Cruise of the Zaca
Cruise of the Zaca
| 06 December 1952 (USA)
Cruise of the Zaca Trailers

Actor Errol Flynn takes a group of scientists from the California Institute of Oceanography on an expedition to the South Seas aboard his schooner, The Zaca.

Reviews
Horst in Translation ([email protected])

This is "Cruise of the Zaca", an American documentary short film directed by and starring Errol Flynn, who is mostly known today for his Robin Hood film and was a big star back in the day. This film here is from the last decade of his life and the writer is Owen Crump, an Oscar nominee. Here Flynn tells us about an expedition by sea and all he encountered during the journey, be it humans, animals or just the nature in general. But I must say this film, which is a bit shorter than 20 minutes, had little to offer in terms of nature documentary value and this is the only area of the film I was somewhat interested in. It may be a good watch for Flynn fans to see one of his rare works behind the camera, but everybody else can definitely skip it. Nothing memorable to see here and I give it a thumbs down. Actually the scene where they were jumping around the animal on one occasions was pretty embarrassing.

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TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews

A documentary of a scientific team going to look at sea-life(and since I am not an expert on the subject, I can't really judge if it's realistic or not), this is on the Two-Disc Special Edition DVD of The Adventures of Robin Hood from 1938. It's put together of nicely shot nature footage and reasonably photographed stuff with real natives and the like, it seems, and features constant narration from Flynn, who stars(as himself) and also directed this. I was surprised to find that this really wasn't a drama... it's not at all about story-telling and plot, rather, it's full of info. I guess celebrities were appearing in things like this even back then. Was it a publicity thing back then, too, I wonder? A little of this is evidently staged, but other than that, it may very well be real. Expressing a genuine curiosity for the culture of the South Seas primitives(including a belly dance) and the animal life there, this actually is a fine watch for those who are interested in those(sadly, I doubt anyone else will like it much, as it has a slow pace and probably isn't up to date on facts). I recommend this to... well, aforementioned group of people. 5/10

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William Giesin

I recently saw The Cruise of the Zaca on You Tube, and I must say it was quite interesting. This cinematic short subject gives the movie viewer a nostalgic look at the "real" Errol Flynn as opposed to the "reel" Errol Flynn. Generally speaking, I despise the term "comfortable in his own skin" but I must say that is exactly what Mr. Flynn is in this short film. One can't but help but see his love for the sea and adventure as he sails the seas with his father (Theodore Flynn) and former wife (Nora Eddington). The feature last about 20 minutes and some of the film subjects include a Gray Whale and a local native dance. It certainly is a credit for Flynn's fans to have the opportunity to see Flynn as the "real life" adventurer he was.

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Steve-171

Type of film they'd show at a Saturday matinee between the cartoons and the first feature, to boost popcorn sales. Flynn and his yacht grab some marine biologists and stop at some islands to pick up specimens. Interesting to Flynn fans, to see his hair long prior to filming DON JUAN, but pretty dull for anybody else.

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