The year is 1585, and King Philip II of Spain (Montagu Love) is on a mission of global conquest, and plans to secretly construct a mighty armada to achieve this end. With England resisting his ambitions, rather than unleash all-out war, Philip decides to guile instead of force. He dispatches Don José Álvarez de Córdoba (Claude Rains) as his ambassador to England, with the mission of pretending to make overtures of friendship to Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson). Accompanying the ambassador is his guileless niece, Doña María (Brenda Marshall), who is to become one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting. However, Don Álvarez's ship is intercepted on its way to England by the infamous privateer, Captain Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn), who defeats, plunders, and sinks the Spanish vessel and delivers the Spaniards to England himself - but not before liberating the ship's galley slaves. Naturally, Thorpe and María bond during the voyage, and we all know where things go between them as a result.
Errol Flynn returns to the INCspotlight just in time for Talk Like a Pirate Day - and the anniversary of the day I became a published author! And it was films like The Sea Hawk, the quintessential classic swashbuckler, that set me on that path. For all his fame and renown as a swashbuckling star, Errol Flynn only starred in nine films in the genre out of a career spanning over fifty films, and of those nine, less than half are well-regarded. The Sea Hawk, directed by Michael Curtiz, is not only considered to be among Flynn's best movies, but one of the best swashbucklers ever made, perhaps rivaled only by Flynn's own The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Over the years, I've tried to showcase some of Flynn's other films in a variety of different genres to showcase his frequently underestimated acting skills and versatility. I still have more of his non-action films that I want to get around to, but a review of The Sea Hawk is long overdue. The Dawn Patrol (1938) Uncertain Glory (1944) Another film based on Rafael Sabatini's The Sea-Hawk, faithfully adapted in 1924, had been in the works since the surprise success of Captain Blood (1935), the movie that launched Flynn into instant stardom. In fact, Delmer Daves had a completed script by 1936, but Flynn had already been cast in a number of adventure movies, and had a full slate. By the time Warner Bros. was ready to move ahead with The Sea Hawk, they decided to re-use the (quite expensive) sets and costumes from The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) to save money. This led to an all-new story with no connection to Sabatini's own work. Originally titled Beggars of the Sea, screenwriter Seton I. Miller loosely based the film's protagonist on Sir Francis Drake. However, Warner Bros. producer Hal Wallis disliked Miller's script and had Howard Koch revise it. Among Koch's contributions was adding an anti-fascist theme to the movie, a poignant topic with World War II raging and the United States grappling with its isolationist policies. Sabatini was upset over the treatment of his work, and initially refused to have his name associated with the film. He was still a popular enough author at the tine that Warner Bros. wanted his name associated with The Sea Hawk, and reached an agreement with him that apparently involved a decent amount of money. WARNING: Here be spoilers! Read further at your own risk! The year is 1585, and King Philip II of Spain (Montagu Love) is on a mission of global conquest, and plans to secretly construct a mighty armada to achieve this end. With England resisting his ambitions, rather than unleash all-out war, Philip decides to guile instead of force. He dispatches Don José Álvarez de Córdoba (Claude Rains) as his ambassador to England, with the mission of pretending to make overtures of friendship to Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson). Accompanying the ambassador is his guileless niece, Doña María (Brenda Marshall), who is to become one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting. However, Don Álvarez's ship is intercepted on its way to England by the infamous privateer, Captain Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn), who defeats, plunders, and sinks the Spanish vessel and delivers the Spaniards to England himself - but not before liberating the ship's galley slaves. Naturally, Thorpe and María bond during the voyage, and we all know where things go between them as a result. Upon Thorpe's return to England, he insists to the queen that Spain is preparing for war and England must be ready with a fleet of its own, his loot from his exploits intending to finance such a venture. He has another daring escapade in mind, a daring raid in Panama. With the queen's unofficial approval of the mission, Thorpe sets about planning for his mission in secret, while also finding time for the bond between him and Doña María to blossom into love. Unfortunately, Don Álvarez, with the aid of the treacherous Lord Wolfingham (Henry Daniell) discover his plan and set a trap for Thorpe, and he ends up a galley slave. Naturally, Thorpe manages to escape and obtain proof of Spain's true intentions, but can he return to England and warn the queen in time...and in one piece? While The Sea Hawk is still a light-hearted adventure story at its core, it aims for more of a sense of verisimilitude, rather than storybook