The Sea Beast (1926 film)

This article is about the 1926 film. For the 2022 animated film, see The Sea Beast (2022 film).

The Sea Beast
Film poster
Directed byMillard Webb
Written by
Based onMoby-Dick (1851)
by Herman Melville
Starring
Cinematography
Edited byRupert Hughes
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.(US)


Gaumont Warner Brothers(Europe)
Release date
  • January 15, 1926 (1926-01-15)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageSilent (English intertitles)
Budget$503,000[1]
Box office$938,000 (worldwide rentals)[1]
The full film

The Sea Beast is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Millard Webb, starring John Barrymore, Dolores Costello and George O'Hara.[2] The film was a major commercial success and one of the biggest pictures of 1926 becoming Warner Brothers' highest grossing film. The Sea Beast is the first adaptation of Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick,[2] a story about a monomaniacal hunt for a great white whale. However, the film alters the novel's plotline by establishing prequel and sequel elements that are not in the original story—such as the romancing of Esther and Ahab's safe return, respectively—and substitutes a happy ending for Melville's original tragic one. Some of the characters in the film do not appear in Melville's original novel. The film was so successful that in 1930 Warner Bros redid it in English and German, under the title Moby Dick, with Joan Bennett taking the role of Ahab's love because Dolores Costello was pregnant at the time.[3]

  1. ^ a b Glancy, H Mark (1995). "Warner Bros Film Grosses, 1921–51: the William Schaefer ledger". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 15: 55–73. doi:10.1080/01439689500260031.
  2. ^ a b Sala, Ángel (October 2005). "Apéndices". Tiburón ¡Vas a necesitar un barco más grande! El filme que cambió Hollywood (1st ed.). Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya. p. 113. ISBN 84-96129-72-1.
  3. ^ "The Sea Beast". www.tcm.com. Retrieved April 10, 2023.