Moby Dick

A crazed sea captain searches the Seven Seas for MOBY DICK, the great white whale which maimed him.

To enjoy this film on its own merits it would be well for the viewer to remind himself that great literature does not always become great cinema. The two art forms are very dissimilar, each making different demands upon its audience. Sometimes, as in this instance, there is only a hint of the original story when it reaches the screen.

Do not look for Ishmael or the Pequod here; you will not find them. Don't expect any titanic & transcendental clash between man and brute beast at the climax. Indeed, the conclusion of the film is so radically different from the novel as to be almost startling.

What will you find is a good-looking movie with very fine production values, featuring an enormously enjoyable performance by John Barrymore as Captain Ahab. Barrymore overacts outrageously, as is to be expected with a role of this sort, chewing the scenery and rolling his extraordinary eyes. In short, he is tremendous fun, even during the unexpected scenes depicting Ahab in love. His brief foray into church, followed by an adoring stray dog, is hilarious, not a descriptive term one usually associates with Melville's character. In short, the entire film is a star vehicle for Barrymore and he remains the primary reason to view it.

Joan Bennett, as Ahab's love, and Lloyd Hughes, as Ahab's resentful younger brother, don't fare as well in comparison to Barrymore's scene-stealing antics. Hughes' final moments, after being shanghaied onto Barrymore's ship, are his most effective, but Miss Bennett is not given much to do during her solemn sequences except to act patient and brave, which can be very dull.

Silent film star Noble Johnson has one of his best talkie roles as the half-savage Queequeg, Ahab's only true friend. Another excellent actor from Silent days, Nigel De Brulier, shows up very briefly as a pathetic barroom preacher. Character actress Virginia Sale is quite droll in her brief role as a New Bedford spinster.

The scenes actually showing Moby Dick are dramatic and frightening, even though the fate the script has in store for him would never have passed muster with Melville.