CineFantastique
1984 MAY
Vol. 14 No. 3

20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA

By Joel Frazier and Harry Hawthorne

 

Credits

A Walt Disney Production. Released by Buena Vista Distribution Co., Inc. Opened on 12/23/54. In Color and CinemaScope. Running Time; 127 minutes. Directed by Richard Fleischer. Screenplay by Earl Felton. Based on a novel by Jules Verne. Photographed by Franz Planer, A.S.C. Edited by Elmo Williams. Music by Paul Smith. Orchestration, Joseph S. Dubin. Production Manager, Fred Leahy. Effects Photographer, Ralph Hammeras, A.S.C. Second Unit Director, James C. Havens. Underwater Photographer, Till Gabbani. Special Processes, Ub Iwerks. Technicolor Consultant, Morgan Padelford. Assistant Directors, Tom Connors Jr., Russ Haverick. Diving Master, Fred Zendar. Production Developed by Harper Goff. Art Director, John Meehan. Set Decorator, Emile Kuri. Special Effects, John Hench, Josh Meador. Matte Artist, Peter Ellenshaw. Sketch Artist, Bruce Bushman. Make-up and Hairdressing, Lou Hippe. Costumer, Norman Martien. Sound Director, C. O. Slyfield. Sound Recording, Robert O. Cook.

 

Cast

Ned Land                                                                               Kirk Douglas
Captain Nemo                                                                       James Mason
Professor Aronnax                                                                Paul Lukas
Conseil                                                                                   Peter Lorre
The Mate on the "Nautilus"                                                   Robert J Wilke
John Howard                                                                         Carleton Young
Captain Farragut                                                                   Ted deCorsia
Driver                                                                                      Percy Helton
The Mate on the “Abraham Lincoln                                     Ted Cooper
Shipping Agent                                                                     Edward Marr
Casey Moore                                                                         Fred Graham
Billy                                                                                         J.M. Kerrigan
Reporter                                                                                 Herb Vigran
Shipping Clerk                                                                      Harry Harvey

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CREDITS AND CAST

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

EVOLUTION OF THE DISNEY VERSION

ADAPTING THE NOVEL

SYNOPSIS OF THE SCREENPLAY

ADVENTURES IN NEMOLAND

THE SETS

SET DECORATION

THE CAST

PRINCIPAL LOT PHOTOGRAPHY

SPECIAL MINIATURE EFFECTS

SPFX MATTE PAINTINGS

SPFX EFFECTS ANIMATION

POST PRODUCTION

DISTRIBUTION AND COMMERCIALIZATION

MERCHANDISING

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Staff of the Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Staff of the Walt Disney Achieves
Staff of the U.S.C. Film Library Norm Bishop
Howard Green
Warren Hamilton
Robert Hammeras
Louise Kelley
Chris Schaefer
Mike Seratt
Manfred Zendar

Special thanks to:

Richard Fleischer
Peter Ellenshaw
Harper Goff
Emil Kuri
Tom Scherman
and James Mason

 

EVOLUTION OF THE DISNEY VERSION

In the early 1950’s, Walt Disney was involved in a number of projects, including a series of TRUE-LIFE ADVENTURE nature films, various animated shorts and features, and several live-action costume dramas made in England. His most important act during this period was his decision to build Disneyland. The idea of a family park had been growing in Disney’s imagination since the early thirties, but the heavy investments he had made in his studio and its major productions, plus the intervention of World War II, prevented him from developing the concept. Then, in 1952, he formed WED Enterprises, Inc. (an acronym for Walter Elias Disney) for the purpose of turning his dream into a physical reality. Key members of his animation staff, along with talents from the live-action studios, were recruited to design and plan the park. Among the latter group was designer Harper Goff, who was to conceive the imaginative sets for 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA.

Goff entered the film industry in the mid-thirties as a sketch artist for Warner Brothers and worked on such classic films as CAPTAIN BLOOD, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, THE SEA HAWK, CASABLANCA and THE FIGHTING 69TH. In the late forties, he left the studio for a period of freelance work. Between films (one of which was Howard Hawks’ THE THING), he contributed illustrations to various periodicals.

In 1952, Goff took a trip to London, England. While shopping for miniature trains, he met another train enthusiast - Walt Disney. Even though they had never met before, Disney was familiar with Goff’s magazine illustrations and had especially admired his series depicting America in the early twentieth century. Disney asked Goff to work for him. The artist accepted and, within a few weeks, started work on the Disneyland project.

It wasn’t too long until the designer received another assignment to overlap his work on the park. Explained Goff: “Walt asked me to go to the marine lab at the California Institute of Technology to see a film made by Dr. McGinnity, the Institute’s director. Walt wanted me to see if it could fit into an undersea film for the TRUE-LIFE ADVENTURE series. Dr. McGinnity had shot some remarkable footage of marine life in a tank. Minute fish and silk like nudibranch appeared to move in a vacuum because the water was so pure. I thought this film could be fixed to music - a sort of underwater ballet.

“I’d always loved 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. I saw the original silent version on my sixth birthday and spent the following two or three weeks drawing pictures of ships and submarines. While developing a storyboard for the McGinnity footage, I daydreamed about the Verne story. I visualized a seq­uence for the film in which two divers go down to the ocean floor and explore the wonders of the deep. I went ahead and made a series of sketches for that section of the film.”

“Walt was in England at the time I did the McGinnity storyboard. He was stunned when he returned and saw the amount of work I had done on the project. After being told that my sketches were based on scenes from 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, Walt said that he also loved the Verne classic and had thought about making a film version, but M-G-M owned the rights and he didn’t want to buy it. Later, we learned that M-G-M had sold the rights to the King Brothers, who sold it to a small company that failed to do anything with it. Walt, who had been impressed with my storyboard, changed his mind and bought the rights. Soon we were set to make the film.”

During the late summer and fall of 1952, preparation was underway for a full-length animated version of 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. Goff was placed in charge of production development. His first task was to design Verne’s fantastic submarine, the Nautilus.

Goff believed that Verne’s story, without the mechanical marvels of the submarine, would have been simply another standard adventure tale. Although the story was set in the mid-nineteenth century, the Nautilus had to do things that were impossible even for the modern submarine. For example, it had to ram ships at a tremendous speed, yet not suffer irreparable damage to the hull. Therefore, it had to be extremely unconventional in terms of design and operation.

Geoff’s first challenge was to design a submarine that had the outward appearance of a sea monster. Recalled Goff: “The book said that the Nautilus was mistaken by observers to be a terrifying sea monster. I always thought that the fearsome shark and alligator were quite deadly-looking in the water, so I based my design on their physical characteristics. The submarine’s stream­lined body, dorsal fin and prominent tail simulated the traits of the shark. The heavy rivet patterns on the surface plates represented the rough skin on the alligator, while the forward viewports and top searchlights represented its menacing eyes.”

“Verne’s Nautilus could go through the hull of an enemy ship like a needle through cloth. I designed four saw-toothed ridges that started at the prow and ran along the hull to the stern. Besides being capable of cutting through the hull of a ship, these projecting ridges also protected the submarine’s view­ports, lights, diving planes and helical propeller from the ship’s wreckage.”

Utilizing these ideas, Goff built the first prototype model over a Labor Day weekend. He took the completed eighteen-inch model to Disney, who criticized the design. “Walt thought it was to cluttered,” remembered Goff. “He showed me an aluminum cigar capsule and said, ‘That’s what I think the Nautilus should look like.’ He wanted a sleek, cylindrical craft with a bullet nose. Even though Verne’s submarine was similar in design, I felt that 20,000 LEAGUES would have been the dullest picture in the world if Walt had used it. You look at it once and you’ve seen it.”

Since Nemo possessed knowledge of advanced technology, Disney thought the Nautilus should have a futuristic design, including a smooth-surfaced body. Goff could not rationalize with this concept and openly disagreed with his employer. “I told Walt that the Nautilus was built hastily and roughly at Nemo’s secret base,” the designer explained. “The only available material was the rough iron that was salvaged from wrecks. Nemo didn’t have a big drop­forge to smooth out the iron plates or dies to shape and curve them. At the time our story took place, the iron-riveted ship was considered the finest example of marine construction. "I though Nemo had no choice but to use flatiron plates, heavily riveted by hand, to build his submarine."

“My first model was different from the one that appears in the picture.” Goff said. “For example, each blade on the ram could be removed and replaced when it was damaged, like the blade on a plowshare. Also, the original model lacked the bubble lights and dorsal fin. The wheelhouse’s viewports were sup­posed to have been the glowing eyes of the monster but, after completing the model, I realized that Nemo could not see outside the windows because of the glare produced by the inside lights. So, I tacked on lights above the forward viewports, I found that these lights, positioned above and behind the menacing saw-toothed ram, gave the Nautilus an even deadlier appearance. So, they be­came the eyes of the monster. However, in the picture, they were turned off and the forward viewports remained lighted for photographic reasons. This was okay because the audience assumed that the glow came from the bubble lights.”

“The dorsal fin was added later as an afterthought. The full-scale after­deck of the Nautilus was attached to an actual submarine for a scene in which. Aronnax and his comrades are left on deck while the submarine submerges. The Navy told us that the stunt people had to hang onto a periscope or some other projection while the sub was in operation. I didn’t want a periscope because it would have made the Nautilus look too modern. So, I decided to add a sawtoothed dorsal fin which, also, would complement the forward ram.”

“The only thing Walt liked about my model was the skiff which fitted into its own berth on the afterdeck. It was always locked in place. The crew didn’t have to lift it from a cradle or shoot it up from below decks (as was the case in the book). All they had to do was slide back the protective covers that sealed the inside, climb in and row away. Walt liked that idea but wouldn’t buy anything else.” Fortunately, Goff won the argument and went on to design the submarine’s interior structure.

First, Goff created a functional tubular interior, It was based on one of the world’s classic examples of structural engineering, the Forth railway bridge in Scotland. Said Goff: “I’d always loved the looks of this cantilever bridge. It was made of giant tubular columns and trusses. Although lightweight, the tubular members were rigid enough to withstand heavy wind action.”

“When it came time to design the interior framework, I asked myself: what kind of system did Nemo use to pressurize and stabilize the hull? I came up with the idea that he built a tubular system to pump both air and water through the boat. The air was stored in the upper tubes in the structural frame while the ballast filled the lower tubes.”

Continuing his design work on the Nautilus, Goff moved to the interior chambers. Remembered Goff: “Years ago, I went on board the battleship Oregon. Built in the 1890s, she was rich in silhouette and interest. However, it was below decks that she was the most impressive. The cabins had been fitted with finely-crafted built-in beds, lockers and chart tables - all designed to fit neatly between the struts and braces of the ship. The highly varnished wood­work and polished brass railings conformed with the curves and contours of the ship. I tried to carry this impressive style throughout the interiors of the Nautilus.”

Goff’s interiors successfully combined futuristic, piston-driven machinery with nineteenth-century culture. In Goff’s imaginative re-creation of Nemo’s salon, elegant furnishings blended tastefully with the surrounding tubular iron framework and jewel-like nautical instruments. “Nothing looks so attrac­tive as a combination of rough iron and elegant luxury.” said Goff. “Although the Nautilus was a machine of the future, its inventor would have been uncom­fortable living in a high-tech, STAR WARS interior. He preferred to live in what was thought to be the best interior at the time, that is, the opulent Empire style that was popular in the mid-nineteenth century.”

