A prolific adaptor of literature, Huston set one of his greatest personal challenges in adapting Herman Melville’s canonical tale of obsession. Gregory Peck brings a deranged nobility to his interpretation of Ahab, captain of the Pequod whose sole mission is to exact revenge on the massive white whale who nearly claimed his life. Richard Basehart is Ishmael, the narrator, and Orson Welles has a cameos as the doomsaying Father Mapple (Welles’s salary financed his own stage production of the tale). The film’s screenplay, by Huston and Ray Bradbury, compresses the novel without sacrificing its scope or resonance.