Ending a decades long Swift/Perry-sized feud, Walt Disney brought in Richard Fleischer, son of Betty Boop creator Max Fleischer, to direct this story of male ego and hubris. Disney's first major attempt at serious live action filmmaking brought in a crew of A-list actors—a singing Kirk Douglas, Paul Lukas, Peter Lorre, and a particularly dark and brooding James Mason—and was, at the time of release, among the most expensive films ever made. Much of the cost came from the experimental underwater cinematography, which required custom-built diving suits and air tanks that only allowed for a few minutes of filming at a time. A one-ton, life-sided giant squid operated by a crew of 30 people also had to be redesigned multiple times at enormous expense. The results are, of course, spectacular, testing the limits of practical effects to create a world just as astonishing as in Disney's animated features.