Setting Sail on the Peqoud and the Bounty

The term classic gets tossed around a lot, but few films ever actually fall within its definition. John Huston’s 1956 production of Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick,” coolly received by critics when it first came out, now falls within the parameters--a model of its kind.

The screen translation of Melville’s classic sea story came with a pedigree that didn’t disappoint. Ray Bradbury and Houston wrote the daring screenplay, successfully translating whole chunks of the Melville prose into audio and visual terms. Gregory Peck, a surprising and mistakenly criticized casting choice as the obsessed Capt. Ahab, more than holds his own with a superlative cast headed by Richard Basehart and Leo Genn. Orson Welles offers a memorable cameo as Father Mapple.

The epic tale of Capt. Ahab single-mindedly chasing down the Great White Whale that used his leg as an hors d’ouevre, however, has not been available as originally exhibited--until this release.

Huston and cinematographer Oswald Morris attempted to achieve the look and feel of 19th-Century photographs by toning down the original Technicolor hues with a gray layer in an experimental photographic process. This MGM/UA laser ($35) restores that tone, returning the film to its original feel. Director Martin Scorsese, a staunch advocate of film restoration, offered guidance on the project.

The process, which created the moody atmosphere that gave an intelligent and appropriate visual representation to Melville’s vision, can be best appreciated by watching the original theatrical trailer that follows the 1 hour, 57-minute film. It does not have the benefit of the color restoration, and the difference is an important one to the film’s overall effect.

MGM/UA also has rereleased another classic sea-faring tale, the 1935 “Mutiny on the Bounty,” which won a best picture Oscar and remains one of the most compelling and popular films ever made. The newest two-disc, three-sided laser edition ($40) is a remaster, beautifully showcasing the unforgettable performance of Charles Laughton as the tyrannical Capt. Bligh and Clark Gable’s movie-star portrayal of the idealistic Fletcher Christian, who ultimately led a band of mutineers to Pitcairn Island in the South Seas.

The film’s power has not diminished over the years, but one of the prime attractions of the laser release is the inclusion of a 1935 short on “Pitcairn Island Today.” True to the tradition of “documentaries” of the time, it was part hyperbole and part Anglo-centered history.

Today, it offers a fascinating glimpse, nearly six decades old, of the mutineer-survivors of the ill-fated Bounty South Seas expedition and their life on the small island where they sought refuge. The footage, a mixture of staged and spontaneous events, comes from a film on the Bounty shot in Australia and bought up by MGM to protect its pending Laughton-Gable release. “In the Wake of the Bounty,” which would have starred a then-unknown Errol Flynn, was never released in the United States.

Flynn is among the stars pictured in another MGM short subject in the package, a most curious affair called “Pirate Party on Catalina Island.” This unbelievably silly piece of fluff was released to promote “Mutiny on the Bounty” and the developing Technicolor process. The color is gorgeous but the action borders on parody: Chorines kicking in unison; a young Buddy Rogers conducting for a studio party attended by, among others, Clark Gable, Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, and Mickey Rooney mugging before the appreciative camera. For the history buff, however, there are enticing views of a vintage Catalina, where much of “Bounty” was shot, and a chance to see the emerging Technicolor process.

MGM/UA also has available the far-inferior 1962 “Mutiny on the Bounty” ($40) featuring a sulky Marlon Brando, who seems to be rehearsing for another role. Even the beautiful photography seen in this widescreen version and an intelligent performance by Trevor Howard as Capt. Bligh can’t keep this “Bounty” from sinking of its own weight.

Laserbits

New Movies Just Out: “Boiling Point” (Warner, $35); “Mad Dog and Glory” (MCA/Universal, letterboxed, $35); “Benny & Joon” (MGM/UA, $35); “Untamed Heart” (MGM/UA, $35); “The Temp” (Paramount, letterboxed, $35); “This Boy’s Life” (Warner, $35); “Passion Fish” (Columbia TriStar, letterboxed, $40); “Point of No Return” (Warner, $40); “Alive” (Touchstone, letterboxed, $40); “Nowhere to Run” (Columbia TriStar, $35).

Old Movies Just Out: “Cries and Whispers,” the 1972 drama by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, starring Ingrid Thulin and Liv Ullmann, (Criterion, $50); Bertrand Blier’s “Get Out Your Handkerchiefs,” the 1978 black comedy starring Gerard Depardieu, which was a best foreign-language Oscar winner (Criterion, $50).

Coming Soon: Columbia TriStar’s “Groundhog Day,” the romantic comedy starring Bill Murray, due out last week, has been delayed until sometime later this month, but the new date isn’t set. “Cop and a Half,” the comedy starring Burt Reynolds is due on Oct. 27 (MCA/Universal, letterboxed, $35).