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Moby Dick Overview:

Moby Dick (1956) was a Adventure - Drama Film directed by John Huston and produced by John Huston and Jack Clayton.

Moby Dick BlogHub Articles:

Warner Archive: John Barrymore in a Pre-code Version of Moby Dick (1930)

By KC on Sep 27, 2016 From Classic Movies

"Call me Ishamael." Herman Melville's opening line to Moby Dick is one of the most famous first sentences in English literature, and yet, when a large volume of the book is opened to the first page in the credits of this pre-code take on the novel, there is no Ishamael in sight. The man himself neve... Read full article

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Moby Dick Quotes:

Captain Ahab: Captain Gardner, I seek the white whale, your own son's murderer. I am losing time... Goodbye, and fare thee well, I say. God help you, Captain Gardiner.
Captain Gardiner: God forgive you, Captain Ahab.
Captain Ahab: Birds... the birds... *He rises*!
Ishmael: [in voiceover, about Starbuck] His courage was one of the great staples of the ship, like beef or flour. There, when required, and not to be foolishly wasted.
Ishmael: [seeing Moby Dick for the first time] Is it real? Do you see it, too?
The Manxman, a sailor: We all see it. That don't make it real.
Captain Ahab: From hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee. Ye damned whale.
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Moby Dick Facts
John Huston also dubbed the voice of the lookout who plunges into the sea.
The ship captained by Captain Boomer (James Robertson Justice) is the 'Samuel Enderby'. Samuel Enderby founded a whaling company called Samuel Enderby & Sons. Vessels of the Enderby company vessels sailed seas all around the world, including whaling trips and being part of the Third Fleet to the colony of New South Wales.
Although Ishmael is supposed to be in his twenties, Richard Basehart was actually forty when the film was made - two years older than Gregory Peck.
The character of Peter Coffin, the innkeeper, played by Joseph Tomelty, was dubbed by director John Huston.
One of the myths circulating about this film is that it was "filmed on location". While there is plenty of location work on it (Canary Islands, Irish Seas, Youghal, Ireland), over 2/3 the film was shot at Shepperton and Elstree Studios in England. These include the Spouter's Inn tavern scenes, Father Mapple's sermon, Ahab's first speech on the deck of the Pequod (note the painted sky background), the typhoon; Ahab's dialog on the whale's back. While there are a few shots of the sixty foot Moby Dick on the open sea, most of the whale appearing in the finished film are various sized miniatures and selected body parts (jaws, body cylinders, eyes) which were co-ordinated by art director Stephen B. Grimes.
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