“Nemo got everything for his submarine - building materials, furniture, objects of art, and even a pipe organ adorned in filigree - from the wrecks he found on the ocean floor. The excitement of the submarine’s functionalism, combined with Nemo’s love to be surrounded by objects of beauty, that’s what made the art direction a success.”

In the late fall of 1952, after several months of preliminary work, Disney decided to abandon the animated format and make 20,000 LEAGUES a live action feature. His British-produced costume dramas (i.e., TREASURE ISLAND and ROBIN HOOD) performed well at the box office and were less costly and time-consuming than the animated features.

Modestly budgeted, these films brought in handsome profits and convinced Disney of the important role live-action would play in the financial future of the studio. He would continue to make animated features, but the studio facilities in Burbank would have to be enlarged to accommodate live-action filming.

In 1953, activity at the studio changed from the quiet of an all-animation studio to the bustle of construction of new shops and sound stage facilities. Included in the additions was a special tank stage (now called Stage 3) which would be used for the filming of 20,000 LEAGUES. This indoor tank, which measured 60 by 125 feet and ranged from 3 to 12 feet in depth, cost Disney $300,000. Many of the water effects scenes would be shot here, including the memorable fight with the giant squid and all the underwater miniature effects.

Because Disney did not have a live-action staff, he recruited many of the artist and craftsmen from other studios, mainly Fox, Paramount and RKO. John Meehan was brought in from Paramount as art director.

Harper Goff recalled, “The words ‘art director’ and ‘production designer’ are union (IATSE-International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) terms. I was not allowed screen credit for my art direction because I was not a member of the union affiliated Society of Motion Picture Art Directors. If I had received credit, the union (IATSE) projectionists would have refused to run the picture.”

“Disney and other members of the Independent Producers Association were fighting the union (IATSE) at the time. They were trying to stay out of union affiliates and remain independent. When the sets were being constructed, Emile Kuri, our set decorator, told me to get a union card because he believed my art direction would win an Academy Award. I plagued Walt, who seemed to make an effort, but his attorney, Gunther Lessing, advised him to refrain from helping me because he was still fighting the union. He’d be contradicting himself. Later, after the picture was completed, I got myself a union card, but I still could not be recognized as the production designer or art director on 20,000 LEAGUES because I wasn’t a union member when I worked on the picture. It was a very traumatic experience, believe me.” Harper Goff would receive his first screen credit as a production designer a year later for Warner’s PETE KELLY’S BLUES. He would re-team with Richard Fleischer, Kirk Douglas and Elmo Williams several years later on VA’s THE VIKINGS. His other films include FANTASTIC VOYAGE (teaming again with Fleischer) and WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY.

“It became necessary, in order to continue work on the picture, to hire a union art director. John Meehan was brought in as the art director of record to carry out my designs and supervise the final drafting and construction of the sets. He was also responsible for the drafting costs, even the work that was done for me.” Goff continued, “John followed my drawings exactly. I didn’t give a damn about the Abraham Lincoln or the San Francisco interiors, so John was responsible for designing those sets.”

“The submarine was one hundred percent mine,” Goff stated only too clearly. “The definitive model was made a long time before John came on the picture. There were a lot of things he wanted to do to the Nautilus, but his hands were tied because Walt was satisfied with my designs.”

John Meehan worked on only one inconsequential film after 20,000 LEAGUES which was Universal’s THE CULT OF THE COBRA. He ventured into television several years later and functioned as the art director on LEAVE IT TO BEAVER before his death in the early sixties.

 

ADAPTING THE NOVEL

To write and direct the screen version of the Verne classic, Disney chose Earl Felton and Richard Fleischer, who had worked together on some suc­cessful B movies at RKO (an earlier script by John Tucker Battle was dropped due to creative differences between the writer and the producer. CFQ has been unable to determine whether this script, which was an exact transcription of the novel, was written specifically for Disney or one of the previous owners of the property, although the latter is suspected.)

A graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, Richard Fleischer began his film career with newsreels and short subjects for RKO during the early forties. His documentary, DESIGN FOR DEATH, won an Academy Award in 1947. Graduating to feature films, he collaborated with writer Earl Felton on several low-budgeted but extremely well-made crime melodramas, including ARMORED CAR ROBBERY and THE NARROW MARGIN. In 1952, they teamed again to make THE HAPPY TIME, a Disneyesque situation comedy about the daily ups and downs of an eccentric family headed by Charles Boyer. Its excellent script and direction attracted the attention of Disney.

Recalled Fleischer: “I was chosen to direct 20,000 LEAGUES by a committee at Disney Studios after they had reviewed my earlier films. I was one of several directors who had been under consideration. At our first meeting, I asked Walt why he had selected me. He answered, ‘I saw your film, THE HAPPY TIME, which featured Bobby Driscoll, one of our contract players. If anybody can make an actor out of that kid, he’s got to be a good director. You made him act. I’d like you to work with us on the picture.’“

Before accepting the assignment, Fleischer discussed the offer with his father, animation pioneer Max Fleischer, who had been Disney’s rival for many years. “I didn’t want my father to feel I was being disloyal,” said Fleischer. “If he didn’t want me to work for Walt, I wouldn’t. I phoned him in New York and asked him how he felt about the offer. He replied, ‘Oh, God! Yes! Take the job. I think it’s wonderful. Tell Walt he’s got very good taste.’ A couple of years later, when my father came out to California to visit me, Walt honored him with a big luncheon at the studio and a special tour through Disneyland. They became good friends. It was heartwarming to see these two men, who had been bitter enemies for so many years, come together.”

Fleischer went on salary on April 1, 1953. His first task was to get a workable script. Earl Felton was hired to write the screen adaptation.

“While breaking down the novel, Earl and I became acutely aware that there was no real story, only a series of incidents,” Fleischer said. “The standard American translation of Verne is a very poor one. The original French work has a real story, but it’s lost somewhere in the translation.”

“Our first step was to find out the origin and goals of the principal character, Captain Nemo. We did it like a piece of detective work. There are a few hints scattered around in the novel. For example, there is a portrait of a young woman and a child in Nemo’s stateroom. This was never explained. Who are they? Why is Nemo wandering the seas alone? We figured the portrait was that of Nemo’s dead wife and child. Then we invented his background and why he was going on his own.”

The screen image of Nemo differs from Verne’s original. The latter is a misguided anarchist who seeks world revolution. Freedom denied him on land would be found in the depths of the sea. Contemptuous of society, he vows never again to hold communication with the civilized world.

However, the celluloid Nemo is a militant pacifist. He advocates world reformation, not revolution. He is willing to share his scientific knowledge with all nations if they will lay down their arms and end aggression. Such pacifism would have infuriated Verne.

The philosophy that is proposed and expounded in the film is very sympa­thetic to Nemo. “Although Nemo is demonic,” Fleischer continued, “he is a force of good fighting the forces of evil. He lost his wife and child., He was captured and spent years in a slave camp. He sinks ships that carry munitions and the tools of war. He never sinks anything that is innocent, it’s always the ‘ships of that hated nation’, and he always left out the name .. of that country - fill in your own blank.”

Though the Disneyfied Nemo is amore sympathetic character, he is, ironi­cally, more cold-blooded than the original. He deliberately hunts and de­stroys warships without remorse. He always takes the offensive. On the other hand, Verne’s Nemo always takes the defensive. He sinks ships only when pro­voked into so doing. He does not attack, he counterattacks. Verne refused to let his character kill for the sake of killing. He believed Nemo to be a compassionate man whose actions were created by the repressive environment around him.

“Personally, I don’t agree with Verne,” Fleischer commented. “Because Nemo built that kind of destructive machine, I don’t think he’d play by certain fair rules and wait for somebody to attack him.”

After developing Nemo’s background and philosophy, Felton’s next step was to devise an over plot which would give an audience a promise of something to come. Explained the director: “In the novel, Aronnax, Conseil and Ned simply go along as observers. You can’t do that for a long time on the screen. There has to be another story other than Nemo’s. Earl came up with a wonder­ful solution. He decided that the only way to tell this story and make it work as far as suspense was concerned was to make it a story about a prison break. Earl said, ‘This is really a story about three men who are prisoners in a sub­marine. Aronnax does not want to escape, but the others are always plotting and scheming and trying to take advantage of the situation to escape.’ Once Earl hit upon the idea that it was a story about a prison break, and once we knew who Nemo was and what motivated him, then these two ideas meshed together and became writable.”

“Since we couldn’t use all the incidents that were in the novel, we took what we felt were the most memorable scenes and put them in the script. Every­body remembers the underwater burial, the cannibal attack, and the fight with the giant squid, so we had to include those incidents. We didn’t use them in the same continuity nor in the same way because we counted on the fact that nobody ever really read the book very carefully. We felt they would be per­fectly willing to accept our version and they did. As a matter of fact, the story that is known today by most young people is the one we invented for the screen.”

In Felton’s adaptation, the Nautilus is powered by atomic energy - a far cry from Verne’s electric submarine. Said Fleischer: “We had to modernize the story in order to give a feeling of things to come. The challenge of our story was to keep the science-fiction feeling of something that is no longer science-fiction. We had to take a familiar object - the submarine - and make it an object of wonder and fantasy. Our aim was to put the audience into the position of never having seen or heard of a submarine before, and to lead them through the wonders of this craft for the first time.”

A lot of violence punctuates the screenplay - numerous fist fights, the destruction of several ships and the implied drowning of many sailors, and an atomic holocaust which takes the lives of hundreds of people. This was un­usual material for Disney. Most unusual was Felton’s idea of Captain Nemo and his crew forming a suicide pact - shades of Jonestown. But it must be remembered that the screenplay was written long before the Disney organization became so restricted in the kind of material it was willing to handle. Remarked Fleischer: If Disney studios made the picture today, they would not use the same storyline and I don’t think 20,000 LEAGUES would be as good a picture because they have an established pattern to their films now.

“Walt had a marvelous instinct. He had his say in the formation of the story and made suggestions and contributions to the script. For example, the inclusion of the pet seal was his idea - the Disney Touch. The script reflects his taste and a lot of his personality.” Another Disney Touch was the injection of humorous material into the script to counterbalance the tense dramatic elements. Scenes such as Ned’s encounter with the cannibals and his interplay with Nemo’s pet seal and the worrisome Conseil provided the necessary comedy relief.

The final draft of Felton’s screenplay was completed on September 25, 1953. However, it would go through a total of nine revisions during the six months of principal shooting.

20,000 LEAGUES was the first film ever to have storyboards done for every line of dialogue. Over 1300 were done to visualize the story. Harper Goff made over 60 sketches just of the giant squid sequence.

Storyboarding was a Disney innovation. Developed in the animation depart­ment the technique spread to live-action on 20,000 LEAGUES and then to the other studios. It is now a standard tool of film makers.

 

SYNOPSIS OF THE SCREENPLAY

The year is 1868. Vessels traveling the shipping lanes of the South Pacific are being attacked by a mysterious object believed to be a sea monster. In San Francisco, the U. S. government organizes an expedition and assigns the armed frigate Abraham Lincoln to track down and destroy the creature. Among its passengers are Professor Aronnax, a distinguished oceanic scientist, his apprentice Conseil, and master harpooner Ned Land.

