So earlier today, Turner Classic Movies was playing the 1940 movie The Sea Hawk, and since there was nothing else on, I decided to watch the film and see if it's as good as Alec Baldwin said it was at the beginning of the movie. The Sea Hawk is a flim directed by Michael Curitz (Casablanca) and stars the legendary Errol Flynn as the English pirate Geoffrey Thorpe. The movie also starts Claude Rains, Brenda Marshall, Alan Hale, Henry Daniell, and Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth. In The Sea Hawk, Thorpe and his band of troubadours are sailing on his ship the Albatross when they come across a Spanish ship that just happens to be carrying the ambassador of Spain Alvarez (Rains) and his niece Dona Maria (Marshall). Thorpe captures the ship, frees the slaves in the galley and ends up transporting Alvarez and his party to England. On his return to England, Thorpe and Dona Maria start to hit it off despite a tumultuous beginning, and despite the protests of the Queen's council Lord Wolfington (Daniell), Thorpe and his men get unofficial permission from the Queen to embark on a mission designed to take a lot of gold from Spanish hands. However, Wolfington has his own agenda, and he and Alvarez work behind the queen's back in the name of Spain. A few notes about this film, and there will probably be SPOILERS, so read with caution.
- The Sea Hawk is a rather extravagant production for its, and well, any other time. The scene where The Albatross does battle with the Spanish army ship is masterfully done, full of action and suspense and showcasing the excellent fencing skills of Flynn as he does battle with the Spanish captain. Even though there's a lot going on in the scene, the direction is such that you are always aware of what exactly is happening at the time, who's on each side of the fight, and the scene also has a sense of real peril. Also, the final scene and the sequence where Thorpe and his men are ambushed in Mexico are also well done scenes that are full of suspense and excitement.
- Make no mistake about it, The Sea Hawk is a film designed to showcase Errol Flynn, as he's nearly in every scene and is portrayed as a heroic pirate serving under the queen who has few flaws, the utmost respect of his men, and a pet monkey to boot. There's nothing wrong with building a film around a single person if they can pull it off, and by golly Flynn is able to excel in this role as the dashing Thorpe. Heck, I have a hard time imaging anybody else taking that role and excelling the way Flynn did in this film. The Sea Hawk is a prime example of Flynn at his gallant best, the perfect marriage of actor and role.
- However, Flynn wasn't alone in deserving praise for their acting skills. Claude Rains was very good in his role as Alvarez, making him seem sympathetic despite the fact that he's basically the enemy in this film. Alan Hale deserved praise for his job as Pitt, Thorpe's rough-and-ready right hand man, and Henry Daniell is very believable in his role as the villain in the film, Lord Wolfington. Props are also due to Robson's portrayal of Queen Elizabeth, as she nearly manages the impossible and steals the movie from Flynn. Over the years, a lot of women have played the role of Queen Elizabeth I, and I'd put Robson's Queen right up there among the top portrayals of that role.
- If I have one complaint about the acting, it would be Brenda Marshall's portrayal as Thorpe's love interest Dona Maria. To me, she just seemed a little too steely and cold, even when she was supposed to feel grief for Thorpe's fate. I just had a hard time buying the chemistry between Thorpe and Dona Maria, and it didn't help matters that the writers wrote her character so one-dimensional, as we hardly get any idea of what type of person she is other than the fact that she likes English roses and stolen Aztec jewelry. However, if that was her singing in the film, then I must say that Marshall has a very nice voice.
- Speaking of music, the film features an excellent score from composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, although I felt that there were a couple of times that the music was just too overpowering and distracted from the scene instead of enhanced it. Even so, Korngold's score was top-notch, and one of the first things many people mention when remembering the film. Also of high quality was the cinematography of Sol Polito, and Michael Curitz is excellent as the director of the film, even if he and Flynn didn't like each other at the time. The script is decent enough, I suppose, with some flaws but those flaws are more than made up for by the excellent performances of the actors and the talent of Korngold, Polito, and Curitz.
- This film was rather pro-England, I will say, and is ever so subtetly an anti-Nazi propaganda film as well. Themes of the Sea Hawk include stopping a ruler who will stop at nothing to conquer the entire world (Spain's King Phillip in the film, Hitler in 1940 England) and for England to be the nation that stands up for freedom (i.e. the Spanish Inquistion in the film, the Holocaust in 1940 England), and a call to a ruler that will stand proud and fight a war that they don't want to fight, but must be done to protect England and ultimately the world (i.e. Queen Elizabeth and Winston Churchill).
