Universal's 1916 Film of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The first film shot underwater.
In 1869, when Jules Verne began publishing 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as a serial, the submersible boat was a rare object. The undiscovered marine life occupying the ocean floor was the subject of speculation and science fiction. To this day, the majority of the ocean depths beyond the fabled Twilight Zone remain unexplored.
By 1916, war was raging around the world, and military submarines were in widespread use across the oceans, used to sink ships in maritime combat. It was in this environment that the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, headed by Carl Laemmle, released their grandiose film version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the first feature-length film adapted from Verne's work.
It was rather ambitious to make a feature-length science fiction film at the time. The market for such high-concept cinema was largely cornered by Georges Méliès and his imitators all over Europe. Short one-reelers utilizing all manner of creative sets, costumes, and props to create wild fantasies that stretched the limits of the filmmakers' imaginations. Of course, Méliès had already made his own version of 20,000 Leagues in 1907, however, 'twas an adaptation in name only. One man embarks on a deep-sea expedition in his sub, which he then emerges from without diving gear. He walks on the ocean floor as if he were in the open air, and he encounters a colony of dancing girls. I don’t know, maybe the book read differently in the original French.
Universal began production on their version of 20,000 Leagues in 1914, just two years after their founding. They spared no expense, filming on location in the Bahamas, building a life-size mock-up of a submarine, and hiring the brothers George and J. Ernest Williamson, pioneers in undersea photography. In 1912, they created a submersible, transparent "photosphere" to house a camera to document marine life. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea holds the distinction of being the first film shot underwater. They didn’t actually use any cameras underwater, instead opting for a complex system of mirrors and tubing to film reflections of the ocean floor.
This may not be the most satisfying adaptation for book purists, as it plays a bit loose with the source material. I suppose it may have been too costly to set the majority of the film underwater, so many additional plot elements are added on top.
It tells the story of Professor Aronnax boarding the Abraham Lincoln to hunt for an elusive "sea monster". In the book, Aronnax embarks on the voyage with his lapdog of a man-servant named Conseil, but in the film, Conseil is replaced with Aronnax’s daughter. The Abraham Lincoln is sunk by the "monster", revealed to be an advanced submarine dubbed the Nautilus. The sub is manned by Captain Nemo, who takes Aronnax, his daughter, and Ned Land, a Canadian hunter, prisoner aboard his vessel. Nemo is described as "pale-faced" in the book, but in the film, his face is painted with some form of polish, the reason for which will be revealed in due course.
On top of this plot, the film also incorporates story elements from Verne's 1875 novel The Mysterious Island, with an additional plot concerning Lieutenant Bond and his four comrades of the Union Army, fleeing Confederate territory in their hot air balloon and being whisked away to an island. Unfortunately, they don't encounter any giant creatures animated by Ray Harryhausen, but they do find a native woman, also with dark paint on her face.
Then, halfway through the film, a new character named Charles Denver is introduced. His storyline is an invention of the film. In flashback, we see him force himself upon the Indian Princess Dakkar before killing her in front of her young daughter. Denver abducts the child, who then manages to escape his clutches and find refuge on the Mysterious Island. 12 years later, Denver returns to the island to retrieve the girl, who has grown up into the brownfaced woman we were introduced to earlier.
In the last act, all of the plotlines converge when the object of Captain Nemo’s revenge mission is revealed to be Charles Denver. Nemo is revealed to be the Prince Dakkar, whose family was torn apart by Denver during the Indian Rebellion. This revelation is drawn from the end of Mysterious Island, in which Verne seemed to contradict his original description of Nemo, as well as his original timeline. Mysterious Island is set before 1866, when the reign of terror of the Nautilus began, and yet Lieutenant Bond and his men discover Nemo on the island as an old man.
The Prince carries out his vengeance by firing upon Denver’s yacht and sinking it with Charles on board. The Prince is reunited with his daughter before his heart gives out. His crew give him a funeral on the ocean floor, then abandon ship.
The film does not depict many of the more memorable scenes from the book. Nothing so fantastic as an encounter with a giant sea spider, nor as ghastly as the wreck of the Florida, nor as dreadfully dull as being trapped in ice. Instead of the Nautilus being attacked by a giant squid, we are instead treated to this octopus, and as you can see, it has a hankering for dark meat.
The film was very well-received by audiences. For most, it was their first time witnessing marine life caught on film, including live sharks. An ambitious sci-fi spectacle such as this was rarely ever seen. However, the film had a budget of $500,000, an astronomical sum in those days, and it was unable to recoup its budget.
That failure made Hollywood hesitate to mount another Verne adaptation until 1929, when MGM made their film of The Mysterious Island, a part-talkie, part-Technicolor film which acts as more of a prequel to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, depicting the events which made Prince Dakkar become Captain Nemo.
Nearly four decades after Universal’s version, Walt Disney produced his more famous adaptation of 20,000 Leagues, which more faithfully portrays Nemo’s motives for retreating under the sea, defying a society he deemed to be unjust, retaliating against war ships, and hoarding riches to give to oppressed peoples when he can. It’s a more mature adaptation than you’d expect from Disney, save for Ned Land’s impromptu song numbers, although Kirk Douglas was perfectly cast. However, per the rule of 1950s cinema, society must punish Nemo for defying their ways, delivering a fatal bullet to his chest.
The success of Disney’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1954 would lead to a new wave of Verne adaptations over the following decade, including the Best Picture Oscar-winner Around the World in Eighty Days. This wave of films I would dub Julesploitation.
As for Universal's silent version of 20,000 Leagues, while it may not be the most proper adaptation of the source material, it is quite an ambitious film for its time, with its elaborate visual effects and innovation in undersea photography. Well worth seeing for anyone interested in an early sci-fi adventure.
