The malfunctioning mechanical shark is probably the most maligned prop in movie history. But if the director hadn’t been forced to shoot around it, his film might not be the masterpiece it is.
Roy Scheider battles one of the mechanical sharks in “Jaws”.
The Great White Turd. That was one of the insults that Steven Spielberg hurled at the mechanical shark from Jaws, which first popped out of the water 50 years ago – though it took months to get the malfunctioning shark to pop out of the water or to do anything it was supposed to while terrorising Amity Island.
Indeed, the shark had a reputation. Jaws screenwriter Carl Gottlieb remembered the crew also referring to it as “that sonofabitchin’ bastard rig, or something equally direct”.
