This
is a grand old fashioned romantic adventure film made in beautiful Technicolor
that looks smashing on DVD. Like the studios used to make films - star power,
legendary veteran director and great production values. It is a pleasure
just letting the film roll across your eyes. The film is of course based
on the series of eleven Hornblower books from C.S. Forester beginning in
1937. The books are not written in chronological order of Hornblower's life
but instead skip about. This film is based on bits in the first three novels
that Warner Brothers picked up as a vehicle for Errol Flynn but it took them
years to get it off the ground and by 1951 Flynn wasn't really up to it.
In later books Hornblower is a midshipman and finally an admiral.
Captain Hornblower played in his usual dignified
baritone manner by Gregory Peck has a secret mission to deliver weapons to
a Spanish egomaniac who calls himself El Supremo on the Pacific side of South
America. The hope is that by the British allying themselves with him, he
will cause havoc in South America thus forcing the Spanish who are allied
with Napoleon to shift resources there. Unfortunately, after capturing a
Spanish 60-gun ship Hornblower turns it over to El Supremo and then learns
that Spain has switched sides and he has to get the ship back. That
canon battle between the two ships is incredibly well done - chaos under
perfect control. Hornblower also finds himself having to take on the sister
of Admiral Wellesley and engaged to another admiral. She had been a prisoner
of the Spanish. She is played by Virginia Mayo who was a big star at the
time and a favorite of the director. Sparks fly and yearning looks are traded
between Peck and Mayo - but he is married and she is engaged.
The fighting scenes between ships are great,
Mayo is beautiful, Peck is Peck and simply seeing these wonderful ships in
full sail is splendid. The fact that the iconic Hornblower and a lady of
Royalty are both played by Americans may have raised a few eyebrows in England.
It is directed by Raoul Walsh, who said it was the hardest film he ever made
with changeable weather and just the logistics. It was shot in the Mediterranean,
so not exactly a hardship. This has been the only film of the Hornblower
character, though there was a TV show produced in England.
