Monday, April 28th, 2025 at 6pm
A short presentation of Moby-Dick adaptations on film, from silent to cartoon to live action, followed by a screening of John Huston’s 1956 Technicolor epic starring Gregory Peck. A co-presentation with Canio’s
Sag Harbor, NY – On April 28th, 2025 at 6pm Cinema will celebrate one of Sag Harbor’s most cherished traditions with The Many Screen Lives of Moby-Dick, a film presentation, leading to the bi-annual Moby-Dick Marathon to be held on Friday, May 30th through Sunday, June 1st, 2025.
The program will kick off with a brief presentation by SHC’s Founding Artistic Director Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan of various Moby-Dick iterations on film, from silent to cartoon to live action, followed by a screening of John Huston’s 1956 Technicolor epic starring Gregory Peck.
“We were thrilled to be asked to offer a cinematic component to the Marathon, a beloved art ritual in Sag Harbor, and one that touches the entire village,” says Ms. D’Agnolo Vallan. “To this day, John Huston’s film, scripted by Ray Bradbury, remains the best film adaptation of Melville’s magnificent novel. But I thought it would be interesting to touch on some of the many other incarnations of Moby-Dick — from early Hollywood, to Orson Welles, to Tom & Jerry.”
“Canio’s is grateful to have Sag Harbor Cinema participate in our beloved Moby-Dick Marathon this year,” says Kathryn Szoka, co-owner of Canio’s Books. “The Cinema’s idea to offer excerpts from other adaptations is genius. It will add a special spark to this year’s Marathon, and broaden the understanding of this great American novel’s place in our culture.”
Written by Herman Melville in 1851, the first adaptation of Moby-Dick for the screen was a 1926 silent film The Sea Beast directed by Millard Webb and starring John Barrymore. A huge commercial success for Warner Bros., the studio remade the film with sound as Moby Dick in 1930 directed by Lloyd Bacon and, again, starring John Barrymore.
In 1956, John Huston and Ray Bradbury penned their own adaptation of Moby Dick starring Gregory Peck as Captain Ahab, Richard Basehart as Ishmael, Leo Genn as Starbuck, and Orson Welles as Father Mapple. Welles himself was also preoccupied with the big white whale, having made numerous attempts to adapt the story for stage and screen throughout his life. A portion of Welles’ 1971 unfinished Moby Dick film was reportedly made during breaks on the set of The Other Side of the Wind.
The lure of Moby-Dick has permeated the animated world since the 1950s as well — beloved animated characters like Woody Woodpecker, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones and even contemporaries like the Futurama gang and Spongebob Squarepants have all found themselves on similar pathological pursuits of vengeance against leviathans like Whaling Whale, Dicky Moe, Adobe Dick, Dopey Dick, and Möbius Dick.
The legend of Moby-Dick also endures with recent films like Ron Howard’s 2015 film In the Heart of the Sea. The film chronicles the sinking of the American whaleship Essex in 1820 after a devastating encounter with a mammoth whale, the real life event serving as inspiration for Melville’s novel.
Tickets to The Many Screen Lives of Moby-Dick are available at the box office or sagharborcinema.org. To register to read in Canio’s 2025 Moby-Dick Marathon, please go to caniosbooks.com.
ABOUT THE FILM
MOBY DICK
Directed by John Huston
USA/UK, 1956; 116 mins, in English
Capt. Ahab (Gregory Peck) has a vendetta against Moby Dick, the great white whale responsible for taking his leg. He sets out on a treacherous sea voyage aboard The Pequod, along with a crew including Starbuck (Leo Genn), Father Mapple (James Robertson Justice) and Ishmael (Richard Basehart), to hunt down the elusive beast. With reckless abandon, Ahab leads the crew on his obsessive and suicidal quest, anxious for a final showdown with the legendary white whale.
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About Sag Harbor Cinema
As a not-for-profit 501(c)3, community-based organization, Sag Harbor Cinema is dedicated to presenting the past, present and future of the Movies and to preserving and educating about films, filmmaking, and the film-going experience in its three state-of-the-art theaters. The Cinema engages its audiences and the community year-round through dialogue, discovery, and appreciation of the moving image – from blockbusters to student shorts and everything in between. Revitalized and reimagined through unprecedented community efforts to rebuild the iconic Main Street structure after a fire nearly destroyed it in 2016, SHC continues a long historic tradition of entertainment in the heart of Sag Harbor Village.