This silent movie is based on Melville's classic Moby Dick. Ahab and his brother compete for the affections of minister's daughter Esther. But the great white whale has been eluding the harp... Read allThis silent movie is based on Melville's classic Moby Dick. Ahab and his brother compete for the affections of minister's daughter Esther. But the great white whale has been eluding the harpooners, bearing many scars of failed attacks. Can our hero Ahab succeed where others have ... Read allThis silent movie is based on Melville's classic Moby Dick. Ahab and his brother compete for the affections of minister's daughter Esther. But the great white whale has been eluding the harpooners, bearing many scars of failed attacks. Can our hero Ahab succeed where others have perished?
- Awards
- 3 wins
- Perth
- (as George Burrell)
- Fedallah
- (as Sojin)
- Undetermined Role
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaTo "doctor" the film, Jack L. Warner enlisted the help of Rupert Hughes, who reedited it and provided new titles. Since no compensation had been agreed upon, Warner sent a check for $1500, which Hughes returned saying he had done the work as a favor to both Warner AND Herman Melville.
- Quotes
Title card: [Opening remarks] In these long-gone days of their glory, thousands of vessels and tens of thousands of men followed the whale through seas till then unknown.
Title card: It was seven months since that stout ship The Three Brothers of New Bedford, had left her home port.
Title card: From the last whale killed they took ten tons of skin - the blubber. While some made mince meat of it... Others boiled the blubber down - to a hundred barrels of precious oil.
- Alternate versionsA 57 foot 2-strip Technicolor sequence was included in the original release but is now lost.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Here's Looking at You, Warner Bros. (1991)
Actor John Barrymore lobbied aggressively to get the part of Captain Ahab. As an avid reader of 'Moby Dick,' Barrymore gave suggestions to scriptwriter Bess Meredyth on how to carve the script. She reportedly didn't incorporate any of his pointers, noting this wasn't going to be a romance. "What we are going to do for a love interest, I don't quite know," said Barrymore. "He might fall in love with the whale. Hollywood, I am sure, will find a way." Meredyth finally found a way to squeeze a romantic subplot into the movie. Character Ester Wiscasset (Dolores Costello) becomes a lightning rod between Ahab (Barrymore) and his half brother Derek (George O'Hara). Both are gaga over the minister's daughter, which causes a rift between them when they're in pursuit of the large white whale. Derek takes advantage of the Ahab leaning over the bow of the small whale skiff and abruptly pushes him over. Moby immediately spots Ahab's meaty human leg to chomp on, hence explains his peg leg. Harboring a hatred towards the hungry whale, Ahab's personality turns from a happy-go-lucky captain to a mean, crusty, revenge-seeking brute. He becomes even more onerous when he discovers how he ended up in the ocean.
Barrymore, whose romantic eyes went from young actress Mary Astor to new girlfriend Dolores Costello, persuaded Warner to cut its original choice, actress Priscilla Bonner, for his lover. Bonner, upon getting the termination notice, abruptly sued the studio and won a hefty sum in an out-of-court settlement. Barrymore, who loved his drink, was pounding the bottle pretty hard during "The Sea Beast" production and appears on camera to be worn out with his bloodshot eyes and unshaven look. Studio producer Jack Warner told the director Millard Webb to praise the makeup artist for doing a great job on the actor. "That's not makeup," Webb said. "It's a hangover."
Barrymore's characterization of Ahab drew praise from a number of critics. It has been noted the actor excelled at playing deviates such as Mr. Hyde, and in Ahab he finds a perfect foil to display a physically and mentally tormented man. The public ate it up, filling theater seats so much "The Sea Beast" became the tenth greatest money maker in 1926. It would be another 30 years, however, for Hollywood to make a movie that would follow the Melville plot without the romantic element in John Huston's 1956 "Moby Dick."
- springfieldrental
- Feb 18, 2022
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $503,000 (estimated)
- Runtime2 hours 16 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1