Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.
The Sea Hawk (1941) Directed by Michael Curtiz
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe: Your ship is sinking, Captain. Captain Lopez: Then we shall drown together. Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe: Brave, but impractical. Now we English are a practical people. I've no intention of drowning with you.
Ah, now this is piracy! Brave beautiful men, valiant and loyal to higher ideals doing what must be done to protect Queen and country. Okay, this is not piracy, this is swashbuckling, and it never existed anywhere but in Hollywood, but it is glorious, isn't it?
The Sea Hawk is one of the ultimate pirate movies. Starring that ultimate pirate, Errol Flynn. The man could swash a buckle, no denying.
The plot revolves around a plot, the plot of Phillip II of Spain to bring "this puny rockbound island as barren and treacherous as her Queen" under Spanish control; indeed, to bring the world under Spanish control. And where there are plots, there are conspirators, and where there are conspirators, there are those who oppose them.
In this case, the conspirators are the Spanish Ambassador, Don José Alvarez de Cordoba (Claude Raines) and Lord Wolfingham (Henry Daniell) ((based on Lord Walsingham, a true patriot, Elizabeth's most loyal advisor, and proof that this is a story with the costumes of history, and little more.)) Still, our villains provide some of the best performances of the piece. Their opposition is Captain Geoffrey Thorpe, a rogue high in the favor of his Queen, played with gay abandon (pun intentional) by Errol Flynn.
Since this is Hollywood, and the romance is both required, and restricted to heterosexual, Captain Thorpe's love interest is the lovely Doña Maria Alvarez de Cordoba (Brenda Marshall) niece of the Spanish Ambassador, and lady in waiting to Elizabeth (Flora Robson). The role was originally offered to Olivia De Havilland, but she wanted to get away from swashbucklers, and declined. Still, Brenda Marshall is lovely, demure, and everything needed for the role.
For a pirate movie, they spent remarkably little time at sea, and one of their best ‘pirating maneuvers' is a tramp across the isthmus of Panama. No matter how you slice it, slogging through tropical swamps isn't adventure on the High Seas. It does however make up for that with the grand battle with the Spanish Forces at the end.
Still, it was done on a grand scale with two full size replica ships, and the costuming from The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) also starring Errol Flynn. These expensive detailed costumes were an enormous financial savings on the production. The production values were off the charts, and the movie garnered four Oscar nominations; Best Art Direction (B&W), Best Effects, Best Music, and Best Sound. All production value Oscars. And even if the acting and story were not nominated, they were off the charts on entertainment value.
The story has little historical value, it is just meant to be a rousing bit of entertainment. However, the final speech was written to rally the troops; remember, this was filmed during World War II, and the call to duty and self sacrifice for the common good resonated powerfully with the public.
Queen Elizabeth: And now, my loyal subjects, a grave duty confronts us all: To prepare our nation for a war that none of us wants, least of all your queen. We have tried by all means in our power to avert this war. We have no quarrel with the people of Spain or of any other country; but when the ruthless ambition of a man threatens to engulf the world, it becomes the solemn obligation of all free men to affirm that the earth belongs not to any one man, but to all men, and that freedom is the deed and title to the soil on which we exist. Firm in this faith, we shall now make ready to meet the great armada that Philip sends against us. To this end, I pledge you ships - ships worthy of our seamen - a mighty fleet, hewn out of the forests of England; a navy foremost in the world - not only in our time, but for generations to come. Carl Pitt: [leading a cheer] To England, and the Queen!
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