Overall, The Sea Hawk is a classic film that is both a fun adventure and a politically charged movie. Flynn is at the top of his game here and so is the director Curitz and Robson does an excellent job as the Queen. Overall, I'd give The Sea Hawk an 8.25 out of 10. Well, thanks for reading, and if you have any thoughts about this or other posts, or ideas for future posts, than let me know about them either by leaving a comment or by sending me an e-mail at kthec2001@gmail.com.
Showing posts with label Alan Hale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alan Hale. Show all posts
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Canon MST3K Review: The Giant Spider Invasion
With a name like The Giant Spider Invasion, you expect that giant spiders will invade Earth and cause a ruckus. Well, in that aspect this movie did not disappoint. However, the movie did manage to disappoint in nearly every other way possible. Yet The Giant Spider Invasion is one of those movies that is so bad that it's good, and made for a rather humorous episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. The Giant Spider Invasion was made in 1975 and was directed by Bill Rebane, who made a career out of directing low budget horror films like this one. The movie stars a bunch of people that made their living doing guest spots on TV shows and playing small roles in movies, including Alan Hale (The Skipper on "Gilligan's Island") and Barbara Hale (no relation, but she did play the role of Della Street in the Perry Mason series). A few notes about this episode, and yes there are spoilers ahead:
- The movie takes a while to get going, choosing to introduce the characters of the film before the spiders start their invasion. This isn't a bad idea, however, the characters are so unlikeable that I just couldn't wait for the spiders to start killing people off. The worst of which is white-trash farmer Dan Kester (Robert Easton), who cheats on his wife, and tries to bed his much younger sister-in-law all in one night. His wife, Ev (Leslie Parrish), is a woman that is either drinking some alcoholic beverage or offering sarcastic remarks towards her husband, although it's hard to blame her considering the lout she's married to. Then there's the sherrif (Alan Hale), who seems like a pleasant enough fellow but spends the entire movie either eating or telling bad jokes or on the phone. Not to mention the stuck-up sexist NASA scientist Dr. J.R. Vance (Steve Brodie), who looks like a heavier Mean Gene Okerlund with a bad rug on his head, and sucks as a scientist to boot.
- The movie starts off with a giant explosion that takes place in Dan Kester's pasture at night. Dan, being the genius that he is, decides that now would be a good time to crash the bed instead of checking out the GIANT EXPLOSION on his property. At the very least, he could have got the heck out of there. Then again, I probably would have done the same thing. There's a man who crashes his motorcycle, and then something happens to him. You can't tell what, because the camera shot has no light whatsoever, and this would not be the first time that the film was shot in almost complete darkness.
- So, with a giant crash out in the middle of Nowhere, Wisconsin, NASA decides to send it's top man, Mean Gen, I mean, J.R. Vance, to meet with a Dr. Langer (Barbara Hale). This leads to a hilarious scene where the two meet, and Vance assumes that he's meeting Dr. Langer's husband, then her father, than her brother, before finally Dr. Jenny Langer informes the pig that it is actually she that has the appointment with a dumbfounded Vance. I guess J.R. Vance is a man from a simpler time, where women weren't astronomers and stay at home in the kitchen. Personally, I was hoping that Langer would slug Vance, but no such luck. Unfortunately, that was the last interesting scene in the movie involving the two until the end.
- Eventually, the giant spider makes his appearance after a subplot of the farmer and his wife finding that all their cattle have been mutilated, but they found diamonds in some rocks (Of course, they failed to notice the spiders that were in each rock, to the point where Ev fixed herself a Bloody Mary without noticing the spiders in the blender.) Normally, I'm not the type of person that roots for the monster or bad guy in films, but in this case, I was cheering for the Giant Spider as if the Falcons scored a touchdown. First the spider kills off Ev, which is unfortunate but not a big loss, but then the Spider disposes of both Dan and his lecherous Charles Manson look-a-like cousin Billy. The spider should have been given an award from the townspeople for that alone.
- The giant 'spider' in this film was actually a bunch of spider legs around a Volkswagen Beetle. In one scene where the spider attacks a slow-pitch softball game, you can actually see the tire tracks the 'spider' leaves behind in its wake. Well, at least it's better than some crappy CGI image of a giant spider that would be used in a film like this today.
