The Sea-Beast

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

Steve Maas reports:
"This edition was apparently issued as an early version of synergistic
marketing to publicize the WB "Photoplay" _The Sea Beast_, the first
filmed version of the book, starring John Barrymore. The book is
illustrated with stills from the Photoplay, mostly of the Great Profile
hisself.  The book itself is an unaltered edition, but an introduction
discusses some small changes made in the movie "dictated not by an aimless
unprincipled desire for melodramatic heightening, but by the bald
limitations of the camera."  One of these changes is that Ahab's madness
was caused not by the whale but by--you guessed it--a woman!  Quite an
understandable bit of artistic license, nicht wahr?  And it's only
reasonable that after all of his travails, Ahab should survive with sanity
restored!  Ahh, Hollywood."


It's a, mmm, remarkable film.  It's not just a woman but (SPOILER WARNING!!)
she caused the leg loss indirectly.  Seems that Ahab's jealous brother
(what?  you didn't know about the brother?) pushed him overboard just
in time to get that leg chewed!

And, oh yes, the film does have a happy (for Ahab, that is) ending!

I saw the movie at an MLA convention in a room full of drunken Melville
scholars.  When the Pequod first appeared (1/2 hour into the film), they
all cheered!

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)