For months the frigate scours the South Pacific without any sign of its. quarry. The captain is about to abandon the search when, one night, the monster is sighted: a ghostly shape with glowing eyes and a jagged beak. As the frigate fires its battery of guns, the dark mass rushes towards its pursuer at a terrifying speed. When it rams the ship, the impact throws Aronnax, Conseil and Ned overboard. They watch hopelessly as the disabled frigate disappears into the night.

The next morning, the trio are captured by their attacker, and find that the strange creature is, in reality, the submarine Nautilus. They are introduced to Captain Nemo, a misfit genius who has turned his back on society. He has heard of Aronnax and studied his writings on the sea and its mysteries. He invites the professor to stay aboard and share in the wonders of undersea travel and exploration. However, Ned and Conseil must be returned to the sea. When Aronnax refuses to accept such an offer, he is forcibly taken on deck with the others. As the Nautilus begins to submerge, the three men cling tenaciously to its dorsal fin. Nemo watches through the wheelhouse viewport, waiting for some sign from Aronnax, but the scientist appears determined to go down with the others. A large swell rises over their heads and Aronnax and Conseil are swept overboard. With a smile of satisfaction, Nemo orders the submarine to surface and the castaways to be picked up and taken aboard. Later, when Aronnax asks the captain why he has saved their lives, the latter remarks, “I wanted to test your loyalty to your companions. I may have use for such mis­placed devotion.” He informs the professor and his companions that they will have every liberty while aboard the Nautilus. However, he adds, they are on the strictest probation and warns them not to attempt escape.

That afternoon, the three passengers dine with their captain in the submarine’s elegant salon. They eat strange delicacies, such as brisket of blowfish with sea squirt dressing and sauté of unborn octopus. “These dishes come entirely from my ocean kitchen,” Nemo explains. “There is nothing here of the earth.” Indeed, the sea supplies all his wants. He confides to Aronnax, “The sea is everything. On the surface there is hunger and fear. Men still exercise unjust laws.   A mere few feet beneath the waves their reign ceases, their evil drowns. Here, on the ocean floor, is the only independence. Here I am free.”

After their repast, Nemo and his prisoner-guests don diving suits and join a hunting expedition to the undersea forests of Crespo where the crew of the Nautilus gather crops of sea harvest, including lobster, shrimp and sea grass. While Aronnax observes the hunting and farming activities, Ned and Conseil investigate the wreck of a sunken galleon. In the ship’s lazarette, they discover a chest filled with gold doubloons and precious jewels. While carrying the chest out, they are attacked by a huge tiger shark. Helpless, they dodge the deadly jaws of the creature as it swoops past them. Suddenly, a bullet from Nemo’s electric gun rips into the shark’s white belly. Writhing violently, the fish disappears into the depths. At a signal from Nemo, several divers seize Ned and Conseil and force them to abandon their treasure. Later, the harpooner learns that treasure is used only for the submarine’s ballast. “The greatest of all treasures,” the captain tells him, “lies in a sound mind and a full belly.”

As the voyage continues, Nemo eagerly shows Aronnax the technological marvels of the Nautilus, including its mysterious motive power. In his journal, the professor notes: “Captain Nemo has evidently discovered what mankind has always sought and might someday find - the veritable dynamic power of the uni­verse. This secret alone gave him mastery of the sea and its deepest sanctuary.” Although Aronnax is fascinated by Nemo’s scientific achievements, Ned is grow­ing impatient with his captivity. He tells the professor that he will escape as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

As leagues pass, Aronnax and his companions discover a fantastic world beneath the sea. The lights of the submarine reveal such wonders as the lost city of Lemuria and the Tuscarora Deep, where exploding volcanoes spew out incandescent streams of lava. At the South Pole, the Nautilus cruises serenely through a treacherous channel filled with ice floes. (The above scenes were cut out of the film. However, they were later utilized in the submarine ride at Disney World.. See Postproduction section for further comments.) On another occasion, when a hurricane races across the surface of the sea, the submarine glides gracefully through the blue silence, oblivious-of the raging elements above. In the salon, Nemo sits in solitary grandeur at the ornate organ, play­ing Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

After traveling ten thousand leagues under the sea, the Nautilus arrives at the island of Rorapandi. Nemo and Aronnax go ashore and secretly observe the island’s infamous slave camp. Through a telescope, Aronnax sees a ragged procession of prisoners loading a cargo vessel that flies no flag. The chained men are carrying sacks filled with nitrates and phosphate for ammunition - “the seeds of war”, Nemo grimly remarks. “They are loading a full cargo of death, and when that ship takes it home, the world will die a little more.” The captain reveals that he and his crew were once prisoners on the island. They seized a ship and fled to a remote island called Vulcania where they built the Nautilus. When their mission is completed, they will be returning to their home base at Vulcania.

That evening, the Nautilus attacks and sinks the nitrate ship as it leaves Rorapandi. All hands are lost. A horrified Aronnax questions Nemo’s murderous action. The captain retorts, “I see murder, too! Not written on those drowned faces out there, but on the faces of dead thousands! Out there are the assassins, the dealers in death. I am the avenger!” He tells Aronnax that he has embarked on a one-man campaign against the unnamed nation that has taken every­thing from him, except the secret of his submarine and its motive power. When he refused to disclose his secrets, they tortured his wife and son to death. “Do you know the meaning of love?” he asks the professor. “What you fail to understand is the power of hate. It can fill the heart as surely as love can.” Aronnax quietly replies, “I’m sorry for you. It’s a bitter substitute.”

The cold-blooded destruction of the nitrate ship prompts Ned to make a bid for freedom. While Nemo and his crew are making underwater repairs on the submarine, Ned and Conseil sneak into the captain’s cabin and obtain the exact geographical location of Vulcania, hoping to alert the world about the existence of the Nautilus and its captives, the harpooner encloses the island’s coordinates in a number of specimen bottles and secretly throws them overboard.

Ned’s first opportunity to escape occurs when the Nautilus runs aground on a coral reef off the coast of New Guinea. While waiting for the high tide to float the craft free, Ned and Conseil go ashore to collect specimens. Although Nemo has warned them to stay on the beach because of the presence of cannibals on the island, Ned escapes down a jungle trail which leads into a tropical paradise. While momentarily stopping at a pool to refresh himself, Ned discovers a row of grinning skulls on bamboo poles. Suddenly, he hears a distant drum beat. Frightened as the drums grow louder, he turns and makes a hasty retreat. Moments later, he bursts from the jungle and runs along the beach with a horde of howling savages behind him. Leaping into the skiff with Conseil, he grabs the oars and rows toward the comparative safety of the Nautilus. The cannibals launch outrigger canoes and attempt to intercept the skiff, but the fugitives reach the submarine and plunge into the main hatch. Coming along­side the craft, the invaders climb aboard and move toward the hatch. As they start down the steps, Nemo calmly pulls a lever that sends a current of electricity up the steps and along the deck. With loud shrieks, the savages leap in all directions as their bare feet touch the electrically-charged iron plates. Diving into the water, they climb aboard their canoes and head back to shore.

Soon afterward, a lone warship appears on the horizon. Bearing towards the helpless submarine, the vessel fires a volley of shells. Nemo takes the helm and manages to break clear of the reef, but not before one of the shells hits the submarine, damaging its drive shaft which, in turn, shuts off the pump machinery. The Nautilus sinks hundreds of fathoms before Nemo and his crew are able to replace the drive shaft.

After repairs are completed, the submarine levels off at one thousand fathoms and glides through a strange world made up of living organisms that illuminate the inky blackness of the deep. Through the salon viewport, Nemo and his passengers observe a myriad of luminous, hideously-looking anomalies. One fish, glowing from head to tail, is decorated with rows of brightly colored lights on both sides of its body and a vivid red lamp on the front of its head. “They are creatures of darkness in a world of eternal light,” Nemo remarks. “The very pressures that would destroy us nourish these obscene abnormalities.” (This sequence was edited out of the film. Although Fleischer fought hard to retain the scene, Disney rejected it on the grounds that the fish, which were colorfully animated, gave the film too much of a “cartoon” feeling. Like other scenes left on the cutting room floor, it was later utilized in Disneyland’s submarine ride.)

Suddenly, two giant squids appear from the darkness and swim toward the Nautilus. Lunging at the stern, the first squid wraps its tentacles around the helical propeller. When Nemo electrifies the hull, the stunned squid relaxes its hold and retreats into the darkness. However, the full electrical charge burns out the rheostat, leaving the submarine helpless against another attack. Moments later, the second squid hurls itself upon the submarine, wrapping its arms around the hull’s midsection. Realizing that he must fight the squid at close quarters, Nemo orders the Nautilus to the surface. (While putting the footage of this scene together, the filmmakers found that it was difficult to discern one squid from the other during the two attacks on the submarine. For the sake of clarity - and to avoid possible confusion among the viewing audience - one of the squids was eliminated in the final cut.)

Once on the surface, Nemo and his crew, armed with axes and harpoons, hack their way through the writhing mass of tentacles. Reaching a vantage point near the dorsal fin, Nemo throws his harpoon at the assailant, but misses the vital spot between the eyes. One of the gyrating appendages sweeps Nemo off his feet and drags him along the deck. Holding the captain in a death grip, the squid attempts to draw him into its snapping beak.

Meanwhile, Ned leaps on top of the wheelhouse with his harpoon. Taking careful aim, he hurls the iron at the monster. The barbed weapon finds its mark, burying itself in the fleshy tissue directly between the eyes, Squirming convulsively, the mortally wounded squid disappears beneath the waves, but still holding Nemo in a tight grip. Ned dives into the water and, using his knife, severs the tentacle. Pulling the captain away from the suction cups, Ned takes him back to the surface. Once inside the submarine, Nemo asks the harpooner why he saved his life. Dumbfounded, Ned shrugs at his captor and replies, “That’s a good question!”

Deeply touched by Ned’s act, Nemo decides to give humanity a second chance. As the Nautilus nears Vulcania, he takes Aronnax into his confidence. He plans on using the professor as an emissary to negotiate a peace with the outside world. He is willing to give the world the benefits of his knowledge - the secrets of the Nautilus - but only if nations will lay down their arms and abolish their slave camps. When the Nautilus surfaces off the coast of Vulcania, Nemo discovers a fleet of enemy warships waiting for him. Ned’s bottled messages have obviously been picked up. Vulcania is a rugged island of precipitous cliffs capped by a volcanic cone. Boarding parties have already landed. A large number of soldiers are seen scaling the slopes. “This is a dark hour for humanity,” Nemo tells the professor. “Everything must be destroyed before they reach the lagoon.”

Quickly submerging, the Nautilus passes under the keels of the warships and enters a narrow underwater tunnel which leads to the lagoon. After worming its way through the passageway, the submarine breaks the waters of the lagoon, which is a land-locked pool at the bottom of a volcanic crater. After anchoring the Nautilus in the center of the lagoon, Nemo and his oarsmen take the skiff and head towards the shore where a cluster of buildings are located, Coming alongside a pier, Nemo leaps out of the boat and hurries to a nearby warehouse. Suddenly, enemy soldiers appear on the rim of the volcanic cone. Pouring down the slopes of the crater, they open-fire on the Nautilus’ crew.

After planting a time bomb, Nemo and his men return to the submarine. As he enters the main hatch, a bullet rips into the side of his body, seriously wounding him. Fighting the pain, he gives the order to submerge. The Nautilus sinks beneath the waters of the lagoon and slips away into the open sea.

