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Author
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Topic: 16mm Classic 1954 Disney Feature Film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
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Laksmi Breathwaite
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 771
From: Las Vegas
Registered: Nov 2010
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posted February 18, 2013 02:23 AM
16mm feature 20 THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA 16mm Classic 1954 Disney Feature Flim 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Mounted on three 1600ft reels
First 5min is IB Tech Scope
The remainder is SP Flat with plenty of color The best known Verne's novel and one of the classics of the adventure literature is 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, mother of all underwater exploration novels. Its popularity among the readers was tremendous, but the 20th Century filmmakers were rather reluctant to adapt it to the big screen, mostly due to the huge technical problems associated with the production. Some of those problems were solved in 1954 when Disney produced its version, directed by Richard Fleischer, one of the very first films shot with the use cinemascope technology.
The plot begins in 1868 when numerous ships are rammed and sank by huge and unknown object. Surviving sailors bring stories about sea monster, creating hysteria in the world's ports. Professor Arronax (played by Paul Lukas), French marine scholar visiting San Francisco, is asked by US government to join expedition that should investigate the phenomenon. Arronax boards US Navy vessel, together with his trusted servant and apprentice Conceille (played by Peter Lorre) and Ned Land (played by Kirk Douglas), cocky expert harpoonist. The expedition spends many months in fruitless search, until it finally encounters the sea monster in violent collision. Arronax, Conseille and Land are thrown overboard and after a while they stumble on the object of their search. To their great surprise, they realise that the "sea monster" is actually man-made submarine. Its crew, led by mysterious Captain Nemo (played by James Mason) take them as prisoners. For the next few months they would experience numerous adventures and witness many wonders of the underwater world. In the same time, while Arronax tries to reason with Nemo and convince him that he should share his discoveries with the rest of the world, Land plots escape.
20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA is embodiment of Disney at his best - family entertainment that superbly uses brand-new wonders of film technology. Special effects, combined with the underwater photography, are still impressive after almost four decades, and the "Oscar" award for them is well deserved, especially after we take into account the use of brand new cinemascope technology. Production design of "Nautilus" was also very good, both original and faithful to Verne's vision. The result is a film that should be viewed as a very good adaptation of the science fiction classic, in many ways comparable to the adaptation of H.G. Wells' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, produced one year earlier.
Of course, technical innovation and visual splendour isn't enough for a movie to be successful. Script by Earl Felton took some liberties with the original text, which is quite understandable. Some of the situations are quite recognisable from the novel; on the other hand, Felton spiced up the characters and, in some way, improved Verne's material. The biggest difference is the moral ambiguity; Nemo, played by James Mason, is portrayed as genius whose disgust with civilisation and conventional morality reaches almost pathological levels, while, in the same time, deeply personal and quite understandable causes of such disgust provide strong emotional impact, making that character very alive, believable and almost sympathetic. Land, enthusiastically played by Kirk Douglas in his prime, is portrayed as a "normal" and even extremely likeable man. I love the movie and the print was nice and colorful. It is still to this day one of the best Disney film of live action.
 
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" Faster then a speeding bullet, more powerful then a Locomotive "."Look up in the sky it's a bird it's a plane it's SUPERMAN"
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