Call Me Derek
Along with music, I love old movies – and when I say "old", I mean starting with the silents of the 1910's and 20's and the early talkies of 1929-1931. I've also got a scholarly interest in Herman Melville (wrote an MA thesis on his novels). So when a 1930 version of Moby Dick showed up on Turner Classic Movies, starring John Barrymore as Ahab, I just had to watch it.
My friends, it was a revelation! First, it turns out that Ishmael was a totally fictional character, invented by Melville solely for the novel, and not even credited in the movie. Then I learned that Ahab had a last name – "Ceely" – as well as a brother named Derek. Not only that, but Ahab, a young, hell-raising harpooner with both legs and an eye for the ladies, and Derek, a genteel but slick landlubber, were both smitten with the same lovely young maid, Faith Mapple, daughter of the Rev. Mapple (who gives a pretty humdrum sermon without mentioning Jonah even once). For some reason, Melville had omitted these salient facts from his novel, as well as skipping Ahab's close friendship with Queequeg, arising from Ahab's stopping the mad Elijah from destroying Queequeg's idol during a drinking binge at the Spouter Inn.
The movie next shows us Ahab losing his leg to Moby Dick in graphic gruesome detail, losing his girl through a misunderstanding crafted by the wicked Derek, and then shipping out as a harpooner to revenge himself on the vicious whale. In the climactic sequence, after Ahab has acquired a ship in Shanghai (the "Shanghai Lily" – no "Pequod" in sight) and mate Stubbs has shanghaied Derek unbeknownst to Ahab, there's a mutiny. Queequeg breaks Derek's back in a struggle to save Ahab, and – finally – Ahab kills Moby Dick, revives his spirits, returns to New Bedford, and there, waiting faithfully for him, is Faith. They clinch, and we fade out.
Well. I don't know what kept Melville from telling us this story. It's got love and deception, violence and just revenge, and a happy ending for all hands (save Derek and Moby Dick, who get what they deserve). Instead, he invented Ishmael, completely cut the love story (no Derek, no Faith), and let the mean-spirited whale kill our hero, good old fun-loving Ahab!! Major downer, and it doesn't surprise me that it took 80 years before this movie got the story right or that sour old Melville died in obscurity. All I can say is "Hooray for Hollywood"!
My friends, it was a revelation! First, it turns out that Ishmael was a totally fictional character, invented by Melville solely for the novel, and not even credited in the movie. Then I learned that Ahab had a last name – "Ceely" – as well as a brother named Derek. Not only that, but Ahab, a young, hell-raising harpooner with both legs and an eye for the ladies, and Derek, a genteel but slick landlubber, were both smitten with the same lovely young maid, Faith Mapple, daughter of the Rev. Mapple (who gives a pretty humdrum sermon without mentioning Jonah even once). For some reason, Melville had omitted these salient facts from his novel, as well as skipping Ahab's close friendship with Queequeg, arising from Ahab's stopping the mad Elijah from destroying Queequeg's idol during a drinking binge at the Spouter Inn.
The movie next shows us Ahab losing his leg to Moby Dick in graphic gruesome detail, losing his girl through a misunderstanding crafted by the wicked Derek, and then shipping out as a harpooner to revenge himself on the vicious whale. In the climactic sequence, after Ahab has acquired a ship in Shanghai (the "Shanghai Lily" – no "Pequod" in sight) and mate Stubbs has shanghaied Derek unbeknownst to Ahab, there's a mutiny. Queequeg breaks Derek's back in a struggle to save Ahab, and – finally – Ahab kills Moby Dick, revives his spirits, returns to New Bedford, and there, waiting faithfully for him, is Faith. They clinch, and we fade out.
Well. I don't know what kept Melville from telling us this story. It's got love and deception, violence and just revenge, and a happy ending for all hands (save Derek and Moby Dick, who get what they deserve). Instead, he invented Ishmael, completely cut the love story (no Derek, no Faith), and let the mean-spirited whale kill our hero, good old fun-loving Ahab!! Major downer, and it doesn't surprise me that it took 80 years before this movie got the story right or that sour old Melville died in obscurity. All I can say is "Hooray for Hollywood"!
posted by DJStan at 6:30 AM
2 Comments:
It's an amazing story the movie told. A woman named Faith Mapple gets a happy ending maybe one shot out of ten.
The odds improve dramatically when she looks like the young Joan Bennett.
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