Director: Michael Curtiz
Genre(s): Adventure, Romance
Runtime: 127 minutes
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
The 1940 anglophile swashbuckler The Sea Hawk serves as an interesting allegory for World War II, made by Hollywood prior to the United States’ entrance into that conflict. Set in the 1500s, Spain (a stand-in for the Axis Powers) is Hellbent on conquering the planet, and daring English privateer (a pirate who works for a government) Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn) and his crew are the only ones who stop it. It works pretty well as a wartime spirit-raiser, but less so as a thrill-a-minute adventure piece.
The Sea Hawk is, unfortunately, slowly paced, all too often getting bogged down in romance or geopolitical scheming. The love story between Errol Flynn’s character and Doña Maria (Brenda Marshall) largely feels shoehorned in and the plot may have needed some streamlining. Another flaw is that the villains of the picture feel underdeveloped.
On the action front, this movie delivers its best set-piece far too early into its runtime. In fact, the very first action sequence in the film, a thrilling sea battle, is the best one. Nothing after that in the feature can top that for excitement. Yes, there are some other above-average bits of mayhem spread into the mix, like a cool one-versus-four sword duel, but why start a flick with your best action scene?
If there’s one thing that keeps The Sea Hawk being propelled forward, that is its Erich Wolfgang Korngold musical score. It’s a rousing piece of work that elevates the material. That being said, this film largely exists in the realm between “thumbs-up” and “thumbs-down.” It has some great action, but, if you’re in the mood for an Errol Flynn movie, you’re better off with The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). That’s the real deal.
My rating is 6 outta 10.
The Film Heretic Watches a Classic 