derring-do, compared to many other swashbucklers I've seen, Flynn's included. Perhaps that's because of its anti-Fascist theme giving the film some extra weight - and make no mistake, this is an anti-Fascist film, with Philip II presented as a not-at-all subtle allegory for Adolf Hitler. Plus, there's the bittersweet ending where the villains' plans are thwarted, but a grim Elizabeth must warn her people of the hard times and bitter war awaiting their country. As much as Flynn may have hated being typecast as a romantic action hero, his performance in The Sea Hawk is just so spot-on - there's nobody who could have played this role any better, and even Flynn knew it. Warner Bros. tried to scare him out of his frequent clashes with Jack Warner over his salary by screen-testing newcomer Dennis Morgan for the lead role, but Flynn knew they were bluffing. Seeing his performance in this picture, it's easy to see why. One of Flynn's strengths as an actor is being able deliver period dialog lines with a perfect naturalness, which is not easy to do without sounding ridiculous or unconvincing - and I've seen plenty of miscast actors try and fail to pull this off. His character of Geoffrey Thorpe is somewhat more subdued than his previous action roles of Peter Blood, Geoffrey Vickers, or Robin Hood, which makes his performance feel all the more natural, but also adds a bit more dramatic heft to the film that I mentioned earlier. He's less a rascally rogue and more a driven patriot, although he certainly has his moments of the former. The original plan was for Errol Flynn to reunite with Olivia de Havilland for The Sea Hawk, after they'd already made seven films together. However, the working relationship between the two had been growing increasingly toxic, and de Havilland was tired of playing opposite Flynn in costumed adventure movies, so she turned down this film. Instead, The Sea Hawk's leading lady was Brenda Marshall, born to Swedish parents in the Philippines, who had a very different dynamic opposite Flynn in The Sea Hawk. She's colder and more reserved than de Havilland's characters tended to be who naturally warms to the dashing Captain Thorpe - which is merely an observation on my part, not a criticism. Beyond that, comparing her to any other actress is unfair, and she gives a better performance in this film than she's given credit for. If I have any gripes, it's that María could have been played by a Spanish or Latina actress to play her, even if her character is half-English. Marshall's film career was unfortunately a short one, although she would co-star with Flynn again in the mystery film Footsteps in the Dark (1941) before her retirement. The Sea Hawk's supporting cast is also strong, for the most part. Alan Hale is once again Flynn's reliable, boisterous sidekick as Mr. Pitt, although the other characters comprising Thorpe's crew are somewhat indistinct from each other. For our villains, we have Claude Rains as the ominous Don Álvarez, who nevertheless has moments to show true tenderness to María. Henry Daniell, however, had no redeeming moments as the treacherous Wolfingham, the kind of villain you love to hate. (Basil Rathbone had been offered Daniell's role, but he refused to work with Flynn again.) 1940 seemed to be Daniell's year for playing fascist (or fascist-sympathizing) villains, as he would later portray a parody of Joseph Goebbels in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator. Mexican-American character actor Gilbert Roland has a nice-sized role as Captain Lopez, and it's a shame he's not in the movie more. While he's an effective nemesis for Thorpe, he's not evil or malevolent - merely doing his duty to his country and king. The standout among the supporting players is Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth I, a role she'd previously played in Fire Over England (1937). Originally a schedule conflict would have kept her out of the film, but Michael Curtiz agreed to shoot her scenes first. Formidable, playful, and principled, Robson is both a likable and imposing Elizabeth - probably among the best depictions of her I've seen. She even outshines Errol Flynn in some of their scenes together, which is quite an impressive feat. Behind the scenes, Robson did a lot to rein in Flynn's rebeliousness, although not unkindly. A lot of work and money went into the production of The Sea Hawk, making it Warner Bros.'s most expensive film of 194o - even with the re-used costumes and sets - and every dollar of it shows up on screen. No existing sound stage could accommodate the required scenes at sea, one of which would feature a battle between the Spanish galleon and Thorpe's man-o-war, the Albatross. Not wanting to risk shooting at sea in unpredictable weather, a massive sound stage was constructed which included life-sized ships that could tilt and shake thanks to hydraulic rams, as well as a deep enough pool for stuntmen to topple into. These were put to good use when Curtiz, ignoring the directives of Wallis, shot new footage for the opening battle scene. Wallis had only wanted to use stock footage from other films, including Captain Blood, but as was typical of Curtiz, he simply ignored such directives from Wallis until the footage he needed had already been shot. He also added over thirty scenes to the original script, at first having Koch on hand to assist until the screenwriter became too "intrusive." Wallis was apoplectic about this, despite Curtiz