20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

Director:

Richard Fleischer

Writers:

Jules Verne (novel)
Earl Felton (screenplay)

Release Date:

23 December 1954 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Family | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Walt Disney's Mighty, Magnificent, Memorable 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea!

Plot:

A ship sent to investigate a wave of mysterious sinkings encounters the advanced submarine, the Nautilus, commanded by Captain Nemo.

Plot Keywords:

Submarine | Ocean | Captain | Captain Nemo | Atlantis

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Kirk Douglas	...	Ned Land
James Mason	...	Captain Nemo
Paul Lukas	...	Prof. Pierre Arronax
Peter Lorre	...	Conseil
Robert J. Wilke	...	First Mate of the Nautilus
Ted de Corsia	...	Capt. Farragut
Carleton Young	...	John Howard
J.M. Kerrigan	...	Old Billy
Percy Helton	...	Coach Driver
Ted Cooper	...	Mate on 'Lincoln'
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Daheim	...	Nautilus Seaman (uncredited)
Jack Gargan	...	Reporter from The Post (uncredited)
Harper Goff	...	Minister in San Francisco Steam Packet office (uncredited)
Fred Graham	...	Casey Moore (uncredited)
Harry Harvey	...	Ticket Agent (uncredited)
Dayton Lummis	...	Reporter from The Bulletin (uncredited)
Eddie Marr	...	Shipping Agent (uncredited)
Laurie Mitchell	...	One of Ned's Girlfriends (uncredited)
T. Monaghan	...	Crewman (uncredited)
Gloria Pall	...	Blonde Girlfriend (uncredited)
Jack Pennick	...	Cannon Mate Carson (uncredited)
Jack Stoney	...	Police Detective (uncredited)
S. Tarnell	...	Crewman (uncredited)
Herb Vigran	...	Reporter for the Globe (uncredited)

Directed by
Richard Fleischer

Writing credits
Jules Verne		(novel)
Earl Felton		(screenplay)

Produced by
Walt Disney	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Paul J. Smith		(as Paul Smith)

Cinematography by
Franz Planer

Film Editing by
Elmo Williams

Production Design by
Harper Goff		(uncredited)

Art Direction by
John Meehan
Harper Goff		(uncredited)

Set Decoration by
Emile Kuri

Makeup Department
Louis Hippe	....	hairdresser (as Lou Hippe)
Louis Hippe	....	makeup artist (as Lou Hippe)
Emmy Eckhardt	....	hair stylist (uncredited)
Dan Greenway	....	assistant makeup artist (uncredited)
Gustaf Norin	....	makeup supervisor (uncredited)
Lillian Rader	....	hair stylist (uncredited)

Production Management
Fred Leahy	....	production manager
Frederic Leahy	....	production supervisor (uncredited)
Ed Ralph	....	assistant production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Tom Connors Jr.	....	assistant director
James Curtis Havens	....	second unit director (as James Havens)
Russ Haverick	....	assistant director
J. Matane	....	second unit director (uncredited)

Art Department
Bruce Bushman	....	sketch artist
Adam John Backauskas	....	property maker (uncredited)
Art Cole	....	property master: second unit (uncredited)
Arden Cripe	....	property master (uncredited)
J.C. Delaney	....	assistant property master (uncredited)
Juan Esquinta	....	painter (uncredited)
Sandy Grace	....	lead man (uncredited)
Juan Haquinta	....	stand-by painter (uncredited)
John Harris	....	stand-by painter (uncredited)
John Hench	....	production illustrator (uncredited)
Roland Hill	....	interior design consultant: Nautilus (uncredited)
De Nunsic	....	painter (uncredited)
James Owens	....	assistant property master (uncredited)
Russell Ray	....	laborer (uncredited)
Freddie Stoos	....	production illustrator (uncredited)
Art Sweet	....	laborer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Robert O. Cook	....	sound recordist
C.O. Slyfield	....	sound director
G.R. Danner	....	boom operator (uncredited)

Special Effects by
John Hench	....	special effects
Joshua Meador	....	special effects (as Josh Meador)
Jim Donnelly	....	special effects assistant (uncredited)
Lou Gray	....	special effects technician (uncredited)
Robert A. Mattey	....	special effects director (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Peter Ellenshaw	....	matte artist
Ralph Hammeras	....	effects photographer
Ub Iwerks	....	special processes
Charles Bovel	....	director of photography: visual effects unit (uncredited)
Marcel Delgado	....	miniatures (uncredited)
Warren Wray Hamilton	....	miniature technician (uncredited)
Andy Lane	....	back projection supervisor (uncredited)
Chris Mueller	....	model sculptor (uncredited)
Fred Sersen	....	visual effects supervisor: second unit (uncredited)
Albert Whitlock	....	titles designer (uncredited)

