Call Me Ishmael: Melville on Film
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- DirectorJohn HustonStarsGregory PeckRichard BasehartLeo GennThe sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.
- StarsHenry ThomasPatrick StewartHugh Keays-ByrneThe sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his Captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.
- DirectorPaul StanleyStarsJack AransonCaptain Ahab's descent into madness destroys everyone around him. This powerful character drew John Barrymore, Orson Wells and John Huston. This film has been called the best, most authentic version of Herman Melville's MOBY DICK.
- DirectorTrey StokesStarsBarry BostwickRenée O'ConnorMatt LaganA modern-day adaptation of the classic novel featuring the captain of a high tech submarine and his obsessive quest to destroy the enormous prehistoric whale that maimed him.
- DirectorMillard WebbStarsJohn BarrymoreDolores CostelloGeorge O'HaraThis silent movie is based on Melville's classic Moby Dick. Ahab and his brother compete for the affections of minister's daughter Esther. But the great white whale has been eluding the harpooners, bearing many scars of failed attacks. Can our hero Ahab succeed where others have perished?
- DirectorAbe LevitowStarsJim Backus
- DirectorLloyd BaconStarsJohn BarrymoreJoan BennettLloyd HughesIn this extremely loose adaptation of Melville's classic novel, Ahab is revealed initially not as a bitter and vengeful madman, but as a bit of a lovable scamp. Ashore in New Bedford, he meets and falls for Faith Mapple, daughter of the local minister and beloved of Ahab's brother Derek. Faith herself quickly returns Ahab's love, as Derek is drab and ignoble. On his next voyage, however, Ahab loses a leg to the monstrous white whale Moby-Dick. When upon his return to New Bedford he mistakenly believes Faith wants nothing to do with him because of his disfigurement, Ahab returns to sea with only one goal in mind -- to find and kill the great white whale.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsGordon JacksonChristopher LeePatrick McGoohanA play-within-a-play of Moby Dick by Orson Welles.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson Welles
- StarsWilliam HurtEthan HawkeCharlie CoxThe sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick.
- DirectorRyan LittleStarsDanny GloverVinnie JonesCorey SevierHerman Melville's classic novel Moby Dick, is recreated in a world where Captain Ahab and his crew search for a Great White Dragon.
- DirectorBarrie GavinStarsThomas AllenPhilip LangridgeRichard Van AllanAn opera by Benjamin Britten, on a libretto by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier, adapted from the story by Herman Melville. Billy Budd is a young sailor aboard a British man-o'-war, persecuted by his master-at-arms, Claggart. Accused of mutiny, Budd accidently strikes Claggart dead, leaving Captain Vere with no choice but to hang him.
- DirectorPeter UstinovStarsRobert RyanPeter UstinovMelvyn DouglasWhen a kind-hearted sailor is made to join an English vessel at war in 1797, he finds himself caught between devotion to his crewmates and obedience to their hated, cruel master-at-arms.
- DirectorAllan DwanStarsDana AndrewsJane PowellDon DubbinsTwo 19th-century sailors jump ship only to discover their tropical paradise is a cannibal stronghold.
- DirectorClaire DenisStarsDenis LavantMichel SuborGrégoire ColinAn ex-Foreign Legion officer recalls his once-glorious life of leading troops in Djibouti.
- DirectorJonathan ParkerStarsDavid PaymerCrispin GloverGlenne HeadlyA clueless boss has no idea what to do with his mundane office worker whose refusal of duties only gets worse each passing minute.
- DirectorLeos CaraxStarsGuillaume DepardieuYekaterina GolubevaCatherine DeneuveA young writer becomes intrigued with a mysterious dark-haired woman who claims to be his long-lost sister, starting an unusual relationship with her and prompting a downward spiral involving his domineering mother and lovely fiancée.
- DirectorLeon LeonardStarsRon RandellDevera BurtonTrevor BardetteThe curse of a shark god follows a group of people who have violated a sacred jungle idol.
- DirectorMichael CurtizWilliam DieterleStarsWilliam DieterleLissy ArnaAnton PointnerAhab pursues a whale that chewed off a leg when his brother, vying with him for the hand of a minister's daughter, pushed him overboard.When he has caught the monstrous whale he will then deal with his brother.
- Enigma is the tragic and compelling true story of an African slave rebellion on board a Spanish ship at the end of the 18th century off the South American coast. Hit by murderous storms, The "San Dominick", having been seized by the slaves, limps into the shelter of an uninhabited island, where she is sighted through the heavy mists by an American Whaler who believe her to be in distress. Whaler Captain, Amasa Delano, an ancestor of American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, decides to go to the aid of this mysterious vessel, unknowingly threatening the success of the yet undiscovered slave mutiny. A rather ironic pantomime gets played out by the slave leader, Babo, who inverts the master-slave roles, manipulating the Spanish Captain, Don Benito Cereno into pretending he is still in control of the ship. In the end, a desperate Cereno gives up the charade leading to bloody confrontation, re-capture of the Dominick, trial and punishment.
- DirectorRichard ThorpeStarsMalaLotus LongRudolph AndersA young Polynesian couple is separated by a mining company which enslaves islanders.
- DirectorPhilippe RamosStarsDenis LavantVirgil LeclaireDominique BlancHis father, his aunt, the priest Mulligan, his beloved Anna and a sailor from the Pequod who had worked with the famous Captain Ahab paint the portrait of this exceptional sailor who reigned over the seas as a formidable sailor.