Recently seeing a number of interesting RKO Drama's on BBC iPlayer,I decided to find out what title had recently been shown. Looking for trivia, I was intrigued to find out that this was RKO's first colour movie! Which led to me sailing to the Spanish Main.The plot:Seizing a ship, Laurent Van Horn breaks up the arranged marriage between Don Juan Alvarado and Contessa Francesca by taking Francesca to his hideout. Arriving at the hideout, Alvarado finds girlfriend Anne Bonney.Not about to let the marriage end easily,Alvarado sails the high seas of revenge. View on the film:Setting the cannon alight, director Frank Borzage & cinematographer George Barnes get into the swashbuckling atmosphere for RKO's first colour production, with explosive cannon battles at sea,and the clanging of metal sword-fights.While the amount of action is limited,Borzage keeps the bottle of rum pouring out with rich reds and towering castles giving the flick a sense of Adventure.Clearly having the most fun with the baddie,the screenplay by George Worthing Yates/Herman J. Mankiewicz and Æneas MacKenzie give the dialogue a funny boo-hiss crunch,which does very well at setting Don Juan Alvarado up as the final boss.Covering the screen with exposition texts at various stages, the writers get unsteady in which direction to sail the film towards,with the various tangled betrayals dimming the action set-pieces.Swinging over to RKO after Warner Brothers turned the project down, Paul Henreid gives a dashing performance as Capt. Laurent Van Horn,whilst Maureen O'Hara gives the film a splash of glamour as Contessa Francesca. Chewing the ships, Walter Slezak gives a superb performance as boo- hiss Don Juan Alvarado,with Slezak stealing the bounty with the biggest slices of Parma ham.

What's this, Frank Borzage producing commercial popcorn fodder? Indeed yes it is. The Spanish Main is a good old pirate/seafaring romp, the production design is considerably better than the actual plotting, with RKO pushing the boat out (hrr hrr hrr), but as long as you have a kink for such old fashioned genre pictures then there is much to enjoy; and much that's easy to ignore...Maureen O'Hara, Paul Henreid and Walter Slezak are the draw cards, though each one is short changed by the screenplay. O'Hara isn't called on to rise above being a feisty Technicolor beaut who will inevitably become Henreid's gal. Henreid himself is, in spite of the film very much being his baby, actually miscast and wholly unbelievable in the pirate stakes, while the ever wonderful Slezak is quite simply under used.However, fans of such fare easily forgive the shortcomings, focusing on having a good time with the extended sword play and naval battle scenes, buying into the romance angle and shouting hooray at film's finale! It's all very conventional on the page, but the smart craft involved in bringing it to life is sometimes all you need to brighten a miserable winter's day. 6.5/10

Dutch navigator settles an old score against a despicable Spanish ruler and kidnaps his betrothed, a Mexican Contessa, en route to the wedding; he marries her aboard ship, but soon finds himself double-crossed by a former flame. Technicolor pirate production from RKO which is best when keeping its tone light and playful, worse while putting its characters on a soapbox and having them pontificate ponderously. With his mischievous grin, tousled locks and robust appearance, this is probably the sexiest Paul Henreid has ever been on the screen; flame-haired Maureen O'Hara looks sensational too, though her close-ups are obviously carefully posed and lighted for this effect. Still, interest wanes after the first-half, with rote swashbuckling action and a lack of attention paid to the supporting players. ** from ****

I'm following pirate movies now. Its because of The second Depp pirate movie and its success — Success even by the Ted-o-meter in the way the environments are exploited. So I've been digging out movies featuring sailing ships and most of those are pirate movies.This one follows the pattern set by "Black Pirate." I'm not sure if there is a strong precedent before that.The setup is simple: you have a beautiful princess, strongwilled but privileged and arrogant (but a worthy soul). You have a pirate who forces himself on her, is rejected by our womanly prize, but she finally is "won." Sure, he is a murdering thief, but he was forced into it, you see, so his brutishness is a sort of honorable characteristic.(Oh, she's a redhead.) Everything else is secondary to this spine, the idea of a man taking a woman and her eventually appreciating him, even though initially she finds herself in a violent, exploitive marriage.A whole industry has been built around this notion, the idea of manliness, action and possession. So it must tap something in women. The appeal to men is easy to suss.I saw this on a double feature with classic Bettie Page bondage films. A perfect fit, a tight knot.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.