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'{{Infobox Film | name = Moby Dick | image = Moby Dick 1930.jpg | caption = [[Joan Bennett]] and [[John Barrymore]] as a mustachioed Captain Ahab | director = [[Lloyd Bacon]] | producer = [[Warner Brothers]] | writer = [[J. Grubb Alexander]] (dialogue and screenplay)<br>[[Herman Melville]] (novel)<br>[[Oliver H.P. Garrett]] (adaptation) | starring = [[John Barrymore]]<br> [[Joan Bennett]] | music = William Axt<br>David Mendoza | cinematography = Robert Kurrle | editing = Desmond O'Brien | distributor = Warner Bros. | released = 20 September 1930 | runtime = 80 min | country = USA | language = English | budget = | gross = }} '''''Moby Dick''''' is a [[1930 in film|1930]] film made by [[Warner Bros.]], directed by [[Lloyd Bacon]], and starring [[John Barrymore]] and [[Joan Bennett]]. It was an extremely free adaptation of the novel ''[[Moby-Dick]]'' by [[Herman Melville]], which tells of a sea captain's monomanical quest for revenge on a great white whale who has bitten off the captain's leg. The film is a sound remake of the 1926 silent movie, ''[[The Sea Beast]]'', starring Barrymore, which uses exactly the same plot as the 1930 version. Both films implement a prequel and sequel element to the story that did not exist in Melville's novel. For example Captain Ahab is seen as a handsome, romantic hero with a pretty girlfriend and both legs before embarking on the odyssey to kill the whale that later maimed him. Ahab survives the ordeal and returns home to the woman who loves him. ==Notes, Criticisms== There are several instances that separate this film from the verve of the silent version. Barrymore had recently been ill after becoming sick at sea during his honeymoon. He nevertheless gives a credible performance such as the scenes when he has his leg amputated and later loses his temper with the peg leg. For some reason he did not shave his trademark mustache as he had done for [[The Sea Beast]]. The early sound recording is crude especially in the exterior scene recordings. Some stunts are done by Barrymore and stuntmen. In the silent version Barrymore did all his own stunts. [[Byron Haskin]], the cameraman on the silent version stated that in one scene in the silent version Barrymore burned a lot of the skin off his hands sliding down a rope from the mast of the movie Pequod. Joan Bennett was 20 years old in this film and had known Barrymore all her life as he was an old friend of the family and drinking buddy with her father [[Richard Bennett (actor)|Richard Bennett]]. There is however no chemistry here between her and Barrymore as there had been between Barrymore and [[Dolores Costello]] in 1925. Dolores, who was now Barrymore's wife, was pregnant at the time this film was made and she couldn't reprise her role from the silent version. Bennett and Barrymore are merely competent actors being put through their paces by [[Lloyd Bacon]] which would prompt any Melville purist to ask why a love interest was added in the first place. ==Cast== *[[John Barrymore]] as Captain Ahab Ceely *[[Joan Bennett]] as Faith Mapple *[[Lloyd Hughes]] as Derek Ceely *[[Noble Johnson]] as Queequeg *[[Nigel De Brulier]] as Elijah *[[Walter Long]] as Mr Stubbs *May Boley as Whale Oil Rosie *Tom O'Brien as Starbuck *Virginia Sale as First Old Maid *[[John Ince]] as Reverend Mapple ==External links== *''[http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=325&atid=10817&category=overview Moby Dick]'' at the [[TCM Movie Database]] * {{imdb title|0021149|Moby Dick}} * {{Amg movie|102619|Moby Dick}} {{Lloyd Bacon}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Moby Dick (1930 Film)}} [[Category:1930 films]] [[Category:Warner Bros. films]] [[Category:Black-and-white films]] [[Category:American films]] [[Category:English-language films]] [[Category:Films about whaling]] [[Category:Films based on novels]] [[Category:1930s adventure films]] [[Category:Films directed by Lloyd Bacon]] [[Category:Films set in the 1830s]] [[Category:Films set in the 1840s]] [[Category:Moby-Dick]] [[de:Moby Dick (1930)]] [[eu:Moby Dick (1930eko filma)]] [[fr:Jim le harponneur]] [[it:Moby Dick, il mostro bianco]]'