RETROSPECTIVE: MOBY DICK (1930)
Mark R. Leeper
MOBY DICK (1930)
Film comment by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Mark R. Leeper
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 novel 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!
Mark R. Leeper
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