My grandfather was a huge fan of adventure films, and counted Errol Flynn films of the genre as some of his favorites. And, like most Flynn films, this one is certainly entertaining.Claude Rains is terrific here, as he always was, and the best thing about this picture, other than Flynn of course. It's not nearly as good as Captain Blood, but still highly entertaining.For me, the film's weakest point is Brenda Marshall, aka Mrs. William Holden. She is pretty enough, but her acting is wooden, so no surprise that she didn't have a very long or substantial acting career. Brenda Marshall is no match for Olivia de Havilland in the talent department, and she certainly didn't have the chemistry with Flynn that de Havilland had.Understandably, Olivia de Havilland wanted to play roles other than ingenues in her career. She was certainly more focused on earning quality roles than Flynn was, which was probably why her resume contains far more variety than his, but I can't watch this film and wonder how much better it would have been had de Havilland been the co-star.

One of the best pirate movies you'll ever see (though not quite as good as Captain Blood (1935), in my opinion). One of the many director Michael Curtiz-actor Errol Flynn collaborations which also features great (of course) performances by Claude Rains, Flora Robson, Donald Crisp, Alan Hale, Henry Daniell, Una O'Connor, J. M. Kerrigan, James Stephenson and Brenda Marshall. Howard Koch and Seton Miller wrote the screenplay; the title was taken from the Rafael Sabatini novel (and 1924 film). Received Oscar nominations for Art Direction, Special Effects, Sound and Score.Flynn plays the titled pirate from England - Geoffrey Thorpe; Hale, Stephenson and Crisp (?) are members of his crew. In one of his raids, freeing British slaves held by Spain, he meets and falls for a Spanish beauty, Dona Maria Alvarez de Cordoba (Marshall, whose uncle is Rains) but, naturally, she wants nothing to do with him. However, when she finds he has returned her jewels, her opinion of him begins to change. Eventually he is "hired" by his Queen, Elizabeth I (Robson), to disrupt Spain's ships, and battles Lord Wolfingham (Daniell).

. . . which enabled the German Blitzkreig of the late 1930s, THE SEA HAWK's Queen Elizabeth (I) can be seen today as shifting from a stand-in for 1930s Brit PM Neville Chamberlain (who cowered at the advent of Hitler) to Barack Obama, currently sniveling at the feet of Russia's Crimean Crime Lord, Vladimir Putin. QEI quivers before Spain in many SEA HAWK scenes, even disarming and arresting the "sea hawks," her one line of defense against Spanish King Phillip and her own court, filled with Phil's mouthpieces and spies. In the run-up to WWII, Britain barely was able to force out its Nazi-sympathizer king. Today, at the beginning of the Russian Century, Obama has drawn so many "red lines" near Russia that America's "leader" looks more like a simple "Harold" who has changed crayon colors from purple to scarlet. Errol Flynn, as SEA HAWK Captain Thorpe, proved to be QEI's "nuclear option," and her Wishy-Washiness forced him to self-activate. Churchill became England's nuclear attack dog during WWII. Now is the time for a hero of equal stature to Captain Thorpe and Churchill to rise to the occasion, and change today's policies of resigned acceptance and "possession is 110% of the law." The West must adopt a "Nuke first, explain later" policy. America's H-bomb arsenal is decaying every day it sits underground within our borders. QEI finally Nay-Sayed her court's appeasers, and instigated the naval fleet which won a British Empire. Some brave Patriot MUST activate America's sleeping nuclear giant soon!

