The Sea Hawk

1940 "Dashing... romantic... Errol Flynn at his thrilling best!"
7.6| 2h7m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 10 August 1940 Released
Producted By: Warner Bros. Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Dashing pirate Geoffrey Thorpe plunders Spanish ships for Queen Elizabeth I and falls in love with Dona Maria, a beautiful Spanish royal he captures.

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Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.
grantss Great naval adventure, set at the time of the Spanish Armada. Entertaining, with a solid plot and great, and quite realistic, action scenes. Considering this was made in 1940, the recreations and special effects are amazing. No CGI, good old fashioned real ships.Errol Flynn was perfect for the lead role: dashing, swashbuckling, charming. Easily his best movie. Good support from Brenda Marshall and Flora Robson (as Queen Elizabeth I).A classic.
richard-1787 This movie is so wonderful in so many ways.But, having watched it again for the nth time tonight on TCM, it is still the opening sea battle that most gets my adrenaline going. Everything works. The action. The direction. Very definitely Korngold's masterful score. It is a spell-binding scene.The rest of the movie is wonderful as well, of course. Flynn is magnificent as the swashbuckling, never-too-serious privateer. His duel with Henry Daniell near the end is actually very good, though it still falls short of the superb one between Flynn and Basil Rathbone at the end of Robin Hood.Brenda Marshall is certainly very beautiful, but she doesn't have the personality of Olivia de Havilland.Everything works here. Every actor is perfect. So is the script. And the score. The Star Wars movies come right out of this, but as good as they are, they never get this good.This is truly a masterpiece!
JLRMovieReviews Errol Flynn stars in this exciting story that stems from greed for the British throne from Queen Elizabeth and control of England. When King Philip of Spain plots against her and plants Henry Daniell as a spy in her midst, the plot is set in motion. Claude Rains is a Spanish ambassador who is sailing to Queen Elizabeth to play nice to her, accompanied by his niece, played by Brenda Marshall (one of the rare times Olivia de Havilland didn't the leading role in an Errol Flynn adventure film.) Of course, Brenda is oblivious to the deviousness about her. But, on their way, their ship is attacked by a British ship, headed by Geoffrey Thorpe, played by Errol Flynn. This lack of goodwill and respect for other countries gets him in trouble with his Queen, but he knows an enemy when he sees one. So, all this gets the viewer get into the intrigue and makes for a very exciting experience with a great rousing score by Korngold accompanying it. Errol has never looked better and delivers the goods as only he can (who doesn't love a rascal), while Brenda Marshall seems to have a more reserved and refined beauty about her, in contrast to Olivia's sweetness and flirtatious coyness she had with Errol. A romantic moment comes when Errol tells Brenda, when she appears so radiant with roses in her arms, that he will always think of her as "My lady of the roses." Supporting actors Rains and Daniell have never been better and this film has a bunch of recognizable faces for the crew about Errol: Alan Hale (the actor who made the most films with Errol,) Edgar Buchanun, William Lundigan, David Bruce, and J. M. Kerrigan just to name a few. There are a few more but I can't think of them all. Granted, this has only one major duel, but it's a great one. Oh, and Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth is inspiring. She was one of the best actresses of her time and the speech she gives at the end of the film is very well written and makes a great impression on the viewer with her direct delivery. With grand adventure to experience, this is one Errol Flynn film that is as good as Robin Hood, Captain Blood and Don Juan. Missing this means you don't love Errol Flynn films. What's wrong with you?
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".