This movie is so wonderful in so many ways.But, having watched it again for the nth time tonight on TCM, it is still the opening sea battle that most gets my adrenaline going. Everything works. The action. The direction. Very definitely Korngold's masterful score. It is a spell-binding scene.The rest of the movie is wonderful as well, of course. Flynn is magnificent as the swashbuckling, never-too-serious privateer. His duel with Henry Daniell near the end is actually very good, though it still falls short of the superb one between Flynn and Basil Rathbone at the end of Robin Hood.Brenda Marshall is certainly very beautiful, but she doesn't have the personality of Olivia de Havilland.Everything works here. Every actor is perfect. So is the script. And the score. The Star Wars movies come right out of this, but as good as they are, they never get this good.This is truly a masterpiece!

Errol Flynn stars in this exciting story that stems from greed for the British throne from Queen Elizabeth and control of England. When King Philip of Spain plots against her and plants Henry Daniell as a spy in her midst, the plot is set in motion. Claude Rains is a Spanish ambassador who is sailing to Queen Elizabeth to play nice to her, accompanied by his niece, played by Brenda Marshall (one of the rare times Olivia de Havilland didn't the leading role in an Errol Flynn adventure film.) Of course, Brenda is oblivious to the deviousness about her. But, on their way, their ship is attacked by a British ship, headed by Geoffrey Thorpe, played by Errol Flynn. This lack of goodwill and respect for other countries gets him in trouble with his Queen, but he knows an enemy when he sees one. So, all this gets the viewer get into the intrigue and makes for a very exciting experience with a great rousing score by Korngold accompanying it. Errol has never looked better and delivers the goods as only he can (who doesn't love a rascal), while Brenda Marshall seems to have a more reserved and refined beauty about her, in contrast to Olivia's sweetness and flirtatious coyness she had with Errol. A romantic moment comes when Errol tells Brenda, when she appears so radiant with roses in her arms, that he will always think of her as "My lady of the roses." Supporting actors Rains and Daniell have never been better and this film has a bunch of recognizable faces for the crew about Errol: Alan Hale (the actor who made the most films with Errol,) Edgar Buchanun, William Lundigan, David Bruce, and J. M. Kerrigan just to name a few. There are a few more but I can't think of them all. Granted, this has only one major duel, but it's a great one. Oh, and Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth is inspiring. She was one of the best actresses of her time and the speech she gives at the end of the film is very well written and makes a great impression on the viewer with her direct delivery. With grand adventure to experience, this is one Errol Flynn film that is as good as Robin Hood, Captain Blood and Don Juan. Missing this means you don't love Errol Flynn films. What's wrong with you?

Brenda is not Olivia, and Henry quite definitely is not Philip St.John Basil Rathbone, MC. Sorry, folks, but with ersatz ingredients, the cake just doesn't taste quite right, although millions were spent in baking it. Flynn does his very best; he looks good, moves well, speaks well, flaunts his gear as if ladled into it, and he was an absolutely great swasher, but somehow I didn't feel his heart was truly into this buckler. The ship models were annoyingly unrealistic; Henry Daniell was such a pathetic pussy he had to have a blatantly obvious double in the fencing scenes, besides which Elizabeth's Walsingham should sue him for character assassination and outright defamation. Robson was a sight better than Bette Davis, but there have been several better Elizabeths since. Also, this film is too long, and it starts to drag about half way through, when they get to sepia-tinted Panama. There's too much talk, as well. And that monkey was robbed of its Oscar. Never mind, it's all good anti-German fun: there are definite parallels between the Nazis and the Spanish Inquisition. Korngold ratchets up the sound. Time Magazine reviewed the performance with its usual inaccuracy, calling Flynn "the Irish Cinemactor". I often wonder about these WW2 movies: do they show this in Argentina nowadays ? Do they show Henry V in France ?

This is yet another vintage film that I'm only just catching up with, some 70 years after its initial release and this probably has a lot to do with how indifferent I feel about it. Whilst I've always found Errol Flynn charming with great charisma I sensed a strain on both here. Brenda Marshall is wooden in the extreme and there is absolutely no chemistry between her and Flynn. Claude Rains, too, seems oddly ill-at-ease possibly because unlike his Captain Renault in Casablanca he is not permitted to display the impish side of his character and come on as more of a lovable rogue than black-as-night villain. Even the swordplay was lacklustre and it's too easy to say that Henry Daniell is a poor substitute for Basil Rathbone. I've given it five out of ten whereas had I seen it earlier I may have gone to seven or eight.