As the submarine moves away from the island, the dying captain orders a straight-down course. He is taking the Nautilus down for the last time. His dedicated crew, who have formed a suicide pact with their leader, solemnly obey his orders. But Aronnax and his comrades do not understand. “You cannot do this!” the professor pleads. “There’s more at stake here than our lives! Yours was a dream of the future come true! I beg you to reconsider!”

“A power greater than mine makes that impossible,” Nemo replies. “But there is hope for the future. And when the world is ready for a new and better life, all this will someday come to pass In God’s good time.”

While the crew go to their quarters to await the inevitable, Ned breaks loose from his guards and rescues his companions. Rushing to the wheelhouse, he pulls a bank of leavers which send the submarine to the surface. Scrambling to the deck, the three men climb aboard the skiff and shove off.

As they row to safety, they see a spectacular explosion which disin­tegrates Nemo’s island and its surrounding warships. A mushroom-shaped cloud hovers over the vortex. The detonation is followed by a tidal wave which hurls the submarine on its beam’s end. With its bow pointing towards the heavens like a avenging finger, the Nautilus slips beneath the waves for the last time.

 

ADVENTURES IN NEMOLAND

Even with Stage 3’s newly-built tank, Disney thought it necessary in the interests of realism to film the diving sequences on location, and thus limit dry-for-wet techniques and tank shots. Only one sequence, in which two divers discover a treasure chest inside a sunken, galleon, would be completely filmed in the indoor tank.

To supervise all diving operations, Disney chose Fred Zendar, a former U. S. Navy master diver and veteran of scores of sea pictures. Among his credits are; REAP THE WILD WIND, THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA and JAWS. Working closely with designer Goff, Zendar’s first task was to develop a special diving rig: Victorian-looking in appearance yet practical and self-contained.

There were only two methods of going underwater; one in a diving suit and helmet which has air hoses to a surface pump, and the other in scuba gear with air tanks strapped to the diver’s body. Goff’s first idea was to combine both methods and have a diver, wearing a helmet, receive his air from scuba tanks, instead of a surface pump. However, Zendar told the designer that the air could not be piped into the helmet from a scuba tank. The idea would not work because the diver’s air supply, which is regulated by a demand valve on the helmet, had to be adequate in both volume and pressure. This would require a great amount of compressed air and the diver could never get it from a scuba tank.

Zendar and Goff decided to use the scuba method. Pooling their talents, they designed a rig which allowed a diver to breathe automatically with an aqualung. Zendar, who handled the technical aspects of the rig, placed an aqualung’s inhalation and exhalation breathing tubes inside a Japanese pearl diver’s helmet, which was smaller and lighter than the standard helmet. To receive or exhale air, a diver simply had to breathe through the mouthpiece which connected both tubes.

Zendar’s next step was to create a lightweight, watertight diving suit. “Walt didn’t like the regular suit because it looked too bulky,” the veteran diver said. “He wanted something tailored, so I got surgical rubber, very thin rubber, and made the suit out of that.”

Because of his concern with what was in essence new prototype equipment, Zendar thought a little experimentation was necessary before he made the official presentation to Disney and Fleischer at the studio. On the night of November 6, Zendar and another diver went into the Del Mar Beach Club pool to test the equipment. With each diver wearing a helmet, modified scuba gear, lead weights, and 16-lb. lead-soled shoes, they walked from the shallow end of the pool to the deep end without any difficulty. Everything had worked perfectly - until the day of the presentation to Disney. Stunt diver Norm Bishop continued the story from there:

“I tested the goddamn suit in the Disney tank on the first day. Walt was there - everybody at the studio was there. Once I got into the water, I realized there was a problem: I didn’t have enough weight on me. Zendar, who was outside with the other people, saw me tiptoeing above the floor of the tank and knew immediately that I needed more weight on my belt. He signaled for me to come up.”

Bishop made his way to the side of the tank and started for the ladder. “I was tired after spending ten minutes walking around the tank,” the diver continued. “I barely made it to the ladder. Then, lo and behold, I passed out as I came up! I was out cold. Fred couldn’t figure out what was the matter. After a day of asking questions and driving each other crazy, we found out the special effects guys had cleaned the helmet inside and out - with turpentine. The fumes, which I didn’t smell, had caused me to pass out.”

With the correction of the turpentine problem, preproduction was far enough along for Zendar, Fleischer and Goff to leave Burbank to search for a good underwater location in the Bahama Islands. Also in the scouting party were underwater cameraman Till Gabbani and Bahaman expert Howard Lightbourn. Recounted Fleischer: “Freddy recommended the Bahamas because he believed the clearest water and best reefs were located there. We arrived in Nassau, hired a boat, and toured all the islands. We went diving every day to look for certain conditions. First of all, we wanted to work in depths above 32 feet. If we went deeper, we would encounter greater pressure and greater dangers in working. A lot of time would be spent decompressing. Also, the sunlight falls off sharply below 32 feet and there is no variety of color. We wouldn’t get very much exposure because everything is blue.”

“Eventually, we found a place called Lyford Cay, which was uniquely situated on the western tip of New Providence. It had a beautiful reef, a white bottom, and was only 28 feet below the surface. Being on the tip of the island, we could shoot either on the lee side or the windward side of the cay. So, if we had bad weather on one side, we’d have good protection on the other. It was a perfect location.”

“Later, I went back to Nassau and visited John Earnest Williamson, who made the first version of 20,000 LEAGUES. He asked me where I was going to shoot the picture. I said Lyford Cay. He was quite surprised and told me that was the same spot he used to shoot his version. Out of all the places in the world to choose from, I had selected the same site by sheer coincidence.”

Since the underwater sequences that were to be shot on location had the least technical and environmental control due to the whims of a capricious nature, and were therefore susceptible to the greatest cost overruns, it was decided that those scenes should be shot first, with principal lot photography to commence upon com­pletion of the proposed two-month trek.

The move to Nassau called for all the logistics and planning equal to that of a military maneuver. More than 20 tons of equipment - ranging from a thirty-cent screw driver to three specially-rigged underwater cameras valued at $5,000 each - had to be packed into 212 wooden crates. Then a fleet of six boats assembled, in­cluding a 110-foot LCT which served as the main base of operations, a LCM for use as a camera barge, and four speed boats which served as water-taxis.

On New Year’s Eve, Fleischer and Zendar arrived in Nassau with a crew of 54 men and enough equipment to sink a small barge. Because the divers depended on compressed air when they worked beneath the water, two giant air compressors were flown in to fill the 350 cylinders, each of which held 200 cubic feet of air at 2,000 pounds pressure. On the average day, the troupe would use 50 of these cylinders, or 10,000 cubic feet of compressed air.

After one year of preproduction, filming finally began on January 11, 1954. The first scene to be shot was also the most complicated. It was the burial sequence in which a crew member from the Nautilus is laid to rest in a coral grave. The scene required 33 men to be underwater simultaneously - 11 in front of the camera and 22 behind it. They included the cameraman, his assistants, prop men, grips, a still photographer and the ever-present underwater safety men. They would spend eight tedious and nerve-wracking days of film work on this sequence.

On a typical day, Fleischer’s first step was to diagram the action on a black­board. Then he had the actor-divers rehearse the scene on shore, step by step, until every man was familiar with every movement.

After the dry rehearsal, the cast was taxied to the LCT barge where they put on their diving gear. Dubbed the “Memo” in honor of the moody captain of the Nautilus, the diving rig consisted essentially of six parts: a copper helmet with breastplate; a flexible, waterproof suit; two compressed air tanks; an emergency tank worn on the front of the suit; lead weights to balance the air tanks; and lead-soled shoes. Standard wear included long woolen underwear, heavy woolen socks, and black leather gloves. The total weight of the gear was approximately 150 pounds.

After being put on air, the divers were helped from their bench to a rowboat which transported them to the shooting location. Once there, they lowered themselves to the ocean floor from ropes which hung over the sides of the boat. Each diver was met by an underwater guide with a yellow shirt who led him to his position in front of the camera.

Recalled Zendar: “We also had lifeguards who wore red shirts. Each man carried a small air bottle with a needle which could go into the cuff of a suit and give a diver air if he had a problem. Then we had surface guards who were always in verbal contact with the boat.” Added Bishop: “We had a safety man for every two divers - including a 300-pound wrestler who could tuck one under each arm and swim up.” To photograph the underwater scenes, cameraman Gabbani used a self-powered, remote-controlled Mitchell camera with a CinemaScope lens inside a pressurized, waterproof case. Specially adapted for underwater filming by the Disney Machine Shop, the camera was mounted on^, a scaffolded platform which could be raised from 5 to 20 feet. Gabbani also used a portable Aquaflex Camerette, encased in a water­tight blimp, for “swim through” and dolly shots.

To communicate underwater, the Disney crew devised a set of 12 hand signals to cover such film directions as “action”, “cut”, or “repeat scene”. Most impor­tant was the signal which meant: “Emergency - get me to the surface immediately!”

“We had well-planned emergency procedures if something happened to a diver,” Fleischer said. “Because we were so safety-conscious, nothing ever happened - until the people from Life magazine, who were covering the picture, asked us to stage an emergency so they could photograph a rescue operation. We decided to play along. However, while planning the fake emergency, two real ones occurred! One diver ripped his suit on a piece of coral. We took him out of the water immediately. The other emergency was very unusual.”

“The only way a diver could release the used air in his helmet was by pushing an inside valve with the back of his head, otherwise his suit would blow-up like a balloon and shoot to the surface. One diver was getting a bruise on his head from hitting the valve. So, he decided to wear a woolen cap to cushion his head. But each time he pushed the valve, the cap would move a little further down his forehead. Inevitably, it slipped down over his eyes and made him absolutely blind. He raised one arm which signaled that he had a problem, but it wasn’t serious. The safety men came over to him and looked through the front window, but they couldn’t see anything because it was too dark inside. Eventually, another diver came over and put his copper helmet against the other’s helmet. Earlier, our divers discovered they could talk to each other when they put their helmets together. The sound conduction was very good underwater. When the diver in distress was asked what was the problem, he let go of his stiff-necked mouthpiece and replied, ‘The cap’s over my eyes!’ As he answered, the cap slipped further down and covered his mouth! Since he couldn’t grab the mouthpiece to breathe, he raised both arms which indicated to the others that he had a serious problem. The safety men got him to the surface quickly and unscrewed his helmet so he could get air.”

In addition to the hand signals, the crew also used slat-boards and grease crayons as a means of communication.

Filming beneath the waters of Lyford Cay was unusually laborious. Not only was the underwater illumination from the sun difficult to achieve because of cloud coverage, but its duration at the best of times never lasted more than six hours. Shooting was usually done between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Four_, dives a day was maximum. “A diver’s oxygen supply was good only two hours,” the director explained. “The whole operation had to be completed within that limited period for safety. We would allow no more than 55 minutes from the time the first diver was put on air until the last diver went off air and was back on the barge.”

Daily the crew had to face frustrating weather, choppy water, and underwater turbulence. “On some days, when the conditions seemed right, a cloud would cover the sun and we’d have to stop because we didn’t have enough exposure,” Fleischer said. “On other days, the tide change would lift up the bottom and the silt would hang in the water for hours and drift right in front of the camera.”

To avoid having the divers kick up clouds of sand and coral dust, the director had heavy hemp matting carpeted along the ocean floor for them to walk on.

