kijii John Huston and Ray Bradbury wrote a screenplay that did justice to Melville' s famous allegorical novel. As far as I can imagine, it would be hard to present this story much better on screen. Richard Basehart's performance, as Ishmael, was adequate in that it didn't require much after the opening scenes in New Bedford. Orson Wells was great in his brief, but powerful, scene as Father Mapple, the minister at the New Bedford's Seaman's Chapel. The exterior shots of the chapel looked very familiar to me in that I lived in New Bedford for about six years. The interior scenes of the chapel, with the rope ladder climbing up to the bow-like pulpit also could have also been on shot location since that is how the pulpit looks in the actual chapel. On the other hand, they also could have been shot at the studio.I have read reviews that question whether Gregory Peck was a good casting choice for Captain Ahab--perhaps being too gentle for the part. However, I think Peck he was very good in this part. Rather than portraying Ahab as one-dimensional and unrelenting raving lunatic, Huston saw him as reserved, brooding, and determined in the beginning. Then, as the movie progresses, he evolves into a madman as he approaches the area in the Pacific where he knows the great white whale will be on a certain date. The crew knows of his madness by reputation. But, his first mate, Starbuck (Leo Glenn), gets to know of it first hand through conversations with Ahab....-------------------------------"Speak not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me. Look ye, Starbuck, all visible objects are but as pasteboard masks. Some inscrutable yet reasoning thing puts forth the molding of their features. The white whale tasks me; he heaps me. Yet he is but a mask. 'Tis the thing behind the mask I chiefly hate; the malignant thing that has plagued mankind since time began; the thing that maws and mutilates our race, not killing us outright but letting us live on, with half a heart and half a lung."---------------------------------It is Starbuck that had learned of Ahab's carefully drawn charts of all the world's waters, every aspect of which is to hunt down and kill the great white whale. And, it is Starbuck that considers mutiny, or worse, as the ill-fated voyage continues after a great storm that portends the encounter with Moby Dick.This movie was not made in wide screen format, even though Cinamascope was available at the time. The thing that I liked least about it was its color. Instead of being bright and vivid, as it could have been, it is dark, dull and brownish. Nevertheless, both narration and photography capture the Melville' s allegory quite well.

matttaylor-65065 This film comes from one of the best books ever written, the tall task of taking such an iconic classic and making it into a film, no small order. Yet thanks to Ray Bradbury for writing the screenplay than enabled John Huston to make this film worthy of the book.I think maybe this film just hasn't graced the TV Screens more than it has is just a shame, it makes me wonder is this the reason that its not one of the all time greatest movies. There are so many timeless classics I know its impossible for them all to make it but still a shame.Gregory Peck as Ahab, Orsen Wells as the minister, both performances make this a stand out movie. Both actor's brought so much to this film, maybe some of the special effects let the film down a tad, but that's why its an 8 not a 10. Still well worthy of a watch. Enjoy.

Mike Morrison I enjoyed the heck out of this movie. It's an honest attempt to bring the great novel to the screen, and there is no reworking or Hollywoodizing of it. The story progresses and the characters are believable.There is, however, a continuing flaw in many movies when an actor of the wrong age is cast for a particular part. This gives us things like a 22-year-old kid playing Superman and 70-year-old Robert Mitchum playing a World War Two Navy captain. (Captains are typically in their early 40s.) That happens here. Gregory Peck effectively conveys the obsessive madness of Ahab, but he is just plain WAY too young. Melville's Ahab is 58, which was considered old in the middle of the 19th century. Peck himself is said to have noted he was not right for the role and that it demanded more than he had in him at that age.Here's a thought.This happens in reverse in another superb seagoing film, "The Caine Mutiny" (1954). Humphrey Bogart, then over 50, plays a 30-something Navy LCDR. Again - Bogie nails the part, but he's just plain WAY too old.What if we go back in time and have Bogart play Ahab and Peck play Queeg? Bogie would be marvelous as the mad, obsessive Ahab, and Peck could bring off the dark, disturbed, unbalanced Queeg just right.Both are marvelous movies with terrific lead characters - but both stars are twenty years wrong in age.Get the DVDs and view both and see what you think.

tomsview Movies set in the age of sail used to be a Hollywood staple. Unfortunately the ships were often under the command of captains who revealed the inadequate screening procedures of their superiors. The moment they sailed, the captain's repressed mania and anger management issues came to the fore."The Sea wolf", "Two Years before the Mast", "Wake of the Red Witch" and the 1935 version of "Mutiny on the Bounty" all featured despotic if not actually deranged ship's masters. By the time "Moby Dick" came along in 1956, the genre was familiar to movie audiences that knew sea monsters were more likely to be found on a ship's bridge wearing gold braid on their caps. John Huston's "Moby Dick" is about the last voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, and its captain, Ahab, who obsessively hunts a huge white whale that had taken off his leg in a previous encounter. Ahab subverts the crew to his cause but the final confrontation between man and beast leaves only one survivor, Ishmael played by Richard Basehart who also serves as narrator of the tale."Moby Dick" is so full of weird characters that they would not seem out of place at a "Star Trek" convention. Apart from Ahab, there is Queequeg the tattooed Polynesian harpooner, wharfside prophet of doom Elijah, and Orson Welles as the ominous Father Mapple.Huston, who had struggled to make this movie for years, enlisted science fiction writer Ray Bradbury to help craft a screenplay from Melville's novel. They made many changes including a significant one to the ending with Ahab entangled in the ropes on the whale's back. In the novel this was the fate of a lesser character while Ahab's death was not as spectacular – the movie version works better."Moby Dick" had two obstacles to overcome; the first was the casting of Gregory Peck as Ahab and the second was the demand placed on the technical crew to deliver a believable, final confrontation with Moby Dick.Huston wanted his father, Walter Huston, to play Ahab, however, the studio wanted a more bankable name. Peck was a popular, romantic star of the 1950's, but critics questioned his suitability for the role. 60 years later, the baggage that Peck carried is gone. Now his performance can be evaluated on its own terms, and Peck has grown into the role.The other challenge was to make the White Whale convincing. Unfortunately most of the action had to be shot in studio tanks. Splashy and artificial, the tank scenes lack the scale of the real ocean. Despite this, many of the scenes with the whale still have power, especially Moby Dick cruising along with old harpoons sticking in his back with ropes trailing behind him.The result was a unique movie experience. Huston's "Moby Dick" breathed life into its strange story and unusual characters. The movie was inspired by a great work of literature, and was made by a great artist of the cinema. It is a flawed masterpiece, but a masterpiece nonetheless.