Moby Dick (1956 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Moby Dick
Directed by	John Huston
Produced by	Associate producers: Jack Clayton Lee Katz Co-producer: Vaughn N. Dean Producer: John Huston
Written by	Novel: Herman Melville Screenplay: Ray Bradbury John Huston
Starring	Gregory Peck Richard Basehart Leo Genn Orson Welles Royal Dano
Music by	Philip Sainton
Cinematography	Oswald Morris
Editing by	Russell Lloyd
Distributed by	Warner Bros. (1956) AAP (1956-1958) United Artists (1958-1981) MGM (1981-present)
Release date(s)	June 27, 1956
Running time	116 min.
Country
Language	English
Budget	US$ 4,500,000
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Moby Dick is a 1956 film adaptation of Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. It was directed by John Huston with a screenplay by Ray Bradbury and John Huston. The film starred Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, Richard Basehart as Ishmael, Leo Genn as Starbuck, Friedrich Ledebur as Queequeg, and Orson Welles as Father Mapple.

Contents 1 Cast 2 Crew 3 Trivia 4 External links

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
Gregory Peck	Captain Ahab
Richard Basehart	Ishmael
Leo Genn	Starbuck
Friedrich von Ledebur	Queequeg
James Robertson Justice	Captain Boomer
Harry Andrews	Stubb
Bernard Miles	The Manxman
Noel Purcell	Ship's Carpenter
Edric Connor	Daggoo
Mervyn Johns	Peleg
Orson Welles	Father Mapple
Royal Dano	Elijah

[edit] Crew

Gerald Mitchell- Production Manager

[edit] Trivia

• The film was first shown on television by the American Broadcasting Company, on December 16, 1962. [1]
• Much like the the great white shark in the movie Jaws, the mechanical white whale used in the special effects sequences of the film kept developing problems and breaking down.

• Gregory Peck played the role of Father Mapple in the 1998 television miniseries adaptation of Melville's novel, with Patrick Stewart as Ahab.
• Peck was initially surprised to be cast as Ahab (part of the studio's agreement to fund the film was that Huston use a "name" actor as Ahab). Peck later commented that he felt Huston himself should have played Ahab. Ironically, Huston had originally intended to cast his own father, the actor Walter Huston in the role, but his father had died by the time the film was made.
• Orson Welles' salary from his cameo as Father Mapple was later used by Welles to fund his own stage production of Moby Dick, in which Rod Steiger played Captain Ahab.
• Peck almost drowned several times in the whale-hunting scenes. He blamed Huston for this, and at the end of filming they were not on speaking terms with each other.

• Ray Bradbury's novel Green Shadows, White Whale includes a fictionalized version of his writing the screenplay with John Huston in Ireland.
• During a meeting to discuss the screenplay, Bradbury informed John Huston that regarding Melville's novel, he had "never been able to read the damned thing".
• Mad Magazine published a satire of the movie, in which they depicted "Father Maplesyrup, an Ex-Sea Captain" turned preacher, giving a sermon on Jonah and the whale. The magazine comments, "Right off, they give away the whole plot!"

• This was originally a Warner Bros. picture; however, this film (as well as the pre-1948 Warner library) ended up being sold to Associated Artists Productions, which later was sold to United Artists Television. This would eventually be the only film in the UATV package that would not end up with Turner Entertainment, and thus UA (now part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) continues to own the US rights to this film today. The international rights are with various other companies.

• Filmed on Las Canteras beach, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain.

• According to "The Bradbury Chronicles", a biography of Ray Bradbury, there was much tension and anger between Ray and Huston while making the film, allegedly due to John Huston's bullying attitude and attempts to tell Ray how to do his job despite Bradbury being an accomplished writer.

[edit] External links

• Moby Dick at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Films directed by John Huston 1940s The Maltese Falcon • In This Our Life • Across the Pacific • Report from the Aleutians • The Battle of San Pietro • Let There Be Light • The Treasure of the Sierra Madre • Key Largo • We Were Strangers 1950s The Asphalt Jungle • The Red Badge of Courage • The African Queen • Moulin Rouge • Beat the Devil • Moby Dick • Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison • The Barbarian and the Geisha • The Roots of Heaven 1960s The Unforgiven • The Misfits • Freud the Secret Passion • The List of Adrian Messenger • The Night of the Iguana • The Bible: In the Beginning • Reflections in a Golden Eye • Casino Royale • Sinful Davey • A Walk with Love and Death 1970s The Kremlin Letter • Fat City • The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean • The Mackintosh Man • The Man Who Would Be King • Wise Blood 1980s Phobia • Victory • Annie • Under the Volcano • Prizzi's Honor • The Dead

This 1950s drama film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.