20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Stuart Paton

Writer:

Jules Verne (novel)

Release Date:

24 December 1916 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Captain Nemo has built a fantastic submarine for his mission of revenge. He has traveled over 20,000 leagues in search of Charles Denver...

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Balloon | Captain Nemo | Underwater | Submarine

Cast

Lois Alexander	...	Prince Daaker's daughter as a child
Curtis Benton	...	Ned Land
Wallace Clarke	...	Pencroft
Howard Crampton	...	Cyrus Harding
Jane Gail	...	A Child of Nature
Joseph W. Girard	...	Maj. Cameron
Dan Hanlon	...	Prof. Aronnax
Allen Holubar	...	Capt. Nemo
Ole Jansen
Noble Johnson
Leviticus Jones	...	Neb
Matt Moore	...	Lt. Bond
Martin Murphy	...	Herbert Brown
Edna Pendleton	...	Aronnax's daughter
William Welsh	...	Charles Denver (as William Welch)

Also Known As:

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

105 min | UK:84 min (video)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

UK:PG | Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Leonia, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Universal Film Manufacturing Company

Trivia:

The actual undersea footage was shot in the Bahamas due to the unusually clear water. When this film was remade by Walt Disney 38 years later, they came to this same spot for their undersea footage.

Goofs:

Continuity: In one scene on the island the balloon survivors are at a table and a black servant appears. He never shows up again and is not rescued at the end of the film with the rest of the survivors.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Making of '20000 Leagues Under the Sea' (2003) (V)

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Silent Version - 1916)

I found this film extraordinary, if for no other reason than the fact, that that they used underwater photography showing divers in deep sea helmets using what looked to be rifles with spears attached (early spear guns, I imagine) actually shooting at a large group of sharks swimming around them. I also didn't see any air lines attached to any of these divers, however, if you looked closely, you could see some air bubbles come out of the helmets of the divers every so often. They must have been using some type of compressed air with a regulator, however when I queried Google, I was informed that SCUBA wasn't invented until 1939 for the US Navy and the air regulator hadn't been invented until 1943 by Jacques Cousteau. There was a device that contained compressed air in a belt attached to a diver's helmet that was invented in 1825 but that would only allow a diver to stay under 7 minutes. Were they really able to get all of the shots with the divers within that time frame. Very curious. Does anyone have the technical details for how this film was accomplished? I give this film a 9 for technology and a 5 for story line and acting for a 7 overall.