Call me Adrastos.

This movie post has an odd genesis. It’s inspired by a post I wrote about the recent Texas primary election, The Democrat’s White Whale. That led me to rewatch John Huston’s 1956 film adaptation of Moby Dick. I didn’t like it the first time but enjoyed it this week.

The contemporaneous reviews of the movie were mostly negative. It’s because they approached it as an adaptation of a great novel. I don’t care for the novel’s length and long winded prose, so I approached Moby Dick without reverence. To me, it’s just a whale of a tale.

The story should be familiar to all educated Americans:

Man meets whale.

Man loses leg to whale.

Man becomes obsessed with whale.

Man pursues whale.

Man finds whale and loses everything.

What else could happen after this?

The pictures for this post are a mixture of black and white and color. Moby Dick was shot in sepia toned color by cinematographer Oswald Morris. It’s meant to evoke 19th Century nautical prints and paintings. It also resembles Winslow Homer’s seafaring paintings. Homer is perhaps my favorite 19th Century American painter so that’s a huge compliment. One could even say that Oswald Morris hit a homer…

The critics of his day thought Gregory Peck was miscast. Even before playing Atticus Finch 6 years later, Peck played mostly good guys, and the critics couldn’t fathom the notion of that nice Gregory Peck playing the obsessive Captain Ahab. I beg to differ with the 1950’s critics: Peck is excellent as Ahab. He resembles a demonic Abe Lincoln as he pursues his quarry.

Richard Basehart was one of the most underrated actors of his era. He’s superb as Ishmael, especially in his scenes with the heavily tattooed Queequeg who is played by Friedrich von Ledbur.

The other major role of Starbuck is played by the fine British actor Leo Genn. Starbuck is an ineffectual good guy whose attempts to reign in Ahab are all wet.

In addition to being one of our finest directors and character actors, John Huston was a world class screenwriter. Moby Dick was cowritten by literary legend Ray Bradbury. They did an excellent job of boiling Melville’s novel down to its essence. Speaking of which, here’s the first edition:

Orson Welles puts in an appearance as Father Mapple before The Pequod embarks on its doomed voyage.

Does the size of his altar indicate that Orson had, uh, small man complex? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Grading Time: I give John Huston’s Moby Dick 3 1/2 stars and an Adrastos grade of B+. I give Herman Melville’s Moby Dick 2 1/2 stars and an Adrastos grade of C+. I dislike Melville’s writing but dig the story and character names.

Call me Adrastos.

Feeling lost at sea? Let’s find ourselves by taking a look at some posters.

Here’s a side-by-side image of two French posters:

Mais oui.

It’s quad time. I used the first one as the featured image for my Texas post.

All that time at sea has me worried that I might have scurvy. Let’s scurry to the lobby and see if there’s any fruit for sale.

I struck out. There wasn’t so much as a Froot Loop or Gummi Bear in the house. I did, however, encounter some cool lobby cards:

Now that the believers out there have prayed with Orson Welles, let’s hitch a ride on the trailer:

There aren’t any TCM host segments online, so let’s watch the opening credits:

The last word goes to Procol Harum:

Call me Adrastos.