Review of Sea Hawk

A Wartime Swashbuckling Adventure.

by Redmaple | Apr. 25, 2001 (Updated May 15, 2001)

Pros: Errol Flynn, Claude Rains, Alan Hale, nice Robin Hood spoof in the final fight.

Cons: Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth, weak script: some "coincidences" are too obvious.

The Bottom Line: By no means the best Flynn film, good to be seen for an example of the adaptation of history for propaganda.

Recommended: Yes

Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

"The Sea Hawk" (1940), starring Errol Flynn, is considered by some Flynn enthusiasts to be among the star's best films. Unfortunately, I beg to differ. Flynn's first film, "Captain Blood", in which he played the part of a pirate who eventually defended a British colony under assault by French ships, is somehow better than this movie. And "Captain Blood" is in fact very average compared to "The Charge of the Light Brigade" and "The Adventures of Robin Hood". I would give "The Sea Hawk" a 3.5 stars grade, but I can't, and I think 3 stars would be unfair.

The story revolves around Captain Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn), a character loosely based on Sir Francis Drake, who leads a life of piracy but who in fact is loyal to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. The year is 1585, and relations between England and Spain were at their worst, especially because of the Spanish desire for territorial expansion. The famous defeat of the Spanish Armada at the hands of the English would take place three years later. After a diplomatic incident in which Thorpe attacked a Spanish ship on which was a Spanish ambassador (Claude Rains), the Queen announces, with the ambassador present, that she would forbid attacks against the Spanish from her elite squad, "The Sea Hawks", but in fact encourages Thorpe to continue his actions against the Spanish, although very unofficially. He sets sail a few days later to attack a Spanish position in Panama, but his plan had been found out, and the Spanish set him an ambush in the middle of the forest there. He escapes with a few other sailors by travelling across difficult jungle terrain. Some perish during the journey. He finally reaches his ship, only to find the Spanish on board. He is arrested, and convicted of crimes against Spain. He is sentenced to spend the rest of his life as a galley slave. He and the other galley slaves manage to remove their chains and take control of the ship. They set sail for England with important documents proving the building up of the Spanish Armada and the treacherous actions of Lord Wolfingham, a British peer who wanted to obtain for himself the Throne of England with the support of Spain. Thorpe enters the palace with the help of Dona Maria, the Spanish Ambassador's niece, who loves Thorpe. After a sword fight in which he kills the treacherous Lord Wolfingham, Thorpe gives the documents to the Queen, who in a sweeping finale, grants Thorpe a knighthood and warns the English People about the Spanish threat.

"The Sea Hawk" was filmed in black and white, and includes (in the version I saw) a sepia-tinted (brownish or ochre) scene (the Panama adventure), plus extra footage (the original version ran 109 minutes, this one runs 126 minutes). Very interesting is a study of the sets. An extensive analysis of the sets in the Warner Brothers films from that period would show a repetition in the use of sets in these films. Some sets were obviously used in "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" the previous year, and perhaps others were used in "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "Captain Blood" (in fact part of the sets from "The Adventures of Robin Hood" were re-used in "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex"). Some costumes may have been re-used from "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" as well.

The main problem with this film is the story. The synopsis can be summarized in a relatively short paragraph, as I just did. The rest is filled with competently-made action scenes. The love story between Thorpe and Dona Maria evolves way too quickly, since she totally despises him at the beginning of the film for making her a prisoner (a theme very reminiscent of "Captain Blood"). It is nevertheless necessary for her to start loving him quickly, because she must be seen worrying about him when he departs for Panama, she must be seen fainting when she gets news of his arrest, and because she must help him enter the palace at night towards the end of the film. Some situations are too much of a coincidence to be plausible. After wandering through the jungle for presumably hours, more realistically for days, when Flynn reaches the ocean, it is exactly where his ship is. When Thorpe's second-in-command Mr. Pitt (Alan Hale), strangles the drummer in the galley while he is asleep, he missed his first attempt, yet the drummer did not scream for help. When the ship on which Thorpe had been a slave returns to England under his command, it is exactly at that time that Maria is at the dock. There is also a totally superfluous monkey in the film, and the film would have been better had he been left out completely.

Nevertheless, the plot has its highlights. One example is the Don Alvarez (the ambassador) and Lord Wolfingham in the cartographer's shop. There is also the final speech by the Queen, and the sword fight between Lord Wolfingham and Geoffrey Thorpe. For those who have seen Flynn's "The Adventures of Robin Hood", the sword fight is also very hilarious, as it is obviously a spoof of the sword fight between Robin Hood and Sir Guy of Gisbourne in the 1938 film.

Brenda Marshall is correct as Dona Maria, but she is no match for Olivia de Havilland, Flynn's usual partner. Flora Robson, on the other hand, is completely miscast as Queen Elizabeth. She seems too sympathetic for the part -- she just does not come across as a believable Queen. In comparison, Bette Davis's portrayal of the role in "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" is constantly cold, reserved and detached -- and that was so even during the scenes with her lover, the Earl of Essex (also played by Flynn). In comparison, Queen Elizabeth in "The Sea Hawk" is by no means in love with Thorpe, but she is even friendlier than Bette Davis's Elizabeth was with Essex. Flynn is, as usual, good as the swashbuckling hero.

The music was written by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Korngold was a great composer, and his scores for "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" were magnificent. His music for "The Sea Hawk", in comparison, is very average. Parts of it strikingly resemble what he wrote for "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (perhaps as a spoof, perhaps as intellectual cannibalism), and in any case, his music for "The Sea Hawk" is inferior to the one he wrote for "Captain Blood". Nevertheless, Korngold is always professional in his approach: an average Korngold score is generally better than most film composers' music.

What makes this film interesting historically is the fact that it is a clever blend of swashbuckling action and wartime propaganda. In 1940, the situation seemed desperate for Great Britain. France was collapsing quickly and had completely surrendered by July. The year was also the worst for the British in terms of air raids. (The next year the Germans' attention shifted to the wide steppes of Russia) The topic of "The Sea Hawk" offers a golden opportunity for patriotism. First, the film starts with King Philip II of Spain looking at his map on the wall. He declares that "with England conquered, nothing can stand in our way." He concludes his speech by saying that before his death the map on the wall "will have ceased to be a map of the world. It will be Spain.". Of course, it was not to be the case, and everyone knows about the defeat of the Spanish Armada while the odds were against the English. This of course was the situation between the English and the Germans in 1940. King Philip II had become a sixteenth-century equivalent of Adolf Hitler, while Queen Elizabeth, making a patriotic speech in the last scene of the film, had become a sixteenth-century Winston Churchill. The final speech of the Queen must enter film history as a great example of British patriotism that can rival the vicar's final speech in "Mrs. Miniver" (1942, won Oscar for Best Picture), Noel Coward's "In Which We Serve" (1942) and Laurence Olivier in "Henry V" (1944). Elizabeth declared in her speech, for example, that "when the ruthless ambitions of a man threaten to engulf the world, it becomes a solemn obligation of all free men to affirm that the Earth belongs not to any one man, but to all men". It is very doubtful that Elizabeth would have agreed with this, but it certainly makes good patriotic propaganda, certainly enough to rival Churchill's speeches. Besides, does anyone truly expect any film to be perfectly historical? (Please see my review of "The Charge of the Light Brigade", which discusses this issue in some length).

I recommend "The Sea Hawk". However, this is not Flynn's best film. It is nevertheless worth seeing, for in spite of a weak plot, the film still maintains great entertainment value.