Although the reef abounded with numerous species of colorful fish, capturing them on film proved difficult. Frightened by whirring cameras and human activity, the reef fish would always scatter in different directions. Because every scene required the presence of as many creatures as the camera could catch, local fishermen were recruited to net large quantities of fish. Once netted, they were placed in wire mesh pens until needed for a scene. When Fleischer was ready to shoot, the fish would be placed in small cages by the prop men who released them out of camera range on cue. Once set free, large numbers would swim within range of the camera.

The most unusual incident experienced by the Disney company involved an eight foot nurse shark. Recalled Fleischer: “After the shark was captured and killed, we sewed up its mouth and left it on deck overnight. The next day, we attached a cable to its mouth so we could pull the creature in any direction. I wanted an over the-shoulder shot of the shark attacking the divers, so a camera was tied to the shark’s back with a rope that had a slipknot. If anything went wrong, the cameraman simply had to pull the slipknot to release the camera.”

“We put the shark into the water and made a couple of dives. Without any warning, the shark revived on the last dive, broke the cable, and dived straight down. The cameraman pulled the slipknot but it failed to release the camera. The shark took off into the deep with the man in tow. He refused to let go. Finally, he was able to free the camera, but he damaged both eardrums in the process.” Several minutes later, Fleischer had a meeting on deck. He told the crew that there would be a bonus to whoever found the shark and got it back. Since the shark was not considered dangerous because its mouth was still wired, everybody jumped off the barge and took off in different directions.

“We had a frogman team who swam with us all the time and photographed our operation,” the director continued. “They were official observers for the U. S. Navy. Two of the members went out to deep water to look for the shark. At first, they didn’t see anything, but then one of the divers spotted the shark. Swimming up to the creature, he grabbed the tail and shook it. After getting its attention, he tried to force the shark over to the barge. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned and saw the other diver who made a gesture indicating that the shark’s mouth was not wired. He had been intimidating the wrong shark! I was sitting on the barge when I saw these two divers come out of the water like beach balls. They got out in a hurry. We never did find the shark.”

By the middle of February, Fleischer had finished shooting the major portion of the underwater footage. A second unit, under the direction of editor Elmo Williams, would complete the rest of the footage. Fleischer’s next move was to film the cannibal island sequence with actors Kirk Douglas and Peter Lorre. Because a suitable location could not be found in the Bahamas, the director decided to shoot on the island of Jamaica, a tropical paradise known for its beautiful flora and white sand beaches. A remote area near Point Negrille, which had been discovered earlier by Goff and the director while on a weekend scout, served as a perfect substitute for the coastland of New Guinea.

Arriving in Montego Bay, the company recruited local residents to play the cannibals. Shooting progressed smoothly and the sequence was completed in two weeks. On March 2, the exhaustive location work finally came to an end. Seventeen days over schedule because-of bad weather conditions, the cast and crew headed back to California and the controlled conditions of Disney Studios.

 

THE SETS

The sets of the interior of the Nautilus were built for nearly $250,000, of a budget of 4.5 million, and were built mainly of wood, plywood, masonite and fiberglass (another 20,000 LEAGUES innovation).

Most of the film’s live action takes place in the Chartroom-Salon. Its distinctive features included working gages, etc. in the Chartroom, Nemo’s collection in the Salon, the magnificent pipe-organ and the View port with it’s iris shutter. Harper Goff recalled the development of the iris, “I wanted the iris to be an effective visual device which could either open a scene up or close it down. I took a lens from a camera and showed it to Bob Mattey, who was in charge of the picture’s mechanical effects. ‘How large can you make the iris?’ I asked, and Bob answered, ‘As big as your damn window, if that’s what you’re thinking about.’ He built the shutter and it worked perfectly the first time we tried it.”

Other exceptional sets included the pump room and the submarine’s power supply room. The pump room was built again of masonite, fiberglass and wood. Filled with practical effects (the pounding pumps, the prop shaft and a collapsing beam). The set was built on Stage 3 and could be flooded.

The power supply room presented some novel design problems to Harper Goff, as no one really knew what a nuclear reactor looked like! Goff designed a functional looking chamber fitted with cooling pipes, a device used by Aronnax for looking into the reactor. In the back wall Goff set a number of transparent salad bowls with flashing colored lights behind, visually impressive but totally impractical. The diving chamber and outfitting room were built on stage 3 with the diving well built over the tank. The divers would drop into the tank to “exit” the submarine. To reenter, scuba divers manhandled an unweighted diver up through the well hatch, a shot from a high pressure hose provided foam effects and a little impetus.

The Abraham Lincoln’s deck set was designed by Art Director John Meehan and built on a large cradle powered by Robert Mattey’s air ram technique. The whole set could rock to simulate the ship’s movement in the ocean.

Two sets were used in filming the underwater scenes filmed in the Bahamas, Built of materials bought on location, a section of the tail with part of the rudder and propeller and the exterior of the diver’s well (escape hatch) in the bottom of the keel.

 

SET DECORATION

Upon John Meehan’s recommendation Walt Disney recruited Emil Kuri from Paramount as Set Decorator. Among Kuri’s credits are SPELLBOUND and THE WAR OF THE WORLDS. He had worked with Meehan earlier on William Wyler’s THE HEIRESS, which earned both men an Academy Award. Kuri remained at Disney Studios for 20 years, winning Oscar nominations for THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR and MARY POPPINS.

Kuri scoured marine hardware shops all over the Los Angeles harbor area for the various nautical dials and gages used in the wheelhouse and throughout the submarine. Most of the furnishings were loaned out from the Paramount and MGM prop shops.

“I remember looking in the empty salon just after construction was finished, Kuri recalled, “and my first reaction was ‘This place looks like a cave!’ and then ‘How am I going to make this look Victorian?’“ Going all out for the salon he borrowed a Greek Amphora from a museum and rare volumes of books from the Library of Congress. Emir Kuri’s gold-on-red color scheme offset the salon interior and his plush fittings, velvet settees and drapes, Persian rugs and other rococo decorations, combined with Harper Goff’s design were largely responsible for the success of 20,000 LEAGUES.

 

THE CAST

To play the leading roles in his film, Walt Disney selected four actors who combined expert craftsmanship with wide popular appeal. For the role of the red blooded, muscle-flexing Ned Land, Disney chose Kirk Douglas. A change of pace from the unscrupulous and high-strung characters he had played in the past, the part of the fun-loving harpooner gave him a chance to display a lighter side of his talent.

Hungarian-born Paul Lukas, who won an Academy Award for his performance in WATCH ON THE RHINE, was selected to play the erudite French scientist, Professor Aronnax. Originally, Charles Boyer, whom Disney had admired in Fleischer’s THE HAPPY TIME, was slated to play the part of Aronnax but withdrew.

For the meek and mild-mannered Conseil, the professor’s apprentice, the producer chose Peter Lorre, who, until this film, had long been identified as one of the screen’s top heavies. The role of Conseil gave him the opportunity to show his comedic talents.

To portray the complex and mysterious Captain Nemo, the pivotal character in the story, Disney chose James Mason. The choice could not have been a better one. Although noted actors like Lionel Barrymore, Herbert Lom, Robert Ryan, Omar Sharif and Jose Ferrer have portrayed the enigmatic captain, both fans and critics agree that Mason’s interpretation was the best delineated. The subtle shadings and marked intelligence of his performance gave depth and dimension to a character that might have been merely a villain in less capable hands.

In an exclusive interview with CFQ, Mason reminisced about his character and the film:

“To tell you the truth, I never read 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA. I was going strictly by the script and the writer’s presentation of Captain Nemo.”

“I did refuse to do the film a couple of times. It was presented to me by my agent at the time, Ray Stark, who tried to coax me into playing the character of Captain Nemo. But I was afraid 20,000 LEAGUES was going to be a children’s film and I didn’t like the idea of Captain Nemo being played down to a juvenile level. However, I couldn’t help thinking that the script was very good. Then Stark attacked me on the subject of the director, Richard Fleischer, who had recently made a film (THE HAPPY TIME) which had turned out well. Zanuck at Fox was very keen to employ him. Stark had no doubt that Fleischer would have an adult point of view. He believed that the film had a good chance of being a ‘grown-up’ picture which coincidentally would hit the juvenile market. So, I: was convinced that the film would be good, but I wasn’t sure how to play the part. So, I did a little thinking about it and decided I could lick it.”

“I was attracted to Nemo’s cause and individuality. During certain periods of history, there are men of culture who become revolutionaries because they detest some particular aspect of current power. In the case of Nemo, he was a man who detested imperialism. He hated ‘the nation that flew no flag’, which was thought to refer to Great Britain, who was a rather aggressive imperialist power at the time the story took place. Nemo was an individualist revolutionary, not a nationa­list hero. He wanted to build the world according to his own specifications, rather than the specifications of the current powers. This, I thought, would be inte­resting to deal with.”

“20,000 LEAGUES was a producer’s film and spectators’ film. It was conceived by Disney as a story that could be translated into one exciting sequence after another. It was a challenge for the set designer and special effects people. For the director and actors it was routine. I do not believe that the acting parts were written at any great depth. Many sophisticates pooh-pooh 20,000 LEAGUES. However, it’s still a popular film today because it’s a good story well told. Disney insisted upon perfection. I share the fans’ enthusiasm for the film. Not long ago I saw it dubbed into German. It was still terrific.”

Later, Mason was offered - but declined - to reprise the role of Nemo in both versions of MYSTERIOUS ISLAND.

Director Fleischer disagreed with Mason’s statement about the film being routine for the director and actors: “I’m surprised James said that. He couldn’t be more wrong. It’s just that Walt had a powerful personality. When you make a Disney picture, it’s a DISNEY picture. Everyone else gets washed out - the director, the actors, the writer. Until recent years, I got very little credit for directing 20,000 LEAGUES. Walt’s personality overpowered the picture and the public thought it was his movie. Nobody else ever got any credit.”

 

PRINCIPAL LOT PHOTOGRAPHY

Returning to Burbank after eight weeks of location shooting, the main unit began four months of principal lot photography. On March 10, Fleischer started shooting the fight with the giant squid, the most technically difficult sequence in the film. Those primarily responsible for the creation of the monster squid were sculptor Chris Mueller and mechanical effects expert Robert A. Mattey. Chris Mueller began his career as an apprentice sculptor working under his father on the San Francisco World’s Fair in 1914. By 1936, he found himself working in Universal Studio’s staff shop (staff being the mixture of plaster and hemp fiber which was used prior to such modern innovations as fiberglass). Mueller does immeasurable research for the natural animal reproductions and monsters he creates. As he puts it, he “lives the animal” before he creates it. One of Mueller’s many credits for Universal is THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. After careful research into reptiles and amphibians, he sculpted the complete “gillman” suit from only one sketch of the creature’s head.

Mueller’s reproduction of the giant squid differed slightly from the original. When the art department blew up the image of a normal-sized squid to gigantic proportions, it was discovered that the squid’s tentacles (sessile arms) were too short and thickset in comparison with its elongated body. To make the creature more formidable in appearance, Mueller stretched the tentacles to twice their length and tapered them. The body and arms of the monster were constructed of rubber, steel spring, flexible tubing, glass cloth, Lucite and plaster.

