The Sea Beast

by Millard Webb

For other adaptations and versions of the work this is based on, see Moby-Dick (Melville).

Moby-Dick
OR
THE WHITE WHALE


BY
Herman Melville

MOBY DICK
OR
THE WHITE WHALE

THERE never was, nor ever will be, a braver life than the life of the whaler. Compared to the game they hunted the mightiest land beast was but a poodle dog. Compared to the crush and crash of the sperm-whale flukes the most direful blow of a mad elephant's trunk was but a playful tap with a fan.

Moby Dick, the mightiest of all sea beasts, was known not only by his island bulk, but by his peculiar snow white forehead and a high white hump like a hill of snow, and the harpoons in his side were stuck there by men now dead.

The DRYDEN
THEATRE
Of
GEORGE EASTMAN
HOUSE
Presents

A Film of The
HENRY A. STRONG
Collection of Historical
Motion Pictures
(Gift of L. CORRIN STRONG)
JOHN BARRYMORE
In
"The SEA BEAST"
With
DOLORES COSTELLO
GEORGE O'HARA
SO-JIN

Directed by Millard Webb
1926

Acquired Through The
Courtesy Of
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.

In these long-gone days of their glory, thousands of vessels and tens of thousands of men followed the whale through seas till then unknown.

It was seven months since that stout ship The Three Brothers of New Bedford, had left her home part.

From the last whale killed they took ten tons of skin - the blubber.

While some made mince meat of it ...

Others boiled the blubber down - to a hundred barrels of precious oil.

Of all the wild crews, the whale ship crews were the wildest. Their chanties of joy would curdle the blood of an ordinary seaman.

"They call me hanging Johnny
 Hooray Hooray
Because I hang so many
 Hooray Hooray!"

"I hung my dear old mother,
And I hung my baby brother,
 So Hang, Boys, HANG!"

"I hung my sister Sally
And I Swung her in the galley,
So Hang, Boys, HANG!"

They hung a young harpooner up at the masthead to look for whales. But whales were not filling the dreams of Ahab Ceeley.

- John Barrymore

ESTHER

[...] day [...] your poor [...] lonely New Baby and sailed away for [...]

In those old days sailors and their sweethearts knew what parting meant. A letter a year was lucky.

Esther Harper was the daughter of a missionary.

- Dolores Costello

"His name's Ezekial. On week days call him Zeke."

Derek Ceeley was Ahab's half brother; but he hated the sea as much as Ahab loved it.

- George O'Hara

"I hung my uncle Paddy
And I hung my old Grandaddy,
So HANG, Boys, HANG!"

Among the odds and ends of the crew was the half-wit known only as Pip.

"I could do monkey tricks too before I lost my leg. Twas bit off by Moby Dick, the most hell-awful whale that ever chewed up a boat."

"When I harpoon Moby Dick I'll get your old leg back."

At the island of Mauritius lies the flowery Port Louis.

Esther's father, the Rev. John Harper, found more beauty than piety in Port Louis.

"Why Derek, you forget yourself and your brother."

"I love to come out here and think that Ahab is looking at this same moon."

The people of Port Louis had to crowd a lot of welcome into a short time, for being a port of call, no ship was allowed to remain there more than a day and a night.

We're going ashore,
 Me lads—me lads,
We're going ashore today.

Our lassies we'll meet,
 Oh won't they be sweet,
When we go ashore today.

The harpooners were the knighthood of the whalers and they wore harpoon sticks in their caps to boast of it.

"Come quick...christen new babies."

"Nothing can ever change our love, my sweet."

"Nothing, Ahab dearest"

The Three Brothers sails again at dawn.

A hundred leagues at sea.

The Captain was a pious man...on Sundays...for an hour.

all my love
Esther.

"Thar she blows! She blo-o-o-o-ws!"

"Where away?"

"Two points off the starboard bow!"

"IT'S MOBY DICK!"

There was an enormous wallowing sound of fifty elephants stirring."

"Pull! Pull! Oars! Oars! Why don't you break your backbones! Are you all asleep!"

"Stern all! The White Whale spouts thick blood!"

"Look! Old Moby's turning on them! They're gone!"

"Cut away the line! He's after us!"

"Good God! Moby's got him!"

"My leg! My leg! He tore it off!"

"You skunk! If you ever breathe a word, I'll cut out your blathering tongue!"

For weeks Ahab and anguish lay stretched together in a jolting bunk in the filthy fo'c'sle; and his torn body and gashed soul bled into one another.

Four bells...Ahab's old watch.

"Can't you bear it a little longer? You'll soon be home...in Port Louis...with her."

"That won't make any difference to Esther. Some girls would shrink from this...but she's not that sort."

"Of course, Esther was always crazy about your bein' so strong and perfect."

"Good God! You don't think that Esther---"

"Nothing can ever change our love, my sweet."

"Nothing, Ahab darling!"

After a fruitless voyage, The Three Brothers turned back to Port Louis to replenish the stores.

"It's Ahab! It's Ahab!"

"We're going ashore
Me lads, Me lads,
We're going ashore today!"

"We'll meet our lassies and they'll be sweet, lads, when we go ashore today!"

"You've got guts enough for worse things than this...so don't be a durned fool."

"It might be best if I saw Esther first and kind of prepared her, like."

"Thanks, Derek, but I'd rather break it to her myself."

"Ahab said to tell you he'd...be along later. He...he wants to primp a little, I guess."

