One of the best pirate movies you'll ever see (though not quite as good as Captain Blood (1935), in my opinion). One of the many director Michael Curtiz-actor Errol Flynn collaborations which also features great (of course) performances by Claude Rains, Flora Robson, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, Henry Daniell, Una O'Connor, J. M. Kerrigan, James Stephenson and Brenda Marshall. Howard Koch and Seton Miller wrote the screenplay; the title was taken from the Rafael Sabatini novel (and 1924 film). Received Oscar nominations for Art Direction, Special Effects, Sound and Score.Flynn plays the titled pirate from England - Geoffrey Thorpe; Hale, Stephenson and Crisp (?) are members of his crew. In one of his raids, freeing British slaves held by Spain, he meets and falls for a Spanish beauty, Dona Maria Alvarez de Cordoba (Marshall, whose uncle is Rains) but, naturally, she wants nothing to do with him. However, when she finds he has returned her jewels, her opinion of him begins to change. Eventually he is "hired" by his Queen, Elizabeth I (Robson), to disrupt Spain's ships, and battles Lord Wolfingham (Daniell).

I continued revisiting my favorite Errol Flynn movies last night with 'The Seahawk' (1940). The story was good and the acting was excellent. I heard in the DVD's interviews that Mr. Flynn and Flora Robson (Queen Elizabeth) got along very well and liked each other. I believe that shows in their scenes together. It's interesting to note that Flora Robson also did an excellent job playing Elizabeth in 'Fire over England' (1937). According to the commentary, that influenced her getting the part in this film. I do feel the movie would have been even better in Technicolor. What a shame those wonderful sets and costumes could not be seen in their full glory. Yes, I appreciate the art of B/W film too, yet after seeing the glorious colors in 'The Adventures of Don Juan' the other night I was a bit let down seeing this the next night. It used many of the same beautiful sets and props from 'The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex' (1939) another Flynn movie where he plays a man who serves Queen Elizabeth. Only it was Bette Davis that time as the queen. I did once view a colorized version of 'The Seahawk' and I enjoyed that, the technology for colorization was still lacking at that time it was colorized. I would love to see a version where that was done with updated technology. Yes, I know many film lovers are against that, to me it's okay as long as it's made clear it was not the intent of the original creators of the film and the original version is not replaced. The TCM Errol Flynn collection DVD was sharp and crisp. I also enjoyed the extras where the film was discussed by Robert Osborne and others. One film expert said that Erich Wolfgang Korngold had written the best swashbuckler music of all time for this film...after hearing it again...I may just agree with that assessment. The verdict is still out for me. It's a wonderful film all around except for the lack of Technicolor as in 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' and 'The Adventures of Don Juan'.

English privateer Errol Flynn is betrayed by a traitorous countryman and captured by the Spanish, who don't take kindly to his acts of piracy against their ships. Flynn still finds time for romance, though, with pretty Spanish royal Brenda Marshall. Another great teaming of Errol Flynn and director Michael Curtiz. This may not rank up there with Robin Hood or Captain Blood, but it's still very entertaining. Brenda Marshall is very pretty but no Olivia de Havilland. Flora Robson is fun as Queen Elizabeth. Claude Rains is never bad. The rest of the cast is made up of reliable WB contract players like Alan Hale and Donald Crisp. Really good lineup. Solid swashbuckler that fans of Errol Flynn should love.

Brenda is not Olivia, and Henry quite definitely is not Philip St.John Basil Rathbone, MC. Sorry, folks, but with ersatz ingredients, the cake just doesn't taste quite right, although millions were spent in baking it. Flynn does his very best; he looks good, moves well, speaks well, flaunts his gear as if ladled into it, and he was an absolutely great swasher, but somehow I didn't feel his heart was truly into this buckler. The ship models were annoyingly unrealistic; Henry Daniell was such a pathetic pussy he had to have a blatantly obvious double in the fencing scenes, besides which Elizabeth's Walsingham should sue him for character assassination and outright defamation. Robson was a sight better than Bette Davis, but there have been several better Elizabeths since. Also, this film is too long, and it starts to drag about half way through, when they get to sepia-tinted Panama. There's too much talk, as well. And that monkey was robbed of its Oscar. Never mind, it's all good anti-German fun: there are definite parallels between the Nazis and the Spanish Inquisition. Korngold ratchets up the sound. Time Magazine reviewed the performance with its usual inaccuracy, calling Flynn "the Irish Cinemactor". I often wonder about these WW2 movies: do they show this in Argentina nowadays ? Do they show Henry V in France ?