having pulled this on a number of films previously, but the spectacular results mollified him, as they typically did. I have to admit that while I've always liked The Sea Hawk, it took me multiple viewings to fully appreciate it and all the work that went into its production. The screenshots I've included here barely do justice to the phenomenal level of detail present in every frame. Curtiz was always in his element in these big-budget spectacles, where such attention to detail was critical. As a student of the German expressionism movement, Curtiz, aided by Sol Polito's gorgeous cinematography, uses light and shadow especially well to create mood, but effect the sense of scale and even reflect the characters on-screen. For instance, the scenes of Queen Elizabeth are brightly lit, while Montagu Love's sole scene as King Phillip has him sitting austerely in a dark room where cast shadows cover an immense map of the world. While The Sea Hawk was shot in black-and-white to make the sound stage sets less obvious, the scenes of the Panama jungle raid have a sepia tint to them in order to create a sense of blistering heat. It's such a simple trick, but one that works brutally well. I've also recently come to appreciate how the wide-angle sweeping opulence of the English palace and the meticulously-crafted Albatross contrast sharply with the scenes of the galley slaves, which are dark and claustrophobically cramped, creating a grim, foreboding atmosphere befitting such a hellish torture. One of the best technical highlights of The Sea Hawk, if not its crown jewel, is the absolutely glorious score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, particularly the music for the opening titles and the leitmotif for Elizabeth's throne room. As the Warner Bros. logo appears to usher in The Sea Hawk, Korngold wastes no time setting the mood for the movie with a bold combo of strings and brass, and then launching into the bombastic brass-heavy main theme. It's the 1940s equivalent of John Williams's Star Wars theme, and just as effective at setting the tone. However, the music can also be gentle and tender in the scenes between Errol Flynn and Brenda Marshall, subtly revealing the two of them falling in love without either character needing to say the words. Needless to say, I listened to this score a lot when I was writing The Brotherhood of the Black Flag, and if it's ever fortunate to be turned into a movie, that's the flavor of musical score I'd want for it. If this review can't persuade you to see this movie, at least give the music a listen. You'll thank yourself for it. The action also deserves a paragraph to itself, particularly the chaotic opening battle. Between dozens of extras duking it out, smoke and debris everywhere, and wide long takes that allow you time enough to take in everything that's happening on-screen, this is a masterclass in how to film a battle scene - and the Korngold score doesn't hurt. The film is light on action until the third reel, but the climax features a spectacular duel between Geoffrey Thorpe and Lord Wolfingham, choreographed by Fred Cavens. Flynn and Daniell were both heavily doubled for this fight, as Daniell didn't know anything about swordsmanship and was reportedly inept with a blade - and if you didn't know that, the filmmakers did an excellent job covering that up. Flynn, while no fencer himself, always knew how to look like an expert swordsman. The duel even repeats the trick from The Adventures of Robin Hood of having the characters' shadows on the wall as the fight continues. The Thorpe/Wolfingham duel even made my Top 10 Favorite Movie Swordfights list from back in the INCspotlight's early days. If I have any major issues with the film, it's the pacing. The Sea Hawk clocks in at over two hours, and when I was younger, I thought parts of the second and third act could have been trimmed to maintain the film's momentum - which is probably why it took me so long to truly warm up to it and appreciate it, in spite of a strong first act and thrilling climax. The last time I watched The Sea Hawk, those pacing issues weren't quite as noticeable, but some viewers might have a harder time getting past that chunk of the movie. The Sea Hawk was a colossal hit upon its release, as well as its 1947 re-release. Although it was Warner Bros.'s most expensive movie of 1940, it was also their biggest hit of the year. The film also racked up four Academy Award nominations, including for Anton Grot's art direction and Korngold's musical score. The anti-Nazi subtext did not go unnoticed, particularly in England - Winston Churchill found watching it to be "a moving experience," according to Flynn biographer Thomas McNulty, who notes the film's release coinciding with the commencement of the Battle of Britain. (For its UK release, The Sea Hawk showed footage of modern day British warships imposed over Elizabeth's concluding monologue.) As for me, this was a key movie in my formative years, further encouraging my love of swashbucklers and historical fiction. This is the kind of movie that I wanted to pay tribute to and capture the spirit of in The Brotherhood of the Black Flag. A lavish spectacle with plenty of substance and thrills, The Sea Hawk is a classic truly worthy of its reputation as one of the best swashbucklers ever made. If you're looking for something to watch on Talk Like a Pirate Day, this is the movie for you.
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