Moby Dick (1956 film) Moby Dick (1956 film) Moby Dick is a 1956 film adaptation of Herman Melville's novel "Moby-Dick". It was directed by John Huston with a screenplay by Huston and Ray Bradbury. The film starred Gregory Peck, Richard Basehart, and Leo Genn. The music score was written by Philip Sainton. Set in 19th-century New England, the story follows the whaling ship "Pequod" and its crew. Leading them is Captain Ahab, who was almost killed in an encounter with the "great white whale", Moby Dick, which bit off much of his left leg. Now he is out for revenge. With the crew that
Moby-Dick Melville's style was usually praised regardless of the reviewer's judgment of the book, but some perceived the same tendency to over-doing here, and some found his style too American. Some sixty reviews appeared in America, the criterion for counting as a review being more than two lines of comment. Only a couple of reviewers expressed themselves early enough not to be influenced by news of the British reception. Though "Moby-Dick" did contain the "Epilogue" and so accounted for Ishmael's survival, the British reviews influenced the American reception. The earliest American review, in the Boston "Post" for November 20, quoted the