While Mueller gave the squid a believable body, it was up to Robert A. Mattey to give it life. Mattey, who has spent fifty years in the film industry, became interested in the field of special effects while working in RKO’s prop shop on the mechanical props for KING KONG. RKO’s series of TARZAN films gave Mattey the opportunity to create a variety of mechanical animals, including a walking turtle that could spit water and a radio-controlled 15-foot alligator. Another creation, a giant octopus that attacked John Wayne in WAKE OF THE RED WITCH, attracted Harper Goff’s attention and Mattey soon found himself working on 20,000 LEAGUES, his first of many Disney films.

On March 17, after a week of shooting the squid fight, Disney called a halt to the sequence. Remembered Fleischer: “No matter what I did, or what any director could have done, you couldn’t make the fight look realistic. The scene took place on a placid sea at sunset. In the bright light, it was difficult to hide the flaws, especially the wires that supported the tentacles. All the mechanics and defects of the squid were exposed to the camera. When you tried to do something with the squid, it would look phony as hell. For example, its body, which was filled with kapock, would absorb the water and become so heavy that the technicians couldn’t move it. The added weight would break the wires and the squid would just lay on the deck like a lox. After a few days of struggling with it, Walt came up to me and said, ‘Stop working on this scene and go on to something else. Let’s see if we can solve the problem.’“

“The problems were numerous,” Geoff recalled. “The deck looked like a concrete island. With all the people and activity on board, the deck should have floated and canted to one side. The tentacles were another problem. They could deteriorate right before our eyes. Big chunks would fall off in the middle of shooting and we’d have to glue them back.”

Because Fleischer had to continue shooting the rest of the film, Disney hired second-unit director James C. Havens to restage and reshoot the squid fight. A veteran director of action sequences, Havens’ credits include THEY WERE EXPENDABLE, THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (in which he directed all of the underwater scenes) and both versions of MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY.

Disney screened the first version of the squid fight for Havens. “It was terrible,” Havens remembered, “Everything looked artificial, especially the squid and the deck. The main problem with the sequence was the fact that it was shot on a calm sea at sunset. The action didn’t fit into the setting. Also, the actors didn’t take the fight seriously and clowned around on the set. The editor who put the footage together had a sense of humor. He dubbed in voices for James Mason and the squid! For instance, while Mason was jabbing a tentacle with his harpoon, his dubbed voice would say, ‘Sorry about that, old chap.’ Then the squid’s beak would open and reply, ‘That’s quite all right, dear boy, because I have nine more!’ It was very funny.”

Aware of the problem, Havens soon came up with a solution. “We’ll shoot the fight in a rainstorm,” he told Goff after the screening. “We’ll get the cameraman to light the rain so it catches flashes of light as it falls. Everything will be wet. The audience will see so many glinting lights, they won’t know whether they’re seeing rain or wires.” Goff suggested that the fight be shot in a full-scale storm. This would mean changing the water level and renting dump tanks and wind machines, but the overall effect would hide the artificiality of the deck set. Also, the sequence would be far more exciting with Nemo fighting the elements as well as the squid.

Havens agreed with Goff’s idea and both went to see Disney, who was not too receptive at first. “You’re going so far from Verne,” he told them. “We already have an atomic explosion at the end of the picture to make it more timely.” However, Havens eventually convinced the producer that a terrific storm would add more excitement and obscure the flaws. The new sequence would cost Disney $200,000 and a six-week delay in shooting.

While waiting for Mattey and his crew to come up with a better method for operating the squid, Havens took the second unit to San Diego to shoot a scene in which Ned, Aronnax and Conseil are left on the deck of the Nautilus while it submerges. To make the scene look as realistic as possible, a mock-up of the boat’s afterdeck and dorsal fin was attached to the stern of an actual submarine, the USS Redfish. A remote-controlled camera was screwed down fairly low on the deck while Havens and his crew stationed themselves on the top of the conning tower. On deck were Fred Zendar, Gil Parker and Charles Regan, who doubled for the actors., Simulating a dive, the Redfish went down only far enough for the camera crew to shoot the ocean lapping at the stern surface. “If it had been another studio,” Goff said, “I don’t think the Navy would have allowed it. During World War II, Disney had designed some insignias for them without remuneration. They felt indebted to Walt and the studio.” The submerging scene, which lasts less than a minute on the screen, took nearly one week to set up and shoot,

Meanwhile, director Fleischer was putting his actors through their paces on the soundstage. Although both Kirk Douglas and James Mason were considered very temperamental actors, it was Paul Lukas with whom the director had the most difficulty. Lukas, who played the kind and open-minded Aronnax., was quite the opposite of his character. “In the beginning, everything was fine,” Fleischer remembered. “I didn’t have any trouble with Kirk or James. I got along with everyone except Paul. He was a very unpleasant man on the picture. He and Peter Lorre were the closest of friends when we started the picture. But by the time we finished the picture, they weren’t talking to each other. Paul was going to sue Walt, Kirk and myself. He was going through some kind of crisis. He was a very distinguished stage actor and, as actors grow older, they have difficulty remembering their lines. Paul had that problem and I think it disturbed him. When he couldn’t remember his lines, he’d blow up at somebody. He and I had a terrible argument on the set one day. He thought his dialogue was terrible and blamed Earl Felton for it. I defended the writer and told Paul to blame himself because he couldn’t remember his lines. I said it because I had finally lost my temper. I’m not usually that cruel to people but he was such a pain in the ass.” Lukas’ constant complaining prompted Lorre to give his fellow thespian a nickname - “Grandma.” (Several years later, the two actors reconciled their differences and appeared in another film together, 1960’s SCENT OF MYSTERY.)

Veteran cinematographer Franz Planer (DEATH OF A SALESMAN, ROMAN HOLIDAY, THE CAINE MUTINY) was faced with two difficulties; working in the new process of CinemaScope and trying to create the proper atmospheric lighting for the low ceiling sets that were narrow and cramped. “The submarine’s interior was designed specifically for CinemaScope,” Fleischer said. “The sets were built to fit within our frame. Lighting them was difficult. We had no place to hide the lights because everything was visible - the ceiling, the walls, the floor. In the salon, for example, poor Franz Planer had to hide the lights under the furniture, behind the drapes, and even under the cushions. The only other light source came from behind the camera because that part of the set was out. Lighting was such a problem that we could get only three or four set-ups a day. The picture was very slow to make.”

In April, the main unit moved to the Twentieth Century-Fox back lot to film exteriors. The deck of the Nautilus was moved in sections via trailer trucks to Fox’s Chicago Lake which served as the location for Nemo’s base. Another Fox facility used by the Disney company was the huge Sersen tank with its painted sky backdrop. Here was filmed the memorable scene in which the cannibals are electrocuted while attempting to board the submarine. After two uneventful weeks of location shooting, the main unit returned to their home studio to shoot additional interiors.

On April 26, second-unit director Havens began shooting the all-important squid fight. Stage 3 was cluttered with wind machines, dump tanks, water cannons and other equipment which Havens had rented from M-G-M. The deck of the Nautilus, which had been on an even keel in the first version, was now canted to port in order to get more freeboard and to give the impression that the squid was clinging to the hull.

After several weeks of trial and error, Robert Mattey had finally devised an effective method for operating the mechanical monster’s twenty-foot-long tentacles. “We utilized vacuum and air pressure,” Mattey explained. “It was a system that had never been used before. Each tentacle, which had a pneumatic tube and thin spring steel interior, was hooked into an air pump. When you pressurized the interior, the tentacle would expand and straighten out. When you vacumized it, the tentacle would draw back and coil up. Each tentacle was supported by half a dozen wires and, in some shots, we had as many as 50 people in the stage rafters working them. The most difficult problem was getting those tentacles to do what you wanted them to do. They seemed at times to have a mind of their own, like so many things do when you try to get them to duplicate a human or animal action. A lot of rehearsal went into coordinating the tentacle movement. After a lot of practice, we could get one to reach out and literally roll up an actor’s leg.” This was, indeed, puppetry on a grand scale. The squid’s ten-foot-long foam body was attached to a hydraulic ram which could raise it several feet out of the water. Its snapping parrot-like beak was pneumatically operated. A dolly below the ram could move the body in any direction. Other actions, like the movement of the eyes, required an extensive electrical network. The mechanical beast weighed nearly a ton and was operated by a team of 16 men. Although the squid represented quite a challenge to Mattey, his greatest challenge would come twenty years later with his creation of the twenty-five-foot great white shark in JAWS.

Because the squid fight was shot at night during a storm, the faces of those on deck were indistinct when viewed by the camera. For that reason neither James Mason or Kirk Douglas were needed on the set. Instead, Havens used stuntmen John Daheim, Carl Vernell and Fred Gabourie to double for the stars. However, on May 10 and 11 (which was the only time Fleischer and his unit worked on the squid fight), both stars were present for their cuts in the sequence. It was during one of these pick-up shots that the only potentially dangerous accident happened. While maneuvering toward the squid, one of James. Masons’ legs became entangled in a lateral wire which swept him overboard. When the crew realized that the actor was being pulled under the water by the wire, they quickly jumped into the tank to help him. Luckily, Mason surfaced uninjured. On May 12, Havens wrapped up the squid fight to everybody’s relief and satisfaction. It became the best remembered scene in the film.

On May 20, Havens completed his second unit work with the filming of portions of the Vulcania and Rorapandi slave camp sequences near Death Valley, California. (The principal shots of Nemo and Aronnax at the Rorapandi beach had been filmed earlier by Fleischer at the Fox back lot.)

The last several weeks of principal photography were hectic for Fleischer and his crew. Not only did they have to shoot the opening sequences of the film, but also those interior scenes that required water effects (i.e., the flooding of the compartments after the submarine is shelled by a warship).

For the Abraham Lincoln sequence, Disney hired Thomas M. Dykers, rear admiral (retired), U. S. Navy, to serve as the technical advisor for the battle scenes. His main task was to make the naval action as accurate as possible. It was Dykers who advocated that the pivot gun be used to shell the sea monster, rather than the stationary guns which lined the sides of the warships. He also advised the actor-sailors on how to react and organize when called to battle stations.

Filming the water-effects scenes involved rebuilding and reinforcing the set pieces and mounting them in a shallow section of the tank on Stage 3. Because of extensive preproduction planning, the shooting of the flooded interiors went smoothly and without any major delays.

In early June, the main unit moved to the back lot of Universal Studios to shoot exteriors for the San Francisco sequence. After a couple of days of uneventful shooting, the company returned to Disney Studios to film additional pick-up shots and wet interiors. Finally, on June 19, Fleischer completed principal photography with the filming of the Treasure Galleon sequence, with divers Norm Bishop and Ed Stepner doubling for actors Lorre and Douglas.

 

SPECIAL MINIATURE EFFECTS

Ralph Hammeras, director of effects photography, was one of the great pioneers in film. He began working in the film industry in 1915 as a scenic painter. In 1925, he patented a revolutionary process - the glass shot - which opened new vistas for filmmakers. Until that time, the studios had built full sets for every scene. Utilizing the glass shot, only a portion of the set needed to be built, with the rest of it painted on a sheet of glass set in front of the camera.

About this time, Hammeras also worked closely with another, great pioneer, Willis O’Brien, painting glass shots for the classic LOST WORLD. In 1928, he received his first Academy Award nomination for “engineering effects” for THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HELEN OF TROY, but lost to Roy Pomeropy’s work on WINGS. While working on the film, THE DIVINE LADY, he came up with another revolutionary idea, the process shot. In 1931, after three years of developing rear-view projection, he was awarded a “Golden Scroll for Scientific Achievement” for the Background Process shot. Other award nominations from the Motion Picture Academy were for JUST IMAGINE for Art Direction and DEEP WATER for Special Effects.

