20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

, an adaptation of the science fiction novel by Jules Verne. Professor Aronnax (Dan Hanlon) and his daughter (Edna Pendleton) join an expedition in search of the supposed killer sea monster causing havoc and mayhem on the high seas. On board they meet sailor and harpoon master Ned Land (Curtis Benton), but even his skill is insufficient to save them when the monster attacks and destroys their ship. The monster ends up being a metal submarine, the Nautilus, and its captain Nemo (Allen Holubar) orders the Professor, his child and Ned to be rescued. Nemo is on a quest for vengeance, and they may all perish in his pursuit of it. Meanwhile, an American soldier, Lieutenant Bond (Matt Moore), crash lands his hot air balloon on a mysterious island, and he and his comrades find the Child of Nature (Jane Gail), a young woman who seemingly lives on the island alone. Does she have some connection to Nemo? Also featuring Howard Crampton, William Welsh, and Wallis Clark.

The big selling point here was the underwater cinematography, the first of its kind and a real crowd-pleaser. As you may have surmised from my plot summation, the story is more than a little muddled, mixing aspects from more than one Verne story. At least Nemo is presented as an East Indian Muslim, which he rarely has been in film. Late in the movie, with his outfit and great white beard, Nemo resembles a starving mad Santa Claus. Still, this was a major film in its day, and another piece of history. It was reportedly so expensive to film that Universal almost went under as a company and had to stick to low budget fare for quite a few years.