MOBY DICK (1930)
Film comment by Mark R. Leeper
(This was posted previously, but Aaron Sherman's revuew of the current MOBY DICK indicates that he is curious about the Barrymore version. Others may be also.)
This is a true and accurate synopsis of the 1930 film Moby Dick, starring John Barrymore (as Ahab) and Joan Bennett. Noble Johnson plays Queequeg. It is based on Herman Melville's classic of men and the sea.
The film opens with the camera moving in for a look at the book Moby Dick, or The White Whale. The movie begins, "There never was, nor ever will be, a braver life than the life of the whaler. Compared to the game they hunted the mightiest land beast was but a poodle dog." [Boy, that Melville! He sure can write!]
Fade to the harbor of the New Bedford seaport. The Mary Anne is pulling into harbor, all eyes are on the callow young seaman doing acrobatics on top of the mast. Why, it's handsome young Ahab showing off again! Ahab comes ashore and flirts with some of the girls and insults others. ("If they cut into you they'd certainly get plenty of blubber.") Ahab sees his brother Derek escorting a new girl in town-- Faith, the parson's daughter--to church. Ahab is struck with Faith's beauty but decides to go to the grog shop instead of church. There Ahab meets Queequeg, a primitive man who carries an idol he talks to. Queequeg becomes Ahab's sidekick. Eventually Ahab does go to church and flirts with Faith.
Before long Faith is losing interest in Derek's courting because, like all the girls, she is intrigued by the handsome Ahab. As Ahab is setting sail again Faith tells him that it is he, not Derek, that she loves. They agree to marry when Ahab returns.
Ahab and the Mary Anne are at sea when Ahab sights Moby Dick, the black whale with a white hump and forehead. [This allows the use of stock footage.] As Ahab and his cronies chase the whale in the long boat, Ahab takes one risk too many. The whale turns on Ahab and bites him. Ahab loses a leg and it is replaced by a peg.
When Faith sees Ahab is returning she is overjoyed. But when she sees the peg leg she is momentarily shocked and runs away. Weeks later, we see Ahab unable to get work as a whaler. Faith asks Derek to tell Ahab that she still loves Ahab. Derek twists the message so Ahab thinks Faith does not really love him. Derek then tells Faith that Ahab has cursed her.
Ahab goes to sea for seven years, but not as a whaler. Faith realizes too late that she should not have trusted Derek. Eagerly she awaits Ahab's return. Eventually Ahab manages to buy his own whaling ship, the Shanghai Lady. He sails it back to New Bedford to get a crew to go after Moby Dick.
[It should be noted that we are now fifty minutes into a seventy- five-minute movie and are ready to start telling Melville's story. Melville tells only the last third of the story, which, of course, is why Moby Dick is such a thin book.]
Ahab is unable to get a crew so must shanghai one from the brothels and grog shops. The meaner and nastier the crew, the better, he decided since he really wants revenge on Moby Dick. Once at sea, however, the shanghaied crew is surly and unmanageable. They are cutthroats one and all. There is one exception. It is Derek who was shanghaied onto the Shanghai Lady with the rest. Derek finds out his brother Ahab is the captain, but the mates don't believe it and will not let him see Ahab.
During a storm Derek decides to break out of the hold to confront Ahab. The rest of the crew take this opportunity to mutiny. With storm and mutiny raging, Derek finds Ahab at the wheel and accuses him of intentionally shanghaiing him. The two fight and Ahab is winning when Derek throws a knife into Ahab's back. Queequeg--Ahab's old friend-- picks up Derek and breaks his back. There is no explanation about what happened to the mutiny, but it seems to have ended by the next scene.
Fair weather returns, but Ahab is depressed. He decides Moby Dick has beaten him. "He's licked me, Mr. Stubbs," he says. Just then Moby Dick is sighted. The longboats hit the water. Moby Dick turns on Ahab's longboat but Ahab swims to the whale and, demoniacally laughing, repeatedly stabs the whale with a harpoon. Moby Dick dies. We last see pieces of Moby Dick being cut up on the deck of the Shanghai Lady.
Ahab and the Shanghai Lady return to New Bedford. There Ahab discovers that Faith has waited for him. The two fall into each other's arms.
Boy, that Herman Melville! He sure can write!
Copyright 1992 by Mark Leeper
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