Stunts
Norman Bishop	....	stunt diver (uncredited)
Ricou Browning	....	stunt diver (uncredited)
Joe Canutt	....	stunts (uncredited)
John Daheim	....	stunt double: James Mason (uncredited)
F. Donahue	....	stunt diver (uncredited)
Al Hansen	....	stunt diver (uncredited)
Stubby Kruger	....	stunts (uncredited)
Carey Loftin	....	stunt coordinator (uncredited)
Carey Loftin	....	stunts (uncredited)
Frank McGrath	....	stunts (uncredited)
Frank McMann	....	stunt double: James Mason (uncredited)
Eddie Parker	....	stunt double: Robert J. Wilke (uncredited)
Gil Parker	....	stunt diver (uncredited)
Harvey Parry	....	stunts (uncredited)
Gil Perkins	....	stunt double: Kirk Douglas (uncredited)
Charles Regan	....	stunt diver (uncredited)
George Robotham	....	stunts (uncredited)
D. Rochlen	....	stunt diver (uncredited)
Ed Stepner	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack Sterling	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bill Stropahl	....	stunt diver (uncredited)
Louis Tomei	....	stunts (uncredited)
Dale Van Sickel	....	stunts (uncredited)
Carl Vernell	....	stunt double: Kirk Douglas (uncredited)
Jack Williams	....	stunt double: Kirk Douglas (uncredited)
Jack Williams	....	stunts (uncredited)
Terry Wilson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Fred Zendar	....	stunt diver (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Til Gabani	....	underwater photographer (as Till Gabbani)
Charles P. Boyle	....	director of photography: second unit (uncredited)
Edward Colman	....	director of photography: second unit (uncredited)
Tom Eddy	....	electrician (uncredited)
John Farrell	....	second assistant camera (uncredited)
Jim Grady	....	electrician (uncredited)
Hadley	....	camera grip (uncredited)
Paul Hill	....	second assistant camera (uncredited)
Dick Johnson	....	first assistant camera (uncredited)
Kauffman	....	camera technician (uncredited)
James V. King	....	camera operator: second unit (uncredited)
Morris Rosen	....	key grip (uncredited)
Charles Russell	....	grip (uncredited)
Don Stott	....	chief lighting technician (uncredited)
Hal Swanson	....	assistant chief lighting technician (uncredited)
Anthony Ugrin	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Norman Martien	....	costumer
Harrington	....	costume assistant (uncredited)
Herman	....	costume assistant (uncredited)
Robert Martien	....	wardrobe supervisor (uncredited)
Robert Olivas	....	costume assistant (uncredited)
Ottras	....	costume assistant (uncredited)

Music Department
Joseph Dubin	....	orchestrator (as Joseph S. Dubin)

Other crew
Walt Disney	....	presenter
Harper Goff	....	production developed by
Morgan Padelford	....	consultant: Technicolor
Fred Zendar	....	diving master
Dick Anderson	....	dive equipment master (uncredited)
Elliott Barns	....	wrangler (uncredited)
Art Black	....	first aid (uncredited)
Dr. Bryan	....	first aid (uncredited)
Howard Davis	....	assistant production coordinator (uncredited)
Thomas Michael Dyers	....	technical advisor (uncredited)
W.F. Fitzgerald	....	production coordinator (uncredited)
Hazel George	....	first aid (uncredited)
William Hunter	....	life guard (uncredited)
Howard Lightbourn	....	liaison: Bahamas locations (uncredited)
Howard Lydecker	....	consultant (uncredited)
Theodore Lydecker	....	consultant (uncredited)
Jack Peterson	....	production assistant (uncredited)
Robertson	....	liaison: Jamaica (uncredited)
Marvin Weldon	....	script supervisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Walt Disney Productions

Distributors

• Buena Vista Film Distribution Company (1954) (USA) (theatrical)
• Walt Disney Pictures (1955) (France) (theatrical)
• Suomi-Filmi (1955) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Buena Vista Film Distribution Company (1963) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Daiei Motion Picture Company (1955) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Kinosto (1976) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Abril Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Arcade Movie Company (2000) (Netherlands) (VHS)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Buena Vista Home Entertainment (2004) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1976) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• TV3 (1991) (Finland) (TV)
• Walt Disney Home Video (1993) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Walt Disney Home Video (1997) (USA) (VHS) (pan/scan)

Also Known As:

Jules Verne's 20000 Leagues Under the Sea (USA) (complete title)
Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (USA) (poster title)

Runtime:

127 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

Portugal:M/6 | Iceland:L | Finland:K-12 (1955) | Finland:K-8 (1976) | Canada:G (video rating) | New Zealand:G | Australia:PG | Canada:F (Ontario) | France:U | Norway:11 | Spain:T | Sweden:15 | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #17073) | Canada:G (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Quebec) | USA:G (re-rating) (1970) | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

Average Shot Length (ASL) = 9 seconds

Goofs:

Factual errors: The note that Ned Land puts in the bottle, while containing numbers representing both latitude and longitude, neglects to say whether the latitude is North or South, thus rendering it useless to those who find it.