When this film was made, the UK was in some danger of invasion by a planned Nazi armada of mostly small landing craft. This story concerns a previous famous threat of invasion by a powerful foreign military force: the Spanish armada of the 16th century. Speeches by the Spanish monarch at the beginning and by Queen Elizabeth at the end make clear the similar ambitions of Philip of Spain and Adolf Hitler to conquer England and the rest of Europe, then the world. Although it doesn't include the actual 16th century 'Battle of Britain', it makes clear the intention of a ferocious defense against an anticipated invasion force. The Jewish Warners were very anti-Nazi. Thus, this film might be seen as propaganda to induce the American public to support active participation by the US in WWII, before Hitler achieved his goal.Comparisons with Flynn's other two(that I am aware of) sea pirate films are in order. Whereas the prior "Captain Blood" and subsequent "Against All Flags" were scripted as taking place in the late 17th century "Golden Age of Piracy", this tale takes place about a century earlier. Here, Flynn looks like his classical self in his late 20s and 30s. As Captain Blood, 5 years earlier, he comes across more like a wild youthful rabble-rousing rebel against the English and Spanish establishments, sporting longer hair, enhancing his image as a vengeful rebel. Here, his shorter hair, along with his general demeanor, is more in keeping with a warship captain loyal to the interests of the English crown. In "Against All Flags", he again is in the service of the British Navy, never commanding his own ship, with the assignment of destroying the pirate harbor defenses in Madagascar by posing as a deserter intent on becoming a pirate. By then he looked and acted middle-aged, although he has several ferocious duels befitting a swashbuckler film. That film also differs in that it was produced by Universal, rather than Warners, Curtiz was not the director, and it was shot in gorgeous Technicolor, rather than the B&W of the 2 previous films. It is also much shorter, at only 83 min, vs. the 2 hrs. or more of the previous films.As Captain Thorpe, Flynn comes across as a modified version of Francis Drake, who led the fight to defeat the Spanish armada. This includes the invasion of Panama. The real Drake barely escaped capture by Spanish in this endeavor, whereas Thorpe and crew are taken prisoner by Spanish who have unknowingly captured their ship at anchor. For a man who had engineered all the depredations on the Spanish empire accredited to Thorpe, his sentence as a galleon slave was unbelievably generous, however necessary for the conclusion to this story.Whereas Olivia de Havilland was the only significant female character in "Captain Blood", and spitfire pirate captain Maureen O'Hara was the dominating female presence in "Against All Flags", Brenda Marshall, as demure Spanish princess Dona Maria, has to share the female spotlight with Flora Robson, as powerful Queen Elizabeth. The part was written with Olivia in mind, but she bowed out, perhaps recognizing that the role was considerably less meaty than those in "Captain Blood" or "The Adventures of Robin Hood". Dona Maria has considerably less back and forth conflict in her feelings toward and dealings with Flynn's character than Olivia's and Maureen's characters, although she is again in a conflicted political position: half English and Half Spanish. Also, Brenda lacked the natural charisma of either Olivia or Maureen, and her one song was dubbed. However, she is not completely lacking in charm or beauty."Captain Blood" packed more plot complexity into its 2 hr. than did this film or the shorter "Against All Flags", fighting not only the English aristocracy, but the Spanish and French, before accepting a surprise invitation to join the English navy and be governor of Jamaica. For me, the present film is perhaps the least interesting of the 3, even though Flynn does his most convincing, if not most flamboyant, acting job. Certainly, it was politically the most appropriate for contemporary audiences, with a rousing defiant speech at the end, worthy of Winston Churchill. Henry Daniell, as Flynn's dueling adversary, doesn't have the charisma nor rapier skill of Basil Rathbone: Flynn's rapier -dueling adversary in the previous "Captain Blood" and "The Adventures of Robin Hood". Rathbone reportedly turned down this role because it very regrettably painted the historic Lord Walsingham(renamed Wolfingham) as a Spanish spy, rather than the chief spymaster for Elizabeth that he was!This film was made, in large part, to take advantage of the expensive costumes and sets remaining from the previous year's "The Private Lives and Elizabeth and Essex". Betty Davis played Queen Elizabeth in that film. You may prefer Flora's more folksy, less face-altered, version in the present film. As some others have noted, her face and mannerisms will remind you of the later comedian Carol Burnett..... Thorpe's capuchin monkey companion serves to lighten things up from time to time.POW and convict galleon rowers are an important part of this story. However, I have been unable to confirm by drawings or words that rowers were ever used on Spanish galleons! Galleys, yes. But, not galleons. Both were included in the Spanish armada.