Once a year the governor of the island visited Port Louis and gave a great reception.
Even the missionary dared not stay away.

"Nothin' but yer best gal could drive yer to stand the pain o' that new leg."

"Come on in for a nip o' grog."

(illegible text)

Now blithesome be and come away!
 We'll dance from dawn to close of day.
The spring is here full well you know,
 Because each primrose tells you so.

"My darling! How horrible, how pitiful!"

"I'd look kinda funny hobblin' in before that crowd...I'll wait for you outside."

"Oh father, when you see him be careful. Don't . . . don't let him feel that you are shocked! Keep back your pity."

"He's very moody of late. But go on home and I'll fetch him round."

"I wonder why she spoke of horror...and of pity."

"That's what I was afraid of Ahab. You should have let me break it to her."

"Pity!"

"Let's go over to Spouter Tavern, old man, you need a bracer!"

"Ahab, you know how I've always loved you. God, it's hard to tell you..."

"but...well, you were away at sea for a year, and you left Esther in my care..."

"She was lonely and I was near - and - well - we came to love each other."

"You must be mad! She looked me straight in the eye and said nothing could ever change our love."

"When you came to Port Louis, you swept her off her feet that night in the garden. But you must of seen how scared she was."

"She was carried away by her pity tonight...and...she'd rather die than tell you."

"That's mighty fine o' you to give her up to me. I swear I'll do everything...to make her happy."

"If my poor brother drinks too much, see him kindly aboard his ship."

His drowning soul caught at the vague misgiving that such a love as Esther's could not have been a mockery; at least he must hear the story from her own lips.

"I left him with the boys, having a few drinks. He'll be along later."

"Poor Ahab. He's turned bitter against the whole world."

"Ahab! Ahab!"

So all the hideous things the sailors said and sung about women were true. They were fickle, false, treacherous.
Even the little white Esther had played him false.

Years came and went and wrought havoc in Ahab, but made no change in old New Bedford.

Pequod
New Bedford

"You'd better have the devil after you than Captain Ahab. Make sure we're all set to sail the minute he comes aboard."

"My name's Pip, sir. I was shipmates with Captain Ahab. Please take me on."

"He's hunted Moby Dick for three long years and he looks as if it were a hundred."

"He's gone made for vengeance on a dumb brute. Blasphemous I calls it."

"Only a crazy crew would sail with him fer when they gits ashore, they spends their pay in the hospital!"

"Lay aft and sheet home the main tops'l! Spring you...green pants! Spring your eyes out!"

"The black vomit wrench ye! Why don't you pull? Crack your backbones! Stop snoring ye sleepers, and pull!"

"She broods as if it were only yesterday that he left."

Ahab kept his crew forging harpoons that welded like glue from murderer's bones; though whalers said the harpoon was never made that could kill Moby Dick.

The hair-turbaned Fedallah, picked up off the wreck of a Chinese junk.---So-jin.

"There's something I've got to tell you...out of your past."

"My past? I have no past. Keep out of my sight, blast you."

Primrose Dance

Polka

C. W. Krogmann, Op. 15, No. 6

The old missionary gave up the fight and decided to return to New Bedford with his forlorn daughter and her shadow, Derek.

"There's no use trying to frighten sinners here with talk of hell-fire. The climate's too hot."

The Pequod with its monomaniac Captain, pursues the Sea Beast.

Ahab kept a chart of Moby Dick's wanderings as they were reported by other captains. The Albino whale had thrice swum around the world.

Whaler Goodfriend
Sighted Moby Dick
Nov-15-1840
30′20″-S
35′15″-W

"And now you came to place where Moby Dick las' seen."

"But you no find old Moby till sky and water meet."

"Avast with your riddles, you bilge-scum! Spit out the answer!"

"When sky and water meet!"

"Water spout ahead!"

"Stand on your course! We'll crack the spout! For Moby waits behind it!"

"Be warned sir! The White Whale is the devil's self. God warns you away!"

"God is the Lord of the sky, but I am the Captain of this ship. Avast!"

"Sir, unless we put off our course-you'll drown us all!"

"Old debbil Moby goin' spout blood soon"

"You old cannibal! Tonight you can fill your black belly with the white whale's blood."

While Ahab's old enemy lurked in the troubled deep, the fierce typhoon drove Ahab's sweetheart near him unsuspected.

"Lock the idiots in or they'll be washed overboard!"

"We're locked in!"

"I can't drown with that black secret in my soul!"

"I'm afeared to die before I confess what I tried to tell you before."

"Your worst enemy ain't Moby Dick . . . it's your half-brother Derek."

"You . . . and why do you only tell me now?"

"Helm hard a-lee! Put back! We're going home!"

"What the hell are you crying for?"

"We're goin' home."

The tides of retribution drifted Derek across the path of his mad half-brother.

"The ship I was on foundered. I think all on board were lost."

"He's told you! He's told you everything!"

"But you won't get Esther! She was drowned last night!"

"Brother? Brother Judas! Brother Cain! You fool...I cannot fall! You gave me this leg that saves me now!"

"Thar she blows!"

"It's Moby Dick!"

"Cut away! He's sounding!"

The sea had taken from Ahab his youth, his grace, his love and given him only revenge. Still strong but old with sorrow...his soul turned back to New Bedford and its sweet memories.

Esther

Rev. John Harper

"Why Ahab Ceeley, you're crying!"

"Well...you are too!"