The Sea Hawk

If "The Adventures of Robin Hood" is the absolute pinnacle of Errol Flynn's swashbuckling sub-genre, then "The Sea Hawk" is the product of that well oiled machine. If everything came together to make "The Adventures of Robin Hood", the stars, literally in the case of Errol Flynn, Claude Rains, Olivia de Havilland and Basil Rathbone, aligned with the necessary budget to create the ideal blueprint for a great swashbuckling adventure film, then "The Sea Hawk" follows that blueprint to perfection. Not terribly original (it liberally borrows from Flynn's earlier "Captain Blood", as well as thematically lifting directly from "The Adventures of Robin Hood"), "The Sea Hawk" still manages to deliver rousing entertainment because the formula is such a winning one. Flynn is impossibly charismatic as sly naval captain Geoffrey Thorpe, a privateer in Her Majesty's navy, who makes his living plundering Spanish ships to stock the British treasury. He is aided by his hearty companion Carl Pitt, played by Flynn's hearty companion Alan Hale, and is beloved by the men of his crew. Directed with great confidence by Michael Curtiz, "The Sea Hawk" possesses all of the ingredients that made "The Adventures of Robin Hood" so appealing. A period romp, filled with impressive sets and gorgeous costumes, a beautiful girl (alas not the charming Olivia de Havilland, but the lesser known Brenda Marshall), a pompous and deceitful Claude Rains, as the girl's father of course, and a climactic duel between Flynn and Henry Daniell, who ably fills in for Basil Rathbone by matching his sneer and his skill with the sword. Flynn's career would soon come crashing down, thus "The Sea Hawk" stands as his last great movie, a perfect example of a cinematic legend dominating the screen.

As the film opens, Geoffrey Thorpe is portrayed as the "Robin Hood of the Seas". Spain is secretly assembling their Armada with designs on world domination, and the brave "sea hawks" are the thorn in their collective side. Queen Elizabeth reluctantly allows Thorpe to continue his plundering ways, but admits that Spain's power grows by the day and tells him she can no longer protect him should he be captured by the Spanish. Like a modern day CIA operative who goes deep into enemy territory, England disavows all knowledge of Thorpe and his men as they set out to Central America to rob a convoy of Spanish gold. However there is a traitor in the Queen's court; Lord Wolfingham, who betrays his country to curry favor with the Spanish, informs them of Thorpe's plans and the Spanish lie in waiting for the sea hawks. With the action shifting to Central America the film shifts to a sepia toned stock, one of the few times classic Hollywood utilized film stock to convey a mood (the other being the most brilliant reveal of color ever: when Dorothy opens the door into the land of Oz). The sepia tone works well, serving to distance this part of the narrative from the rest (a symbol of Thorpe and his crew removed from their element; a signifier of the wild, exotic jungle, far removed from the courts and castles of England) and the ambush sequence is well executed. Thorpe and his crew are cast into bondage on a Spanish war ship but when they learn of Wolfingham's betrayal they escape in a rousing action scene and race back to England, where Thorpe and Wolfingham duel moments before secret dispatches proving Wolfingham's involvement in the plot (Spain's amassing their secret Armada) can be given to the Queen. The secret revealed, the Queen vows England will gather their own forces and meet their enemy head on, with the help of her loyal sea hawks. Interestingly enough, the passionate speech the Queen gives at the end was tacked on by Warner Bros. as a call to arms in response to the looming Nazi power in Germany.

A few years later, Errol Flynn would be brought up on charges of statuatory rape. Much like it would be today, the trail was extremely sensational, as Flynn was accused of having sex with not one, but two underaged girls. The public's fondness for Flynn began to change in light of the scandal as his swagger and sexual confidence on screen, which had made him so appealing in films like "The Sea Hawk", now were seen in a different perspective: Errol Flynn the lothario. While Hollywood legend insists Errol Flynn was a hard drinking, womanizing, troublemaking head ache for the studios (see Jude Law's portrayal of him in "The Aviator"), he was beloved by fans for his charm and charisma. Throughout the trial it became evident that the Los Angeles DA was going to lose and in turn he made the trial more about the decadence and sin that plauged Hollywood. Flynn never lost his cool, and played the charming, devil-may-care persona he perfected on screen whenever he was called to the witness stand. After being acquitted, however, the public had moved on to Tyrone Power and Stewart Granger for their swashbuckling matinee idols. Flynn starred in a few more films, but none of them were on par with his Warner Bros. films of the late 1930's and early 1940's. He died in 1959 at the age of 50, which one Hollywood insider quipped was "twice as long as he deserved to live" considering what he did to his body on a daily basis. While there are sadly too few great Errol Flynn vehicles, the ones that remain stand as the absolute best of the action/adventure genre.