Moby Dick (1956 film)

Moby Dick
Image:Moby dick434.jpg
Directed by	John Huston
Produced by	Associate producers: Jack Clayton Lee Katz Co-producer: Vaughn N. Dean Producer: John Huston
Written by	Novel: Herman Melville Screenplay: Ray Bradbury John Huston
Starring	Gregory Peck Richard Basehart Leo Genn Orson Welles Royal Dano
Music by	Philip Sainton
Cinematography	Oswald Morris
Editing by	Russell Lloyd
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release date(s)	June 27, 1956
Running time	116 min.
Country	Image:Flag of the United States.svg
Language	English
Budget	US$ 4,500,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Moby Dick is a 1956 adaptation of Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. It was directed by John Huston with a screenplay by Ray Bradbury and John Huston. The film starred Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, Richard Basehart as Ishmael, Leo Genn as Starbuck, Friedrich Ledebur as Queequeg, and Orson Welles as Father Mapple.

[edit] Cast

Gerald Mitchell- Production Manager

The film was first shown on television by the American Broadcasting Company, on December 16, 1962. [1]
Much like the the great white shark in the movie Jaws, the mechanical white whale used in the special effects sequences of the film kept developing problems and breaking down.

Gregory Peck played the role of Father Mapple in the 1998 television miniseries adaptation of Melville's novel, with Patrick Stewart as Ahab.
Peck was initially surprised to be cast as Ahab (part of the studio's agreement to fund the film was that Huston use a "name" actor as Ahab). Peck later commented that he felt Huston himself should have played Ahab. Ironically, Huston had originally intended to cast his own father, the actor Walter Huston in the role, but his father had died by the time the film was made.
Orson Welles' salary from his cameo as Father Mapple was later used by Welles to fund his own stage production of Moby Dick, in which Rod Steiger played Captain Ahab.

Ray Bradbury's novel Green Shadows, White Whale includes a fictionalized version of his writing the screenplay with John Huston in Ireland.
During a meeting to discuss the screenplay, Bradbury informed John Huston that regarding Melville's novel, he had "never been able to read the damned thing".
Mad Magazine published a satire of the movie, in which they depicted "Father Maplesyrup, an Ex-Sea Captain" turned preacher, giving a sermon on Jonah and the whale. The magazine comments, "Right off, they give away the whole plot!"

This was originally a Warner Bros. picture; however, this film (as well as the pre-1948 Warner library) ended up being sold to Associated Artists Productions, which later was sold to United Artists Television. This would eventually be the only film in the UATV package that would not end up with Turner Entertainment, and thus UA (now part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) continues to own the US rights to this film today. The international rights are with various other companies.