Moby Dick vs Kong '76

I am sick to death with all the ballyhoo and anecdotal stories about the giant whale prop used in this film which allegedly broke loose and -according to at least one version of the story- became "a menace to navigation."

In point of fact, you actually only SEE the thing for a total of about a minute, minute and a half at most -and never in its entirety.

The full-size whale prop appears for the first time when Ahab climbs aboard, again when he makes his "hell's heart" speech, once more when Ahab "becons" to his crew and again briefly a while later when Starbuck lobs a harpoon as it passes.

These may have been shot outdoors, but they're all done in very tight close-up so that it's impossible to tell if it's in an outdoor tank or on the ocean.

The rest of the time when you see the whale it's clearly all a miniature in a water tank.

Speaking of tanks, it was a 20-foot tank that was lost at sea during filming, not the whale. Another thread on this board goes into minute detail and cites hard evidence.

Kind of like the infamous Robo-Kong from the 1976 remake of King Kong.

Incidentally, the full-sized whale gets much more screen time (and you see more of it) in the 1930 version with Barrymore as Ahab.

"If you don't know the answer -change the question."