After 1929, Hammeras worked mainly for Fox Studios, and it was there that he was approached by Disney, who was negotiating with Fox for the use of their CinemaScope lenses, along with various production facilities and some of the studio’s special effects personnel. Hammeras joined the project in November, 1953, and was ready to begin shooting tests on December 22.

The first tests shot were of a prototype model of the Nautilus designed by Harper Goff. At this time, there was only one CinemaScope lens and Fox was using it on THE ROBE. Fox would send it over to Disney studio, via motorcycle, several times a week until another lens could be made by Bausch and Lomb. To get around this Goff’s model was built to anamorphic proportions, the same height but squeezed to only about half the length. After being photographed with a regular flat 35mm lens, the image would then be projected through a anamorphic (CinemaScope) lens and have the correct proportions on the screen. The arrival of the second anamorphic lens and more design changes on the submarine eliminated the use of this unique model.

The first miniature sequences to be shot were the underwater scenes of the Nautilus. The eleven-foot model of the submarine was the first out of the shop. The hull was made of 1/8-inch iron plates with the detailing done on brass plates “sweatwelded” on. Powered by five car batteries, there were practical lights in the wheelhouse and salon viewports and an electric motor to turn the prop and the “screw-speed indicator”. The entire model, fully rigged, weighed more than a thousand pounds.

Shooting the underwater scenes was done in the tank in the new sound stage at Disney studios. Using both wet and dry-for-wet techniques, the submarine was run through the tank on a track rig designed by consultants Howard and Theodore Lydecker. Controlled from a panel next to the camera, this rig could run forward or reverse and raise or lower the model. Hung from the rig by four main wires, some six other wires controlled the practical effects built into the model.

Shots of the submarine cruising the depths of the sea were fairly standard effects for a submarine film, but the script of 20,000 LEAGUES called for much more ambitious action. For example, underwater scenes of the Nautilus ramming through the keel of a warship, running aground on a reef, traversing the tunnel into Nemo’s base, and its encounter with the giant squid.

Dressing the tank with seaweed, rocks and coral was done by Hammeras’ miniature crew, most of whom had been brought in from Fox. Background paintings were done by the newly-arrived Peter Ellenshaw.

Finishing up the cruising scenes in fairly short order, the miniature unit was ready to move on to the more elaborate setups. The attack on the nitrate ship was accomplished by first using the dry-for-wet technique. For the close shot of the Nautilus tearing through the keel of the doomed ship, the models were photographed upside down, so wood debris from the nitrate ship would seem to float up. The following long ship of the submarine pulling away from the hull of the sinking ship was photographed underwater in the tank with the Lydecker rig.

Dry-for-wet was kept to a minimum even though much greater control can be exercised over the situation. Toward the end of production further scenes would be shot using this technique to extend the shots in the Vulcania tunnel. Wet scenes in the tunnel were kept to quick establishing shots of the Nautilus tracking through the miniature tunnel set. Filming this shot was supervised by editor Elmo Williams. “We ran the model through the dry tank on stage 3 on the Lydecker rig. We put a hose on the far side of the sub, away from the camera, we pumped a mixture of water and glycerin on the prop. On the screen it looked like bubbles of the prop wash.”

One of the key miniature effects scenes is the attack on the Nautilus by the giant squid. In Verne’s novel Nemo and his crew fight off a half dozen squids or octopi (depending on the translation.) Cutting this number down to two in the shooting script, Hammeras tackled what seemed a difficult shot in a rather simplistic, but very effective way. Wrapping the tentacles of a small squid, sculpted and cast by Chris Mueller, around the eleven-foot model and tying the ends with thread, Hammeras pulled the squid away on a guide wire, then he cleverly reversed the film, which gave the illusion that the monster was swimming toward the camera, instead of away from it.

Photographing the underwater scenes with standard Mitchell camera equipment with 50mm and 75mm anamorphic lens, Hammeras over-cranked the film speed to between 35 to 50 frames per second in order to slow down the practical effects, such as bubbles, prop wash, etc, and to give the Nautilus a feeling of more scale movement. In earlier script drafts the Nautilus moved in an almost fish-like manner but the size of the model and the limits of the Lydecker rig forced the decision to slow down the Nautilus.

Walt Disney had only one complaint about Hammeras’ work. Warren Wray Hamilton, miniature painter and technician on 20,000 LEAGUES, recalled, “Ralph shot so much test footage of the miniatures that Walt called him in on the carpet a few times, but other than that we had a fairly free hand and were able to test and shoot things over until they were perfect.”

With completion of most of the SPFX work in stage 3, the miniature unit moved to Fox Studios to shoot the exterior effects. Fox’s Sersen Lake, named for Fred Sersen, long time effects man at Fox, was 300 feet long and 190 feet at its widest point and about 3 feet deep with a 20 foot deep pit in the center. Running the width of the tank and about 30 feet from the rim, was a painted sky backdrop, 73 feet high and 224 feet wide.

Models of 3 conventional ships would be needed as well as those of the submarine. Largest and most detailed, the Abraham Lincoln was nearly 30 feet long and rigged for such practical effects as bow wave, cannon and smokestack smoke, and running lights. Well researched, the Abraham Lincoln was an exact replica of a top-of-the line post Civil War fighting ship. Built and rigged the same as the Abraham Lincoln, the Golden Arrow (sunk by the Nautilus in the opening of the film) and the unnamed nitrate ship were smaller and less detailed. All. three ships were built to be free-floating and were towed through the tank by cable.

For scenes of the Nautilus running on the surface, Hammeras principally used a 22-foot-long waterline model of the submarine. This model was attached to a wheeled dolly that was weighted and pulled by cable. Rigged with air hoses and water jets for foam and bow wash, the model was ringed with lights below the waterline to give the effect of phosphorescence in the night shots. The practical effects on this model are best seen in the sequence of the Nautilus splitting the water as she is attacking.

“The thing had more drag then we expected,” Hamilton recalled of the 22-foot-long model, “and we had some trouble with the lights at first. Les Wharburton, head of the model shop, had rigged them with AC current and the over cranked camera picked up a strobe on film. Les had to pull it apart and rewire it.”

Pulled through the tank by a truck, the surface model was photographed by Hammeras using a Mitchell 35mm camera, with a Bausch and Lomb anamorphic lens, over cranked to 50 frames a second to slow down the various practical effects. Again shooting innumerable tests Hammeras eliminated several planned sequences as too weak, including an interesting shot of the Nautilus threading through the ice floes of the south pole.

Largest and most elaborate of the “live” surface effect shots is the final scene of the film: the destruction of Nemo’s secret base and the sinking of the Nautilus. The shot called for the island to blow up, the warships anchored around it to sink, a tidal wave to rush out and engulf the submarine and whirl it around and move on, and the submarine to sink with the smoking remains of the island in the background.

Hamilton remembers, “In all my years of working on miniatures, this was one of the most complicated and the most successful. We had the sky backdrop in the background, then a cutout of the island done by Peter Ellenshaw, then the charge (60 pounds of flash powder). Now all this was behind the rim of the tank. In the tank we had some small warships, rigged so we could pull them underwater, then, in the center of the tank, was the Nautilus. We had a “dead man” weight in the pit with a cable and pulleys so we could pull the submarine down by the tail. Underwater we had two dollies, built up and weighted, that were pulled by a pulley system and a truck to generate the tidal wave. At the narrow end of the tank was the camera with a glass painting by Ellenshaw hanging in front to extend the height of the painted backdrop.”

“The only real trouble we had with the shot was with the tidal wave,” continued Hamilton. “The driver of the truck that pulled the dollies was a little anxious and on the first try took off like a bat. Well we didn’t know how much water the dollies would displace; so the truck took off and the wave rolled down the length of the tank, right up the ramp at the narrow end and washed out the camera crew!”

“When we finally got the shot it went something like this: the charge was set off, the island cutout was dropped below the rim of the tank and the warships were then pulled under. Then the wave started out, passing the submarine, which was then given some slack so it could be tossed about. Then it was, pulled under.”

 

SPFX MATTE PAINTINGS:

A major aspect of the special effects in 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA is the matte, or glass paintings. Painted by Peter Ellenshaw, the mattes were photographed live on the original negative as opposed to being combined optically as is commonplace today.

Peter Ellenshaw began his matte painting career working under Percy “Pop” Day on films such as Alexander Horda’s THINGS TO COME and THIEF OF BAGHDAD. After a stint in the R.A.F. during the second World War, he began to supervise matte work. After working on films like the great fantasy STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN and MGM’s QUO VADIS, Ellenshaw went to work for Walt Disney, providing paintings for Disney’s British-made live-action films, like TREASURE ISLAND, THE STORY OF ROBIN HOOD, SWORD AND THE ROSE and ROB ROY. Recognizing Ellenshaw’s value to his live-action plans, Walt Disney invited him to move bag and baggage to Los Angeles. Arriving during the end of preproduction, he went to work immediately with Ralph Hammeras’ miniature unit.

One of Ellenshaw’s first jobs was a series of “mood” paintings of the special effects scenes. His influence is seen in several of the underwater shots of the Nautilus in silhouette glides among giant coral formations.

“The mattes we did mostly at Fox, glass shots done on the original negative. One of the hardest was of the submarine surfacing in the lagoon. We mounted the camera and the painting rather precariously on top of the seventy-foot scaffold that held the painted sky and shot down on the tank and submarine.”

“We did shoot one painting out on location,” continued Ellenshaw, “when Capt. Nemo shows the Professor the prison camp. We all went out to a gravel quarry, the crew and extras. Because we had a limited number of extras, we shot the foreground of the prison camp in the morning and then moved the actors to the background where we shot the same scene in the afternoon (to give the impression that there are twice as many people). Then we shot the painting on the original negative.”

Harper Goff recalls, “There were 27 mattes and most people never see them. I’ve looked and couldn’t count more than 14, but I know all 27 were there.”

“Most matte shots are too ideal,” continued Goff, “the extreme now is to paint everything. Today’s mattes are photographed so clinically that you can’t help but see what’s wrong with them. Peter knew that if he painted a detailed matte, it would never be shown to full advantage on film. He knew what could be photographed and what the audience was going to see. He knew what to do with the camera if there was a shortcoming in the matte or glass. For example he might say, ‘We’re losing our light. Since we can’t spend any more time on the painting, let’s open up the camera lens and diffuse it.’ Then he’d get the painting to look just right. He wasn’t afraid to go out on location, paint the matte and shoot it right there. He’s a guy that knew what he wanted to do.”

 

SPFX EFFECTS ANIMATION

“Walt said they could do all sorts of animated visual effects, so we wouldn’t go for the normal theatrical live action special effects; the submarine underneath the water, the prop worl, the water distortion on the glass ports, ripple and the light bouncing off the water. That’s the way it was at the start,” remembered Harper Goff, “and then as we got into it we discovered that once you built the submarine then add a tank you could get lots of footage really cheaper then you could do it with effects animation. We found out that there was something extra beautiful and extra unreal -, convincing in a way but not convincing, about the effects of animation compared to the natural thing.”

