I prefer the even more upbeat, albeit truncated, version later on in the film when he sings to a pesky seal.
How can you say anything about this film, though, without mentioning that the cast includes Peter Lorre, Kirk Douglas, and James Mason?
The duet with the seal is at the end of the video.
This is a particular old favorite of mine! I was just singing it to myself in the car yesterday.
I knew I should have WTFV before replying. The Disney 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea was my favorite movie as a kid–although I never appreciated the song when I was young because I was too impatient for them to get to the giant squid.
As an adult I not only enjoy Ned’s song but really love him getting loaded on alcohol used to preserve specimens. Douglas is a hell of an actor, but the way he carries on with the seal makes me wonder if he really was drunk at the time.
…he gets a lot of sound out of that four-string guitar…
Wow, I never connected that song with that movie before.
In grade 2 a friend and I found a record of that song and played it on some headphones in the school library. After a couple of playthroughs we started singing along to it at the top of our lungs, having a great time. After awhile we got shut down by the librarian for being too noisy. Thus ended my musical career, but I remember the song still.
Ahhh…James Mason. As someone said “He turned in an R rated performance in a G rated film.”
Check out him having a wargasm as he rams a powder ship.
He kisses the seal.
And the sexual undertones of the squid fight.
And…
I can’t help but wonder at Kubrick’s casting him as Humbert Humbert. His effect on a 12 year old me (having Lolita problems of my own), if I had only known, would have made me scream “Dolly! You idiot ! You walked over him to have …Peter Sellers ??”
“Hey, he made me laugh, y’know?”
You must have kids. We watched this movie with our 7 year old earlier this year and he loved the song.
6 year old daughter. She loved it.
I can’t think of any other Kirk Douglas epics where he sings, but he sure pulls it off well, right down to the tail wiggling around the halfway mark.
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