Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done

Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done
Cover of VHS release
Directed byBill Melendez
Written by
Story by
  • Robin Miller
  • Leo Rost
Based onThe works of Gilbert and Sullivan
Produced bySteven C. Melendez
StarringVictor Spinetti
Peter Reeves
Miriam Karlin
Barry Cryer
Long John Baldry
Edited by
  • Roger Donley
  • Steven Cuitlahuac Melendez
  • Babette Monteil
Music by
Production
company
Distributed byCinema International Corporation
Release dates
  • 1975 (1975) (United Kingdom)
  • July 1976 (1976-07) (United States)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done is a 1975 British animated musical comedy film directed by Bill Melendez and designed by Ronald Searle,[1][2] based on the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan.[3]

The comically convoluted plot, by Robin Miller and Leo Rost, with additional material by Gene Thompson and Victor Spinetti, is a pastiche of many of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, particularly Trial by Jury, The Sorcerer, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Patience, Iolanthe and The Mikado, in which the protagonist, Able Seaman Dick Deadeye (voiced by Spinetti), is sent by Queen Victoria on a quest to recover the "Ultimate Secret" from the Sorcerer, who has stolen it. The music is borrowed from many Savoy operas, with new or modified lyrics by Robin Miller and orchestrations updated in a contemporary popular style by conductor Jimmy Horowytz.

  1. ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 175. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  2. ^ "Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
  3. ^ Smith, Winfield. "Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done", review in Issue 30 (May 1991), Precious Nonsense, The Midwestern Gilbert & Sullivan Society