The latest in my series of accompanied silent films on YouTube is an early Universal picture: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It mixes two Jules Verne novels: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Mysterious Island. It’s a breakthrough movie on a technical level and an exciting tale, though the plot is a mess. Be warned there are spoilers below the cut.
This was the first feature-length movie with extensive underwater photography. Captain Nemo shows off undersea life through a viewer on the Nautilus, and crew members go out on the ocean floor in diving suits. Extended walks on the sea floor are possible because of oxygen tanks the divers wear. In real life, this wasn’t practical until later.
The submarine looks impressively modern with its streamlined shape and periscope. It’s more plausible than the art deco sub in the Disney movie. A hatch on the bottom lets its occupants exit into the ocean. The creators didn’t quite get the idea of an airlock, though; at one point we see the exit hatch and the one to the sub’s interior are simultaneously open, which of course would have flooded it.
Spoiler Warning
The main problem with the plot is the change it makes to Nemo’s backstory. In Mysterious Island, he is revealed to be an Indian prince who is fighting against colonial injustice. The implied accusation against Britain probably made the film’s creators uncomfortable, especially since World War I was in progress. In the movie, he has a personal grievance against a man who caused the death of his wife and the disappearance of his daughter. All of the political commentary from the novel is gone.
This makes his attacks on shipping inexplicable. Was he attacking random ships and killing their crews around the world in the hope that his enemy Denver was on one of them? Later on, he just happens to arrive at the Mysterious Island when Denver is there, and the island is the home of a “Child of Nature” who just happens to be … I’d better stop there.
As in Verne’s novel, Professor Aronnax and Ned Land — plus Aronnax’s daughter, added for the movie — fall into the sea while fighting the Nautilus and are taken aboard. They’re treated as prisoners, and when a guard comes to the brig, they attack him. Nemo shows up unarmed, and they have the old man outnumbered, yet they immediately stop fighting. They try to make a break for it only as the door is closed on them.
Later on, Nemo offers to treat them as guests rather than prisoners, provided they promise not to try to escape. They give that promise, which you would think would be good only until Nemo turns his back; after all, this is an adventure movie, and the promise was made under duress. However, they never go back on it. In fact, Aronnax, his daughter, and Land fade out of the movie from that point, serving only as spectators.
Just before the end, there is a ten-minute scene presenting Nemo’s backstory in India. It’s exciting but feels out of place where everything should be wrapping up. To its credit, the film admits in an intertitle that this part isn’t Verne’s story.
Even so, the movie has a lot going for it. Nemo, played by Allen Holubar, is an imposing, passionate character. The film strives to be as visually realistic as possible, given the technology of the time. It was popular, but it was so expensive to make that it lost money. It would have been sad if it had bankrupted Universal before it could make any of its classic monster movies.
The music
I like making music for feature-length movies. They give me more of a canvas to work with. As usual, I improvised the music on my Roland EX-50, recording it in one take. I devised several motifs before recording. You may be able to spot the motifs for the Nautilus and Captain Nemo. For me, the most fun was the music for Nemo’s undersea life show.