captain Nemo reveals the secret of his life, which Jules Verne never told" when the script actually follows quite closely The Mysterious Island, in particular with the revelation that Nemo is an Indian Prince whose family was massacred by the British.

This is the first film featuring under sea filming thanks to watertight tubes and mirrors allowing the camera to shoot reflected images. This allows quite spectacular (for the time) views of corrals, wrecks, sharks and actors in scuba diving suits. The filming on location on New Providence Island and the use of real sailing boats, of a full-size navigable mock-up of the Nautilus, and of large sets and exotic costumes gives authenticity to the action.

The film uses quite an elaborate narrative with cross-cutting between the parallel actions of Nemo, Lt. Bond and Denver, leading to their meeting on Mysterious Island. The chronological development is interrupted by flashbacks for the actions which took place in India many years before.

http://a-cinema-history.blogspot.be/2013/11