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The Sea Hawk (Colorized Version) |
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The Sea Hawk (Colorized Version)
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by MGM (Warner)
Sales Rank: 16630
Price: $19.98
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Five years after <I>Captain Blood</I> made him a swashbuckling star, Errol Flynn returned to the high seas as privateer Captain Thorpe in <I>The Sea Hawk</I>. Flynn plays the dashing gentleman pirate as dedicated patriot, looting Spanish ships for English coffers with the private blessing of Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson, reprising the role from <I>Fire over England</I>). The film opens with a rousing sea battle: broadside cannon fire sends masts falling and splinters a-flying before Flynn's men take their Spanish quarry in a furious shipboard cutlass battle. The fearless fighter becomes a stumbling schoolboy when he falls for the Spanish ambassador's niece, but he's back in his element when he sails to the New World for treasure and lands in the middle of a deadly conspiracy. Big-eyed beauty Brenda Marshall stands in for Flynn's usual love interest Olivia de Havilland, and the film misses the latter's sass and spirit, but it's a minor shortcoming. Claude Rains plays his usual smoothly conniving villain, and hearty Alan Hale returns as Flynn's loyal sidekick. Michael Curtiz proves once again why he was Warner Brothers' top director with a handsome, action-packed film that mixes intrigue and suspense with grand set pieces, concluding with a rousing series of escapes, chases, and a runaway sword fight. Classic Hollywood swashbuckling at its best. <i>--Sean Axmaker</i>
Viewer Reviews
THE SEA HAWK showcases my favorite Warners director (Curtiz), swashbuckler (Flynn) and composer (Erich Wolfgang Korngold).
I see that more than a few Amazon reviewers complain of the casting of Brenda Marshall as the female lead and inevitable Flynn love interest rather than (one might reasonably assume) Olivia De Havilland. I disagree. Was the pairing of Errol and Olivia obligatory? Were they Rock Hudson and Doris Day? Frankie and Annette? I for one am GLAD to see Brenda Marshall as Doña Maria. She's more Spanish in appearance and is more believably unacquainted, distant and demure. If I need De Havilland opposite Flynn, there's always THE SANTA FE TRAIL or THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON, both of which were a better fit for her.
I also enjoy Henry Daniell's turn as villainous Wolfingham. Sure, had Rathbone played the part, he'd have been great as usual, but must every film be an ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD cast reunion? Answer: no.
I also don't mind the B&W film. Color would have been nice, but the beautiful sets (for the most part), costumes, shifting camera and gloriously operatic and Straussian music compensate nicely for its absence. The sepia tone of the Panama sequence helps, too.
MY only two gripes concern the royal courts. First, as much as I admire Claude Rains and Montague Love, a couple of other actors with a dignified screen presence and a Spanish accent would have been far preferable as Don Jose and King Philip. After all, Gilbert Roland got the call to play Captain Lopez, didn't he? I find these guys' presence jarring. And second, the palace interiors are SO stark and plain. High ceilings and walls bare but for maps? I'm sorry but this just doesn't work and it never did in any of the earlier Flynn films either. England and Spain had no painters or artisans? Is there a single palace in the world which looks like these? Really, with the British accents and that stripped down soundstage, I can't believe for a second that I'm peeking in on the King of Spain. Flora Robson's performance as Elizabeth I, however, is such a tour de force that the British court almost convinces.
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The Sea Hawk (Colorized Version)
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