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What if Walter Huston had played Capt. Ahab?

posted 18 years ago by evildead167
3 replies | jump to latest

I've read that John Huston had originally wanted to cast his father in the role of Ahab. He had been considering turning "Moby-Dick" into a movie for decades, but by the time he was able to film in 1954 (not '56), Walter had been dead for years.

What do you think his take on Captain Ahab would have been like? Walter Huston would have been 68 or 69 by the 1954 filming process; closer in age to the literary character than Gregory Peck. Ahab was always referred to as an old man in the book. The Captain may have only been in his late 50s, but a hard life at sea ages a man quickly.

I've only seen Huston act in a few movies. He showed himself to be a talented and dynamic actor in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Dodsworth, The Devil and Daniel Webster and Yankee Doodle Dandy but could he have pulled off a character like Ahab?
It is often said that Gregory Peck was miscast as Captain Ahab. Could Huston have been a better?

Walter Huston: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0404158/

(I also posted this on the Classic Film messageboard)

[–] wrfarley 18 years ago

The book, "The Hustons" by Lawrence Grobel, goes into this in some detail. John tried to make this film as early as 1942, but couldn't get it off the ground. When Walter died, John had visions of playing Ahab himself; unfortunately, he could only secure financing with a major star ... enter Gregory Peck. During its making, an associate of John claims the director "tried to make Peck into Walter." The 39 year old Peck, himself, said he was mis-cast, thinking he was more suited to play Starbuck, but "John wove his spell and convinced me I'd be just the ticket as Ahab," said the actor.

An interesting sad side note: about a year after the film opened, John Huston and Gregory Peck, who planned to make Melville's "Typee" together, had a falling out which was never resolved. John thought it was a mis-understanding over Peck's wife, but it turned out Peck felt he was deceived into playing Ahab, finding out the studio, not Huston, wanted Peck for the lead role, contrary to what Huston told him.

Walter Huston would've been spectacular in the part.

[–] tramky 18 years ago

This whole thing about Peck as Ahab is really annoying and troubling. Gregory Peck was brilliant as Ahab, and it's too bad that, if true, Huston & Peck had a falling out over his casting. And Peck's repeated comments that he thought his performance 'wooden' was wrong. It's a shame that Peck should have felt this way about what may be his best performance. Someone should have set him straight.

[–] wrfarley 18 years ago

Peck may not have felt as badly as all that as I also read (in the National Enquirer at a check-out line, no less) that one of the things the actor did in his last days, was watch himself as Capt. Ahab in MOBY DICK.

What's also sad is if you read Peck's press from 1956, he sounds as if he's pretty proud of his perf. It's only after he gets bad notices and the film doesn't perform well at the box office, that he down-plays his own work.

As they say, success has a thousand fathers while failure is an orphan.