I have always wondered why the French cinema has been so reluctant to tackle the novels of one of the world's most popular French authors, 19th-century science-fiction writer Jules Verne. Rather than try their hand at such a potentially rich vein of screen material, French film-makers churn out version after version of Balzac, Dumas (not *another* Count of Monte Cristo!), Rostand and the more "literary" French classics. Perhaps the sneering critical reaction which the recent *Asterix* movie received in Paris offers a clue; anything written for fun is beneath the notice of a "serious" cinematographer. If so, the attitude does a great injustice to Verne, who went to considerable trouble to get his scientific facts right. Nothing demonstrates this better than his most famous work, *20,000 Leagues Under the Sea* (1869-70), which needs surprisingly little technical updating for a 21st-century audience.

True, the first (and, so far as I know, inaccessible) film version of Verne's tale, in 1907, was made in France. Another silent version was made, in the USA, in 1916, with impressive (for the time) special effects. Thereafter, nothing for almost 40 years. The ice was broken in 1954 by Walt Disney; and it is interesting to note how Disney's success led to a virtual avalanche of Hollywood adaptations of Verne's books, many of them also fine films, such as Mike Todd's *Around the World in Eighty Days* (1956), *Journey to the Centre of the Earth*, also with James Mason (1959), Schneer and Harryhausen's *Mysterious Island* (1961), and Disney's own return to the genre with *In Search of the Castaways* (1962). The series petered out soon thereafter, however, and aside from a few lightweight cartoon or made-for-TV versions, Verne's *20,000 Leagues* has been disregarded by film studios since then.

Of course, the film under review - Disney's 1954 version of *20,000 Leagues* - is itself excellent, and plenty good enough to intimidate any would-be remake (not that that has been much of a deterrent to inferior remakes lately). As often with Disney studios ever since *Snow White*, Walt bet the mortgage on an expensive, pioneering movie project - and won. To begin with, he went out and hired an A-List cast. The very impressive underwater scenes were filmed off Jamaica and the Bahamas using cutting-edge technology (and, speaking of "cutting edges", the shark scenes in the underwater sequences are impromptu appearances by native marine life during the filming sessions on the sea bottom!). The action scene for which the film is best remembered - the battle with the giant squid - was filmed, and then REfilmed, when Disney wasn't satisfied with the first take. To top everything, Disney decided to film in widescreen - the movie is one of the first so filmed - and so had to rent a set of anamorphic lenses from Twentieth-Century Fox. Since the single set of lenses theoretically meant that only one scene could be shot at a time, the special-effects crew came up with the idea of designing the model of the submarine "Nautilus" to be only half as wide and long (but just as high) as it would appear on screen; thus the miniaturized submarine scenes could be filmed with regular lenses, and the widescreen projection "stretched" the Nautilus out to proper proportions (though you can detect the sleight-of-hand if you observe the distorted shape of the bubbles!)

With necessary pruning, the screenplay follows Verne's plot closely. Verne himself had a flair for action scenes - the screeching Nautilus ripping the bottom out of ships, the cannibal chase, and, of course, the battle with the squid, come straight from his pages. The only characteristic Disney diversion is Kirk Douglas' "whale of a tale" song (mercifully, Kirk's only cinematic foray into vocalizing). Verne's book may be 130 years old, and this film 40, but there is still something eerie about the sinister, semi-submerged green light from the Nautilus as it hurtles through the sea to ram some hapless vessel. The only major departure from Verne's book is the ending; and this represents an improvement, in my opinion; Verne was loathe to part with Captain Nemo, his favourite literary creation, and so left the fate of Nemo and the Nautilus unknown so he could bring them back, Hollywood-style, for sequels.

The cast featured two 1954 up-and-comers - James Mason and Kirk Douglas - and two established film veterans, Paul Lukas and Peter Lorre. This movie definitely belongs to the younger pair. Captain Nemo, the enigmatic commander of the mysterious submarine, is one of James Mason's great roles; and I say this with full knowledge that he won an Oscar for his role in *A Star is Born* this very year. In a character study all the more remarkable for its appearing in a Disney film, Mason takes in the tortured contradictions of Nemo's character: on the one hand a scientific genius, on the other hand a sociopath maniacally dedicated to wreaking vengeance on the whole human race. As Professor Arronax points out, perhaps Nemo's greatest revenge on humanity is his decision to destroy his scientific discoveries, rather than share them with the world. Kirk Douglas is well suited to his role, the not-much-brain-but-plenty-of-brawn sailor Ned Land, the most straightforward character in the story. Paul Lukas plays the scientist Pierre Arronax, unwillingly accompanying Nemo but able to appreciate his genius and - to some extent - comprehend his psychological agony. Lukas doesn't offer much here; by the 50's his best Hollywood days were behind him (he won an Oscar for *Watch on the Rhine* in 1943), and by this point in his career he preferred stage acting. The casting of Peter Lorre as Arronax's servant Conseil is downright grotesque. Apart from the fact that Verne's Conseil was a young man, by 1954 Lorre had put on so much weight as to almost unrecognizable from his classic roles in *M* (1931), *The Maltese Falcon* (1941) and *Casablanca* (1942), and Lorre's lethargic performance does nothing to lessen the incongruity.

The film was directed by Richard Fleischer; he and Kirk Douglas got along so well that Douglas signed him on to direct his lavish epic *The Vikings* in 1958, and he was also at the helm of another "underwater" science fiction extravaganza, *Fantastic Voyage* in 1966.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8