CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

JelenaG890 My grandfather was a huge fan of adventure films, and counted Errol Flynn films of the genre as some of his favorites. And, like most Flynn films, this one is certainly entertaining.Claude Rains is terrific here, as he always was, and the best thing about this picture, other than Flynn of course. It's not nearly as good as Captain Blood, but still highly entertaining.For me, the film's weakest point is Brenda Marshall, aka Mrs. William Holden. She is pretty enough, but her acting is wooden, so no surprise that she didn't have a very long or substantial acting career. Brenda Marshall is no match for Olivia de Havilland in the talent department, and she certainly didn't have the chemistry with Flynn that de Havilland had.Understandably, Olivia de Havilland wanted to play roles other than ingenues in her career. She was certainly more focused on earning quality roles than Flynn was, which was probably why her resume contains far more variety than his, but I can't watch this film and wonder how much better it would have been had de Havilland been the co-star.

Mikel3 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'.

The_Other_Snowman Errol Flynn's greatest swashbuckling triumph will always be "Captain Blood" -- though "The Adventures of Robin Hood" certainly gets high marks as well. "The Sea Hawk", however, is only one or two points behind them; in some ways it's even better.Flynn stars as Geoffrey Thorpe, an English privateer in the mold of Sir Francis Drake. On a perilous mission to the steamy jungles of Panama he is betrayed and captured by the Spanish, and is chained to the oars of a Spanish galley. He must escape in time to warn Queen Elizabeth of the impending invasion -- known to history as the Armada -- and defeat the traitor in her court.The scenes in Panama render the jungle with lurid intensity -- the heat, humidity, and general hardship would be recreated a few years later in "Objective Burma" -- while the scenes aboard the galley outdo "Ben Hur". Michael Curtiz is one of the most overlooked and underestimated directors of Hollywood history, even though he made some of its greatest movies: combined with Erich Wolfgang Korngold's music, he produces moments of almost operatic passion and energy; romantic and energetic, they capture the grand spirit of adventure in a way that the more realistic films of later decades could never hope to emulate.There are two minor shortcomings to "The Sea Hawk". First is the replacement of Olivia deHavilland, Flynn's customary costar, with Brenda Marshall. While Marshall is by no means a bad actress, the pairing lacks the chemistry of Errol and Olivia. Second, the villain is played not by Basil Rathbone, Flynn's nemesis of two prior films, but by Henry Daniell. He's a sneering, slimy villain -- Christopher Guest's six- fingered man in "Princess Bride" was an homage -- but he falls short of matching Flynn's charisma. Making up for these flaws are appearances by Warner Bros. regulars Donald Crisp and Claude Rains, and a memorable performance by Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth.The Queen's final speech to rally her troops was a bold piece of propaganda in 1940, and the imminent threat of the Spanish Armada looms on the horizon like the Battle of Britain. Flynn, Curtiz, and Warner Bros. would go on to make more openly patriotic war films, but perhaps none as classic -- except, of course, "Casablanca".

eyesour 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 ?