Sea Hawk

The Sea Hawk (1940)
Errol Flynn
With
Brenda Marshall
Claude Rains
Donald Crisp

Summary: Set in the late 16th century, Spain is trying to take over the world. It is preparing its Spanish Armada to first attack and conquer England, and then the world. Queen Elizabeth is in denial, and short on funds. One of her advisers is acting sneaky. The only man left to defend England is Errol Flynn!

All right, so the character's name isn't Errol Flynn, it's Captain Thorpe. But who cares? Errol Flynn movies are just like John Wayne movies, the character's name doesn't matter.

As with all pirate movies, this is entertaining fluff, so I don't feel the need to do a real in-depth review. On the other hand, since it didn't exactly require my full attention to enjoy the movie, I made notes while watching. I thought I'd share those first, with an overall review at the end. I hope you enjoy.

Notes:

The one thing I have always liked about the old black and white swashbuckling movies is the opening music. The sound of brash trumpets heralding the exciting adventures sure to come always gets me excited.

Hearing a supposedly Spanish character speaking in an English accent is fantastic. Listening to a Spanish king tell one of his minions in an English accent to “Proceed to England as my ambassador” is hilarious. Apparently the only difference between the English and Spanish in the 16th century was that the Spanish had goatees.

And of course the one English guy who is clearly a traitor to his country has a goatee.

It is so obvious that this is an American movie. The Spanish king has a gigantic 16th century world map on the wall behind him, yet America takes up more than half the map.

It is an indisputable fact that a pirate ship is incomplete without a monkey.

The good guys in this movie, the English pirates, are mostly played by Americans, complete with American accents. The old adage that the English always play the bad guy holds even in a movie where the good guys are English.

All of the slave labor manning the oars are old white man. And apparently only the Spanish used slaves. In the 16th century.

Errol Flynn is so refined, and looks great in tights. No one has ever looked as dashing as he does swinging through the air on a rope.

Apparently, 16th century English pirate ships have lower level balconies. Perfect place for a beautiful woman to stand so that a dashing pirate can gaze down upon her from above.

Oh, Errol Flynn. A pirate with a heart of gold. Has no problem fighting off half a dozen men at the same time, but fumbles shyly when facing one beautiful woman. Honorable and noble to the very core. Not too afraid to tell a woman he loves her. Looks gorgeous. And has hair to die for. I would betray my country for you any day.

Queen Elizabeth: “Captain of the Guard. You will accompany Captain Thorpe to my private chamber where he will wait my further pleasure.” Tee hee

I love Claud Rains. He’s so deliciously slimy. He emotes more with a look than many can do with a monologue.

LOL The movie uses sepia color for Central America. Not racist at all.

That final sword fighting scene is fantastic! Starts off slow, but the last minute or so is just breathtaking. Errol Flynn was quite an athletic guy.


Overall, this was a lot of fun to watch, which is precisely what Errol Flynn movies were all about. Flynn is in fine form here: charming, charismatic, and heroic. My only problem was that it really slows down half way through when his character disappears for nearly 20 minutes once he's been captured by the Spanish in Panama. Even with Claud Rains, the loss of Flynn’s energy is very noticeable. Up to that point, when Flynn wasn’t around, the heavy drama never lasted for more than a couple of minutes. And half the scenes he wasn’t in were lighthearted. More than 20 minutes of heavy, almost depressing, drama was a bit hard to swallow. And this is made worse by the fact that when Flynn does come back on the screen, the drama and seriousness continues without stop. I don’t dislike serious action movies, but after more than an hour of a lighthearted swashbuckling romp, with Errol Flynn at his charismatic best, it was very hard to watch more than ten minutes of him not only speaking no more than two words at a time, but also not cracking smile a single time. He doesn’t have enough of a presence to handle those types of scenes for such an extended length. The ten-minute scene where Flynn and his crew escape enslavement on a Spanish ship had barely any dialogue, and it was excruciating to watch. The moment Errol Flynn gave his charming little smile after taking over the Spanish ship, the movie immediately felt better. The movie flowed swimmingly after that, he got the girl, words of love were expressed on both sides, he killed the English traitor in a thrilling sword fight, and saved England single-handed. Happy ending for everyone except the evil Spanish empire.

I had forgotten how wonderful it is to watch Errol Flynn. He wasn't a great actor, but he was handsome and charming with an athletic body to boot, all of which have inspired thousands of pirate romance novels for decades.