Errol Flynn

THE SEA HAWK

Warner Bros., 1940.  Directed by Michael Curtiz.  Camera:  Sol Polito.  With Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Claude Rains, Donald Crisp, Flora Robson, Alan Hale, Sr., Henry Daniell, Una O'Connor, James Stephenson, Gilbert Roland, William Lundigan, Montagu Love, J.M. Kerrigan, David Bruce, Clifford Brooke, Clyde Cook, Fritz Leiber, Ellis Irving, Francis McDonald, Pedro de Cordova, Ian Keith, Jack LaRue, Halliwell Hobbes, Alec Craig, Victor Varconi, Robert Warwick, Harry Cording, Maurice Costello.

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In sixteenth century Spain, King Philip II, desirous of conquering the world, dispatches his ambassador, Don Jose Alvarez de Cordoba, to England, the rocky island that stands in the way of his grand scheme.  Accompanied by his beautiful niece Doņa Maria, Don Alvarez sets sail for England but, as his galley approaches the coast, the boat is attacked and plundered by Captain Geoffrey Thorpe, the privateer leader of a band of intrepid British sea fighters who steal to replenish their country's depleted coffers.

Meanwhile, in England, Queen Elizabeth listens to the debate between Sir John Burleson, who urges her majesty to build a fleet in order to defend England against the imperialistic Philip, and Lord Wolfingham, who reassures the queen that Spain represents no threat to England.  When the Queen protests that she has no money with which to build a fleet, Geoffrey, who is in agreement with Sir John, confides in her his plan to rob the Spanish treasure hunters in Panama.  After the queen grants Geoffrey her implicit consent, he readies for his voyage to Panama; before leaving, he meets Doņa Maria in the garden and the two fall in love.

Meanwhile, Don Alvarez and Wolfingham learn of Geoffrey's plan and dispatch Captain Lopez to stop him.  Upon arriving in Panama, Geoffrey and his men are captured and condemned to be galley slaves.  Just as Don Alvarez announces Geoffrey's demise and presents Elizabeth with an ultimatum of disbanding her fleet or facing war with Spain, Geoffrey learns that the Spanish Armada is poised to attack England.  At Cadiz, he leads a mutiny of the slaves, commandeers a Spanish ship, and arrives in England with proof of Spain's treachery.  Geoffrey's warning saves England, and after his joyous reunion with Doņa Maria, his Queen knights him for his valor.

Notes
Although Warner Bros. made a 1924 film entitled The Sea Hawk based on the Rafael Sabatini novel of the same name, that picture was directed by Frank Lloyd, starring Milton Sills and Enid Bennett.  The 1940 production was based entirely on materials by screenwriters Howard Kock and Seton I. Miller.  Sabatini's name is not included in the onscreen credits, though many modern sources indicate that the film was based on his novel.  News items in HR note that Warner Bros. considered changing the title of the film to Beggars at Sea because the story differed so greatly from the Sabatini novel The Sea Hawk, which told the story of a Cornish gentleman who becomes a Barbary pirate.

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"Beggars at Sea" was the title of a story originally submitted to Warner Bros. by Miller, which, according to news items and other contemporary information, was considerably revised by Koch.  Pre-production news items in HR note that Dennis Morgan was going to take over the male lead from Errol Flynn and Geraldine Fitzgerald was to play the female lead.  A later pre-production news item noted that Flynn was to play the male lead and Fitzgerald was replaced by Olivia de Havilland because Warner Bros. wanted to keep the de Havilland-Flynn combo intact after their success in The Adventures of Robin Hood and Dodge City.

Other news items in HR state that Warner Bros. spent $1,750,000 in production costs.  Due to the lack of a sound stage large enough to accommodate the full scale ships used in the production, the studio built a new sound stage that covered a specially constructed artificial lake-water tank.  Modern sources add that the ships were 165' and 135' and surrounded by water twelve-feet deep.  To economize, the studio used many of the sets and costumes from their 1939 film The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex.  Other items in HR add that some background shots were filmed at Point Magu, California.

The picture received Academy Award nominations in the following categories: Art Direction (Black-and-White); Music (Scoring); Sound Recording; and Special Effects (Photographic Effects, Byron Haskins, Sound Effects (Nathan Levinson).  Flora Robson also played Queen Elizabeth in the 1937 film Fire Over England.  In selected first-release prints, the Panamanian sequences were tinted sepia.  For many years thereafter, the sequence only appeared in black-and-white, but the sepia was restored to those scenes when the picture was released on DVD in 2005.  Modern sources also note that this was Erich Wolfgang Korngold's last score for the swashbuckler genre.  They also add the following names to the cast:  Frank Wilcox (Martin Barrett); Herbert Anderson (Eph Winters); Charles Irwin (Arnold Cross); Edgar Buchanan (Ben Rollins); and Frank Lackteen (Captain Oritz).

American Film Institute Catalog

Poster artwork courtesy of Joe.  Additional photos courtesy of Gary and Rikke.