Daily Archives: May 26, 2016

Moby Dick
Directed by John Huston
Written by Ray Bradbury and John Huston from the novel by Herman Melville
1956/USA
Moulin Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental

Captain Ahab: From hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Ye damned whale.

In a time before the Save the Whale movement, John Huston captured the grandeur and deeper meaning of the Herman Melville classic novel.  Better yet, in the end it is the Whale, or make that Nature or an Omnipotent God, that triumphs.

The film is remarkably faithful to the novel in plot, setting and dialogue.  In 1841 a man (Richard Basehart) who asks us to call him Ishmael arrives in New Bedford, Massachusetts.  He is tired of life on shore and wants to find out what whaling is like.  At the inn, he is told he will have to share a bed.  Thus he meets Queequeg, a cannibal harpooner, and the two become fast friends.  They vow to ship out together and are hired for a three-year voyage on the Pequod.  Before the ship sails, a stranger called Elijah predicts disaster for the ship and its Captain.

Pip: That ain’t no whale; that a great white god.

Early in the voyage, we see the camaraderie among the sailors and watch them work.  Eventually, Captain Ahab (Gregory Peck) emerges from his cabin and announces a reward for the first man that spots the white whale named Moby Dick that cost him his leg.  Moby Dick is a renowned behemoth that has maimed more than one man and sank more than one ship.  The men are game but Starbuck (Leo Gann), the Chief Mate, is troubled.

He becomes more troubled when Ahab insists going after Moby Dick before concentrating on filling the ship’s hold and returning home.  But Starbucks idea of mutiny is not shared by the other men and Ahab carries on until Elijah’s prophecy is fulfilled.  With Orson Welles as a preacher who delivers a sermon on the story of Jonah.

I didn’t have high hopes for this film as I love the novel but thought it would be impossible for any film to convey what makes it great.  Huston managed admirably however.  This is largely accomplished by skillful lifting of the actual language of the text and a production design that looks to be taken from 19th Century illustrations.  I’m not a huge Gregory Peck fan but he is ferocious and a perfect Ahab here.

Like the novel, this film is more about the Ahab’s blasphemy in trying to get vengeance on Fate, Nature, or God than it is a simple whaling adventure.  Huston captures the biblical underpinnings of the novel brilliantly while keeping the action engaging as well.  The whale hunts were not too graphic for me.  Recommended.

This post is part of The Animals in Film Blogathon being hosted by In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood.  Other excellent posts on this theme can be found here.

Clip

Fear Strikes Out
Directed by Robert Mulligan
Written by Ted Berkman and Raphael Blau from a story by Jimmy Piersall and Al Hirschberg
1957/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] “Never allow the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game!” ― Babe Ruth[/box]

Nobody does troubled like Anthony Perkins.  His performance makes this biopic about a baseball player battling mental illness.

This based on the story of Jimmy Piersall who came back from a very public nervous breakdown to stardom in Major League Baseball.  Jimmy (Perkins) shows athletic talent from an early age.  From that same age, his father (Karl Malden) has dreams that Jimmy will play for the Boston Red Sox and pushes him relentlessly to achieve that dream. Spending more than one year in the Minor Leagues is abject failure.  So is achieving only third place in hitting.  But Jimmy and dad are very close and the ballplayer can’t seem to make a move without him.

Jimmy gets some solace from his marriage.  When he is finally selected to play for the Sox, he falls apart.  It starts out by angrily driving his teammates to do better.  Then he completely snaps, goes nuts after hitting a home run, and must be hospitalized.

I thought the theme was handled well.  The treatment was not too heavy handed or Freudian.  Perkins is outstanding and Malden makes the father very human.  Piersall, however, disowned the movie because he thought it was too hard on his dad.  I enjoyed this.

Trailer – this makes it look like Rebel Without a Cause and misses the mark

The Flying Carpet (Starik Khottabych)
Directed by Gannadiy Kazanskiy
Writtten by Lazar Lagin from his novel
1957/USSR
Lenfilm Studio
First viewing/YouTube

[box] “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.” ― G.K. Chesterton[/box]

Young Pioneer Volka opens an ancient bottle with a 3,000+ year old genie in it.    The genie, Old Man Khottabych, is so grateful he essentially becomes the boy’s slave.  It is not necessary for him to wish for anything.  This creates problems as the genie is completely out of touch with modern times and messes up a lot.  Volka and his friends also do some traveling courtesy of the flying carpet.

This is a moderately amusing children’s film.  For me the most interesting parts were bits of relatively unobtrusive Soviet propaganda as with the boy’s distaste for owning anything. Everything is bright, shiny, and new in the USSR in this fairy tale.