Moby Dick (1930)

A sailor (John Barrymore) and his brother (Lloyd Hughes) are both in love with the same woman, a minister's daughter (Joan Bennett). She's in love with the sailor but when he returns from the sea without one of his legs, she turns away from him. It's at this point that he becomes obsessed with killing the white whale that bit his leg off. Loosely (and I mean very loosely) based on the novel by Herman Melville and directed by Lloyd Bacon (MARKED WOMAN). Hollywood in the 1930s frequently adapted classic novels to the screen. Movies like DAVID COPPERFIELD, LES MISERABLES, ANNA KARENINA and LITTLE WOMEN to name but a handful and most of them, if not rigidly faithful to the novel, captured the spirit of the book. However, to call this version of MOBY DICK a travesty is an understatement. Fearing audiences wouldn't be interested unless there's a romance, Joan Bennett's character was created for the film. Ishmael, a major character in the book is eliminated entirely. Barrymore's Ahab is more akin to Long John Silver than Melville's Ahab. Barrymore had previously played Ahab in a 1926 silent version of MOBY DICK called THE SEA BEAST which was a big hit which probably accounts for this sound remake. The film's special effects are pretty impressive for 1930. With Noble Johnson as Queequeg, Nigel De Brulier and May Boley.