Moby Dick

This film featured an early, experimental use of widescreen known as Magnascope. As the boats were lowered for the first chase after the whale, the screen widened; then, as Moby Dick suddenly closed in on Captain Ahab, the screen returned to its normal size. This process had been used for selected sequences of important features at certain first run film run theaters since late 1926 when it was inaugurated with Old Ironsides (1926). There was no change in ratio. The screen got larger, by using a different lens, but lighting and magnification problems limited its use to special occasions.

The cover of Melville's novel is shown, then what is ostensibly the first page. But the text shown consists of statements about whaling in general and Moby Dick. The novel, however, is written in the first person, and its first line, establishing this, is one of the most famous in all literature: "Call me Ishmael." This footage was lifted from the 1925 version, 'The Sea Beast'.

While the credits state that the film is based on Herman Melville's novel, the first page of the novel shown onscreen right after the credits is entirely written by one of the screenwriters; it has absolutely nothing to do with Melville's original, and even leaves out Melville's classic opening sentence, "Call me Ishmael".