Quotes:

[Upon arriving on a deserted beach with Ned Land]
Conseil: I don't see any native girls hungry for affection.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Haunted Mansion (2003)

Soundtrack:

A Whale of a Tale

The past meets the future in a gripping epic.

The Walt Disney film of 1954, "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" is nothing short of a masterpiece within its genre. While comparing it to "Gone With The Wind" or "Citizen Kane" might be done by others in calling "Leagues" a 'masterpiece', it would be comparing apples to oranges, for this epic, while not overlong as are most masterpieces, it is completely contained to tell a gripping story with wonder acting, production values and the special effects of the day.

It is had to know where to begin to list the wonderful achievements here, especially in adapting a book of almost a thousand pages, much of it filled with endless lists of the fish and fauna of the sea, of which Jules Verne was especially fond. Such was unfilmable, of course, and the script writer, Earl Felton, was wise in paring down the verbosity of the novel, which, of course, was the usual for the prolix Victorian style of Verne's day. From that wonderful opening of the titles shown against lush drapery illuminated by rippling water reflections of the undersea cast upon it, to the beginning of the inspired, majestic score by Paul J. Smith, one is transported to a fantastic time and place and the artistry to come is well intoned. Customarily, the Director is given the lion's share of the credit for a film's success, but here it is an almost perfect melding of the story, the acting and the visuals as well as the music that combine with seeming effortlessness to entertain.

James Mason as Capt. Nemo is superb, with his wonderful bearing and diction lending the aura of both contained madness and yet sympathetic grace to a character who could have been so easily overplayed. Disney wisely selected Kirk Douglas and Peter Lorre as the physical foils of Nemo and to provide the comic and action relief. Had this not been done, the intellectual bearings of Nemo and Paul Lukas' Professor Arronax would have overloaded and stilted the film, rather the way they do in the novel. Some take exception to the device of "Esmeralda" the seal, but that too is a needed counterpoint to the otherwise dark theme of the implied mission of the Nautilus: the destruction of warships that spread "man's inhumanity to man." Such is the skill of the spare dialogue in the film that one never is hit over the head with the sermon of the hopelessness and wickedness of war and the nations that sponsor it. This film carries the message of the novel, but it never looses sight of its first purpose, which is to entertain. Even the implied nuclear destruction is not trumpeted, but only alluded to, since such energy source was unknown to Jules Verne in the 19th Century, of course, but was highly topical in the 1950s.

One of the glories of the movie is the marked artistry in all the careful details in the film. It was just then that the USA was planning its first nuclear submarines, the first of which was even named the "Nautilus" in memory of this immensely popular film. But the art director, John Meehan, the production designer, Harper Goff, and the set decorator, Emile Kuri, were never carried away by allusions to then modern technology, but kept faith with the setting of the day, by making the ship a wonderful creature-like form, the interiors a skillful blend of needed science for function, coupled with a lush decor that bespoke not only the Victorian times, but also the sensitivity of man of its genius of design. Look at the touches: the electric iris covering the massive bubble window, the fountain in the captain's drawing room, complete with an artistic pipe organ properly intoning Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D-minor, as most appropriate. Even the uniforms and upholstery are embroidered with the 'N' of Nemo's monogram as are the galloons on the edges of the draperies. The inventiveness of the electric charge upon the hull is also one of the clever devices to invoke the future, yet help make the existence of the undersea ship believable.

Everyone who sees this epic will always remember, the night scene of a hand-to-tentacle fight with a giant squid, as truly unforgettable and most appropriate again, for it was only a few years before that the first complete corpse of such a squid was found in complete form and thereby documented what others had only written of. This film exceeded its class in that day and age, yet even if equal actors could have been found for the earlier versions, they would have been too early to truly depict the vision of Jules Verne's technology of the future.

Some have criticized that the entire novel was not on film, but were the entire book to be filmed, it would exceed five hours, and Disney knows that even with the finest production, a film must be limited to approximately two hours in order to get both an audience willing to sit through it, as well as exhibitors willing to show it. In making a movie, the constraints are much more severe than in writing a novel; a movie is a collaboration of many people and many conflicting desires and egos must be assuaged. The flow of an entertaining story is paramount, since this was never to be a documentary. Each actor's agent works to try to get the maximum time on screen for his client, which gets maximum credit and fee for the actor. The limitations of filming such an imaginative novel also created large costs which the producers would try to show on screen to justify it all to the accountants, since a film is created with the aim of making a profit for the studio and its investors. We must agree that they succeeded in making one of the most interesting and visually spectacular films ever made, whereas the book contained a great deal of unfilmable ichthyology that was more of an excursus into the expertise of Jules Verne than any dramatic device. All in all, I think that were Jules Verne alive in 1954, he would have been well pleased with this celluloid version of his epic story.