It adapts the Herman Melville novel of the same name, about the tale of the self-destructive obsession of a whaling crew's captain, Ahab, to hunt an albinos sperm whale called Moby Dick, witnessed by Ishmael, the crew's new recruit.
The cast includes Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, Richard Basehart as Ishmael, Leo Genn as Starbuck, Friedrich von Ledebur as Queequeg, Harry Andrews as Stubb and Orson Welles as Father Mapple.
This film provides examples of:
- Accordion to Most Sailors: Early on, a whaler at the inn plays "Amsterdam" (aka "A-Rovin'") on a concertina, which leads to the whole room singing and dancing.
- Adaptation Distillation: In the novel, Ishmael stays briefly in New Bedford before taking a packet ship to Nantucket, since he wants to sail aboard a whaler from the original home of the New England whaling industry. In the film, the trip to Nantucket is cut out and Ishmael signs aboard the Pequod at New Bedford. The film reassigns the mystique the book builds up around Nantucket to New Bedford as a result.
- Adaptational Heroism: There's nothing hinting at Queequeg's tribe being cannibalistic in this version, unlike the novel.
- Adapted Out: The film leaves out several characters of various importance, most notably Fedallah (whose role of making specific predictions about Ahab's fate is handed to Elijah).
- Age Lift: Richard Basehart, who played Ishmael, was actually older than Gregory Peck.
- Book Dumb: Queequeg draws a whale when he has to sign the crew list of the Pequod when he's hired, instead of signing with his name. He's a very skilled harpooner otherwise.
- Brownface: Queequeg was played by Austrian actor Friedrich von Ledebur. The fake tattoos look okay at a glance; von Ledebur as a Pacific Islander is less convincing.
- Composite Character: Fedallah's part is filled early on by Elijah.
- Large Ham: Ahab as played by Gregory Peck swings between Chewing the Scenery and just sounding like he's about to.
- Locked into Strangeness: Ahab has a white line going through his hair, tracing the scar left by a lightning bolt.
- The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Every time some other ship mentions that they've seen Moby Dick, Ahab anxiously asks "You didn't kill him, did you?", and is relieved to hear that the whale is still alive. Ahab wants to get revenge personally; it won't do if some other ship kills Moby Dick first.
- River of Insanity: It becomes quickly apparent that Ahab is not sane, and he ends up perishing and leading his crew to their doom in the irrational pursuit of his Animal Nemesis.
