20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Universal's ambitious silent adaptation of Jules Verne's novel, directed by Stuart Paton and produced by Carl Laemmle. Allen Holubar plays Captain Nemo, who stalks the seas in his submarine Nautilus seeking revenge against the man who destroyed his family, while a French professor and his companions are taken captive aboard the vessel. The production pioneered genuine underwater photography using the Williamson brothers' submarine tube, shot on location in the Bahamas, and was one of the most expensive films of its era at roughly half a million dollars. As a work published before 1930, it is in the public domain in the United States.