This did not eliminate effects animation. Veteran Disney animator and effects supervisor on the film, John Hench explained, "the animation scenes were not especially different from anything we’d done. They just seemed to work in. Most of the time when we combine live-action and animation you can really pick it out. I don’t know anybody who can pick out all the animation in 20,000 LEAGUES.”

In addition to the Nautilus’ defensive electrical charge, animated fish, jellyfish, and seaweed abound in the underwater footage. One example of the subtlety of animation in 20,000 LEAGUES is in the sequence in which the Nautilus has rammed the nitrate ship. As Aronnax, Conseil and Ned Land watch from the salon viewport, the nitrate ship sinks, back broken, trailing bubbles and debris, burning internally. All bubbles, boards and other debris were animated in, including the burst from the subsequent explosion.

 

POST PRODUCTION

Post production chores, sound effects, voice looping, musical score, and final editing were done during the late summer and fall of 1954.

“The first sound effects job on the picture was very, very bad,” editor Elmo Williams remembered. “We had to scrap the whole thing: I took on the job of supervising the sound effects. I remember going out one night to the Farmer’s Market on Fairfax with one of the sound men. They had a huge Chinese gong hung there and we taped the sound as we beat on it very gently. We reversed the sound and it gave us the “humming” sound of the Nautilus’ engines that’s almost constantly in the background.”

Brought in by Richard Fleischer as editor, Elmo Williams’ credits as editor included such films as LIMELIGHT in 1936 and THE MIRACLE OF THE BELLS in 1948. In 1952 he received a Oscar for his work editing HIGH NOON.

“Editing the film itself I did at night,” recalled Williams. “As I stayed on the set with the director most of the time so I started editing right at the beginning of production and kept it up to date. The first rough cut of the film was 3 hours long, but it wasn’t quite finished. We had shot a number of extra scenes and had planned quite a few more, the submarine at the South Pole, Atlantis, sailing through the ruins of Port Royal and a lot more live-action, but some of those sequences were never realized because we were going to have too much film. One scene I cut was of this weird fish in the deep trenches under the sea. In the salon after he fixes the engine of the sinking submarine, Nemo opens the shutter and shows his prisoners these strange creatures, but about the time the film was due to be released, Life Magazine, National Geographic and others were running spreads of the real thing, now the animators had done a great job, but it was their version of the fish, so we eliminated the scene.”

“As I recall,” continued Williams, “Dick Fleischer wanted to keep some things I thought should go and vice-versa, but Walt always gave everything a fair try. Walt was a stickler, but his first thought was about the quality of the show. The final version is the one I completed in the cutting room, we dubbed it and never went back.”

Working from a Movieola, long time Disney composer Paul Smith, who scored THE TRUE LIFE ADVENTURES and countless Disney animated features (BAMBI, PINOCCHIO, SNOW WHITE, etc.) timed the final cut of the film and began to write the musical score for the film. Writing a full symphonic score in 3 months, Paul Smith remembered, “I write what the director, Walt and I felt the picture needed, light for Ned Land, and heavy and somber for Nemo. It was pretty much traditional at Disney to do full scores for films coming from a cartoon background, where every action is musically accented.”

“The song “Whale of a Tale” was written before production by Al Hoffman and Norm Gimble, I used it in the score for Ned Land’s motif. The only other outside music was the piece Nemo plays at his organ, Bach’s Toccata and Fuge in D Minor. It is a powerful piece of music and it fit well in the scene.”

 

DISTRIBUTION AND COMMERCIALIZATION

In the fall of 1954, Disney entered the field of television with a weekly series titled Disneyland. There were two reasons why he became involved in the new medium. Primarily, he needed a financially sound investor to commit funds to the building of his theme park. The American Broadcasting Company was willing to invest heavily in the park with the understanding that Disney produce a series for the network. Also, a weekly series allowed the producer to freely publicize his films and other ventures. One of the first programs to be aired was Operation Undersea, a documentary about the filming of 20,000 LEAGUES. Basically a one hour commercial for the yet-to-be-released feature, Operation Undersea scored high in the Nielsen ratings and won an Emmy as the outstanding program of the year.

Although both RKO and Paramount bid to distribute 20,000 LEAGUES, Disney decided to release the film through his own distribution subsidiary, Buena Vista. His previous theatrical productions had been released by RKO, who had taken a large share of their grosses. With the formation of Buena Vista, Disney was able to lower distribution costs from 30 to 15 percent of the gross and acquire total control over the exploitation of his films. 20,000 LEAGUES was the first dramatic feature to be released under the Buena Vista banner.

On December 9, the film was previewed for several hundred exhibitors at the Astor Theater in New York. Before the showing, five major theater chains had paid three million dollars for renting the film. After the screening, the smaller chains were more than anxious to exhibit it. Everyone was enthusiastic. They knew that Disney had a commercial hit. Two weeks later, on December 23, the film opened in 60 houses across the nation. The reviews were generally favorable. Variety called it “a special kind of picture-making, combining photographic ingenuity, imaginative story-telling and economic daring. A grand assortment of exciting entertainment values. The production itself is the star.”

The Hollywood Reporter declared that “Disney has really topped himself in bringing the most dignified and respected of all science-fiction classics to the screen. The production abounds in belly laughs and spine-tingling thrills:, set forth with an all-important air of plausibility. The amazing technical proficiency of Disney’s production staff not only makes you believe the fantastic tale but actually live it throughout the more than two hours of running time.” Another favorable review came from the Los Angeles Times, who said, “...As a sci-fi job, 20,000 LEAGUES is the ablest since the previous year’s WAR OF THE WORLDS... (It is) a skillfully sustained thriller...” The Times also added, “It has its terrifying aspects, so discretion is; recommended where impressionable youngsters are concerned. Nearly everyone else should find the voyage exhilarating.”

20,000 LEAGUES was Disney’s - and Hollywood’s - most expensive film to date. The final cost, including prints and advertising, was $9,000,000. It was also one of Disney’s most popular films, grossing $6.8 million in its first release and $2.2 million on its second release in 1963.

In 1955, 20,000 LEAGUES was honored with two Academy Awards for best direction-set decoration and best special visual effects. It was John Meehan’s third Oscar win in only five years and Emile Kuri’s second in the same period. It is interesting to note that Kuri had two nominations that year, the other being four M-G-M’s EXECUTIVE SUITE. Elmo Williams’ clever editing was also nominated but lost to ON THE WATERFRONT. In the special effects category, the other nominees were Warner’s THEM! and Fox’s HELL AND HIGH WATER. Ironically, HIGH WATER was also a submarine adventure which had as a fiery finale the atomic destruction of a remote island. Like 20,000 LEAGUES, its miniature effects: were shot in the Sersen tank by a Fox crew.

Because the Oscar for special effects went to the studio, neither Ralph Hammeras, Peter Ellenshaw or Robert Mattey were honored for their contributions (Disney once told Fleischer: “Why do the work yourself when you can get someone else to do it and still get the credit for it.” Perhaps this statement should have been part of Disney’s acceptance speech when he received the award on behalf of the studio. After the awards ceremony, the producer wrote a congratulatory letter to Hammeras, thanking him for his creative contribution to the film. He closed the letter with an invitation to Hammeras to stop by his office any time he wanted to take a look at the Oscar.). Later, however, both Mattey and Ellenshaw would receive recognition from the Academy. In 1961, Mattey would receive a well-deserved Oscar nomination for his ingenious “flubber” and “flying flivver” effects in Disney’s THE ABSENT-MINDED PROFESSOR. Ellenshaw would win two Oscars for his impressive matte paintings for 1964’s MARY POPPINS and 1971’s BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS.

Because Harper Goff was not allowed to receive screen credit as the production designer on 20,000 LEAGUES, the Academy could not put his name up for nomination. When asked if he had any ill-feelings about the matter, Goff shrugged and answered, “Not really because most people in the industry knew who actually designed the picture. Although the Academy did not recognize my work officially, they did send me an Oscar, but it was not inscribed.”

The box office success of 20,000 LEAGUES prompted Hollywood to make a number of films based on other works by Verne, including AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (United Artists, 1956), FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON (RKO-Warners, 1958), JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (Fox, 1959) and an aerial version of 20,000 LEAGUES titled MASTER OF THE WORLD (American-International, 1961). Disney tried to repeat his 1954 success with IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS (1962), based on Verne’s Captain Grant’s Children. This handsomely mounted, technically impressive production, which had its heroes menaced by the forces of Mother Nature (including a flood, a waterspout, an earthquake and an erupting volcano), was unfortunately marred by an uneven script and pedestrian direction, Perhaps the most imaginative Verne adaptation is a little-known and underrated Czech film, THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE (1958). Designed and directed by Karel Zeman, it borrowed freely from several of Verne’s stories (including For the Flag and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea) and ingeniously combined live-action, animation and puppetry. The character of Captain Nemo was resurrected in several films, the best being MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (Columbia, 1961). Producer-director Irwin Allen had the distinction of making two of the worst Verne adaptations, FIVE WEEKS IN A BALLOON (Fox, 1962) and THE RETURN OF CAPTAIN NEMO (CBS-TV, 1977).

 

MERCHANDISING AND PROMOTION

20,000 LEAGUES merchandising “tie ins” ran from games and puzzles to hats and toy telescopes and school book bags. All of these items saw a limited release through the winter of ‘54-’55 and are highly collectable items now. Published “items” were a Dell four-color comic book, a Sunday comic strip, a story book published by Whitman and a “Big Golden Book” from Simon and Schuster. Other merchandising was kept to a minimum. A record album was released but it simply was a “spoken work” retelling of the film’s story. (The final moments on the record have Captain Nemo waving goodbye to his former prisoners!)

The Disney studios were able to add two major guns to their publicity barrage. One, the hour-long television show, and the other, the Disneyland amusement park in Anaheim, Calif.

By the time the park opened to the public in July of 1955, 20,000 LEAGUES had been playing very successfully for several months. It was decided to use an open building in Tomorrowland to promote the film. The sets of the Nautilus’ interiors were reassembled and adapted for a walk-through, tour. Included in the display were the eleven-foot model and matte paintings (filled in with masked areas). The public was charged a dime and the exhibit, which was supposed to remain for only six months to promote the film, was so successful that it remained for ten years until Tomorrowland was rebuilt.

The LEAGUES attraction was disassembled in August of 1964. The eleven foot model was put in storage along with the Ellenshaw matte paintings. The rest of the set pieces, including the full-sized deck set, were trashed except for a few items such as the chartroom reserve air indicator, the salon viewport couches and the pipe-organ console, which can be seen in the ballroom section of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. The eleven-foot model was placed on display in the Florida park for several years during the 70’s, now it is back in storage at WED. The twenty-two foot waterline model was given to one of the authors of this retrospective in 1963 by Mr. Disney himself. Unfortunately, it was accidentally destroyed by fire.

The Nautilus remained in the back waters of the Disney organization until the WED “Imagineers” began the designs for Disney’s new park in Florida, Walt Disney World. Instead of fashioning the Tomorrowland submarines after conventional nuclear submarines, as in the park in Southern California, they designed it after 20,000 LEAGUES.

WED's plans now call for an attraction in Disneyland called “Discovery Bay”. Fashioned after San Francisco in the 1890’s, the Nautilus will be at anchor in the bay as will the Hyperion Balloon from the film ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD. Still in the early planning stages, hope is for Discovery Bay to open in 1985.

 

 

THE END