Gregory Peck initially blamed the poor reviews for his performance on the script, which he felt contained "too much prose from the novel". However, he later acknowledged that he had been too young for the part at 38, since Captain Ahab was supposed to be an old man at the end of his career (Ahab's age, as implied in the book's chapter "The Symphony" is 58). He added, "The film required more. At the time, I didn't have more in me."
Gregory Peck's few attempts to play a villain were considered unsuccessful, perhaps because the public could not accept Peck as anything other than good. He was considered too young at 38 to play Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, especially since the character was described in Herman Melville's novel as an old man.
Orson Welles suffered from stage fright while filming Father Mapple's sermon. To quell the actor's nerves, John Huston hid a bottle of brandy on the set so Welles could visit it as needed.
Orson Welles wrote his own scenes.
Orson Welles' one-scene cameo helped to fund his stage production of the very same story.
John Huston also dubbed the voice of the lookout who plunges into the sea.
John Huston originally wanted to cast his father Walter Huston as Captain Ahab, but by the time the film was finally set to be made, his father had been dead for four years.
John Huston shopped the film around Hollywood for three years before United Artists and Moulin Productions agreed to produce it. It was a dark, depressing story, without any female parts or love interest, so Hollywood shunned the screenplay. Warners only entered the agreement for theatrical distribution on the condition that a big-name actor take the role of Ahab. Many thought Gregory Peck was miscast, and Peck actually thought that Huston himself would have been the best choice for the role.
Ray Bradbury's "Green Shadows, White Whale" is a semi-fictional account of his writing of the screenplay.
Walter Mirisch recalls that John Huston insisted on filming aboard an actual ship at sea. Stormy conditions caused the cast and crew to become sick, delaying production and running over budget at 4.5 million dollars. The film to this day has not repaid what it cost to produce.
Although Ishmael is supposed to be in his twenties, Richard Basehart was actually forty when the film was made - two years older than Gregory Peck.
Captain Ahab forecasts the whereabouts of Moby Dick at Bikini Atoll, which he points out on a chart. This place is not mentioned in the book by Herman Melville. Many viewers in 1956 made the connection between the location of the atom bomb testing site and the theme of the film.
Filmed in 1954, not released until 1956.
One of the myths circulating about this film is that it was "filmed on location". While there is plenty of location work on it (Canary Islands, Irish Seas, Youghal, Ireland), over 2/3 the film was shot at Shepperton and Elstree Studios in England. These include the Spouter's Inn tavern scenes, Father Mapple's sermon, Ahab's first speech on the deck of the Pequod (note the painted sky background), the typhoon; Ahab's dialog on the whale's back. While there are a few shots of the sixty foot Moby Dick on the open sea, most of the whale appearing in the finished film are various sized miniatures and selected body parts (jaws, body cylinders, eyes) which were co-ordinated by art director Stephen B. Grimes.
Over the years, John Huston and Gregory Peck, among others, have talked about how during filming on the Irish Sea, the company lost one - some say as many as three - rubber white whales; the assumption being that the special effects people built complete 60-foot leviathans from head to fin. However, cinematographer Oswald Morris, in his autobiography, "Huston, We Have a Problem," said that no full-length model whale was ever built. He claims the film company trolled the sea on the Pequod with a props barge nearby. The barge carried various parts of the whale's body (tailfins, hump, etc.), which were used as needed. The only complete whale bodies were different-sized miniatures that were filmed in a special tank designed by special-effects whiz Augie Lohman at Shepperton Studios. Likewise, all the shots of the whale's head were filmed indoors (as they couldn't make the jaws, eyes and other components work on the open sea). According to Morris, the "lost" whale was a 20-foot-high cylinder of the middle section which broke away from its tow line and floated away (he doesn't say if Peck was on board when the prop was lost), but he implies that it was the only whale "casualty" in the entire production.
Starbuck's Coffee franchise took its name from the character Starbuck of the Pequod crew.
The character of Peter Coffin, the innkeeper, played by Joseph Tomelty, was dubbed by director John Huston.
The fake white whale used in the film kept sinking, breaking, etc., which meant that it had to be continuously rebuilt, leading to budget overruns and schedule delays.
The ship captained by Captain Boomer (James Robertson Justice) is the 'Samuel Enderby'. Samuel Enderby founded a whaling company called Samuel Enderby & Sons. Vessels of the Enderby company vessels sailed seas all around the world, including whaling trips and being part of the Third Fleet to the colony of New South Wales.