Overall, this movie has a lot of issues. For one, there are multiple scenes where Alan Hale is talking on the phone with someone and you're supposed to hear what's being said, but the audio is so low that you can't make out what they are saying. There's a couple of other scenes where you can't hear what the characters are saying, and there are quite a few scenes that are so dark that there's no telling what's actually happening. The effects are cheesy at best, the acting is mostly second rate, and the plot is easy enough to follow, but full of holes. Nevertheless, it's such a cheesy movie that it's actually quite funny even without the digs given by Mike and the Bots, and there are certainly worse movies to watch. Overall, the movie would get about a 2.9 out of 10, but the episode is a solid 7 out of 10. Remember, if you have any ideas for future reviews, or comments about this or previous reviews, then send them to me either by e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com or by leaving a comment on the blog.
- The movie takes a while to get going, choosing to introduce the characters of the film before the spiders start their invasion. This isn't a bad idea, however, the characters are so unlikeable that I just couldn't wait for the spiders to start killing people off. The worst of which is white-trash farmer Dan Kester (Robert Easton), who cheats on his wife, and tries to bed his much younger sister-in-law all in one night. His wife, Ev (Leslie Parrish), is a woman that is either drinking some alcoholic beverage or offering sarcastic remarks towards her husband, although it's hard to blame her considering the lout she's married to. Then there's the sherrif (Alan Hale), who seems like a pleasant enough fellow but spends the entire movie either eating or telling bad jokes or on the phone. Not to mention the stuck-up sexist NASA scientist Dr. J.R. Vance (Steve Brodie), who looks like a heavier Mean Gene Okerlund with a bad rug on his head, and sucks as a scientist to boot.
- The movie starts off with a giant explosion that takes place in Dan Kester's pasture at night. Dan, being the genius that he is, decides that now would be a good time to crash the bed instead of checking out the GIANT EXPLOSION on his property. At the very least, he could have got the heck out of there. Then again, I probably would have done the same thing. There's a man who crashes his motorcycle, and then something happens to him. You can't tell what, because the camera shot has no light whatsoever, and this would not be the first time that the film was shot in almost complete darkness.
- So, with a giant crash out in the middle of Nowhere, Wisconsin, NASA decides to send it's top man, Mean Gen, I mean, J.R. Vance, to meet with a Dr. Langer (Barbara Hale). This leads to a hilarious scene where the two meet, and Vance assumes that he's meeting Dr. Langer's husband, then her father, than her brother, before finally Dr. Jenny Langer informes the pig that it is actually she that has the appointment with a dumbfounded Vance. I guess J.R. Vance is a man from a simpler time, where women weren't astronomers and stay at home in the kitchen. Personally, I was hoping that Langer would slug Vance, but no such luck. Unfortunately, that was the last interesting scene in the movie involving the two until the end.
- Eventually, the giant spider makes his appearance after a subplot of the farmer and his wife finding that all their cattle have been mutilated, but they found diamonds in some rocks (Of course, they failed to notice the spiders that were in each rock, to the point where Ev fixed herself a Bloody Mary without noticing the spiders in the blender.) Normally, I'm not the type of person that roots for the monster or bad guy in films, but in this case, I was cheering for the Giant Spider as if the Falcons scored a touchdown. First the spider kills off Ev, which is unfortunate but not a big loss, but then the Spider disposes of both Dan and his lecherous Charles Manson look-a-like cousin Billy. The spider should have been given an award from the townspeople for that alone.
- The giant 'spider' in this film was actually a bunch of spider legs around a Volkswagen Beetle. In one scene where the spider attacks a slow-pitch softball game, you can actually see the tire tracks the 'spider' leaves behind in its wake. Well, at least it's better than some crappy CGI image of a giant spider that would be used in a film like this today.
Overall, this movie has a lot of issues. For one, there are multiple scenes where Alan Hale is talking on the phone with someone and you're supposed to hear what's being said, but the audio is so low that you can't make out what they are saying. There's a couple of other scenes where you can't hear what the characters are saying, and there are quite a few scenes that are so dark that there's no telling what's actually happening. The effects are cheesy at best, the acting is mostly second rate, and the plot is easy enough to follow, but full of holes. Nevertheless, it's such a cheesy movie that it's actually quite funny even without the digs given by Mike and the Bots, and there are certainly worse movies to watch. Overall, the movie would get about a 2.9 out of 10, but the episode is a solid 7 out of 10. Remember, if you have any ideas for future reviews, or comments about this or previous reviews, then send them to me either by e-mail at KtheC2001@gmail.com or by leaving a comment on the blog.
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