20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
This terrific telling of the frequently produced Jules Verne story won Oscars for its Special Effects and Color Art Direction-Set Decoration; it’s a live action Disney feature which also earned Academy Award winning editor Elmo Williams (High Noon (1952)) his last Oscar nomination. James Mason plays Captain Nemo who’s given up on the surface world such that he aims to destroy any warships he encounters with the powerful ahead of its time monster of a submarine he’s built dubbed the Nautilus. All this is discovered during an expedition led by a learned professor (Paul Lukas) his eccentric assistant (Peter Lorre) and an outgoing whaler (Kirk Douglas who sings “A Whale of a Tale”) that must later battle a giant sea squid. It was directed by Richard Fleischer (Design for Death (1947)); the screenplay was written by Earl Felton. J.M. Kerrigan and Percy Helton are among those who also appear.
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