It is no wonder I suggest, when one reads the credits for 'The Sea Hawk", (1940) that it was made into a splendid and memorable motion picture. It is a Warner brothers "A" effort, a B/W answer to "Gone With the Wind". Warners was called the 'outlaw studio' because its tsars had a habit of making films about men who were either criminals or revolutionaries against a U.S.. the studio's bosses seemed to mistrust more than anyone else did. In this case the government they chose to study is Elizabeth I's Protestant England, she herself considered an enemy of the mighty Catholic Empire of Spain under Philp II. To counter Spain's attempt to destroy England, as she had overrun her ally The Low Countries (Benelux), England's Queen expanded the building of Henry VIII's fleet and bettered her father's design by refusing to waste money and men in wars and by making her navy's ships smaller and more swift than Spanish galleons. Hero of this film is rebellious but loyal Geoffrey Thorpe played adequately as a very young and promising fellow by Errol Flynn. He and others are disowned publicly but privately backed in their conducting of raids on Spanish shipping. In the film, Geoffrey is returning from one such raid with a prize, including a captured Spanish lady he is falling in love with, to whom, for love, he has returned her jewels. Elizabeth I is furious at this but is softened; and Thorpe goes off on his greatest adventure to the New World, to go after the Spanish Empire's annual treasure fleet. Betrayed to the Spaniards and captured in Panama, he and his men escape imprisonment in a slave galley, make their way through swamps, win a battle, and return to England in time to expose traitors, and save Elizabeth. His reward is the lady, who has waited for him, and the chance to serve England further. In the huge cast with Flynn are splendid ,Alan Hale, the great Flora Robson reprising her "Fire Over England" role as Elizabeth, Claude Rains, Donald Crisp, powerful Henry Daniell, pretty but rather weak Brenda Marshall as the lady he loves, Julien Mitchell, Montagu Love, Gilbert Roland, William Lundigan, Ian Keith, Una O'Connor, Jay Silverheels and Robert Warwick. This expensively-mounted production was written by Seton I Miller of the "Mississippi Gambler" and "The Adventures of Robin Hood" fame with Howard Koch. Director Michael Curtiz was in charge of this sumptuous offering; the music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold is justly famous;the credits for 'The Sae Hawk read like a who is who in Hollywood; makeup was by Perc Westmore, cinematography by Sol Polito, art direction by Anton Grot and gowns by Orry-Kelly. Special effects were by Byron Haskin. Watch for the slave galley scene; this is the scene adapted by William Wyler for Ben Hur's galley setups. This is a stirring and very entertaining film, with everything from an amusing monkey to great acting to clever dialogue as Slizabeth inspires, scolds but brilliantly misleads those who would thwart her course--to make England secure in her pre-Imperial days from Spain's tyrannical ambitions.
Review of The Sea Hawk
