The Spanish Main (1945)

So much average

i must have seen a different film!!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

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.

The Spanish Main (1945) was very much Paul Henreid's baby; he wanted to shake up his image by playing a red-blooded, two-fisted romantic hero. Many feel he was miscast in the lead, too effete to be a swashbuckling pirate captain. I disagree. Henreid's character is an unlikely pirate, but that's because he is, in truth, just an ordinary schlub, a guy who wanted to peacefully make his way to the Americas and ended up getting screwed over. Thus he turns to piracy in an act of rebellion. I think he was fine in the part; however, he's ultimately upstaged by Maureen O'Hara, whose fiery, feisty presence blows everyone else off the screen. It doesn't help Henreid that O'Hara's character has a full-fledged arc too, making her more the center of the film than he. But I love O'Hara, especially when she gets to tote a gun around while wearing gorgeous period clothes, so I'm not complaining.The rest of the cast is a lot of fun. Silent film fans will be delighted to see Antonio Moreno. The color photography is ravishing and the action scenes are well-choreographed. The story is relatively standard pirate fare, but it is a lot of fun for a lazy afternoon. I just had a pretty difficult, exhausting week, so such old school popcorn fare was great for me.

Weak production. Swashbuckling films with Maureen O'Hara needed better writing and more excitement,and this 1945 film is no exception to that rule. It is true that Paul Henried could rival Errol Flynn for his debonair attitude and good looks here.As the overweight cad, Walter Slezak steals the film, but he is constantly threatening people with hanging or being burned at the stake.O'Hara is promised to Alvarado, Slezak, but once she meets and quickly weds Henried, who had been captive by Slezak, all that changes. There are times that Henried and O'Hara mistrust each other, but love conquers all.

I saw this on TV TCM today and will always enjoy the exciting story of the Spanish Main; with beautiful musical score and scenes rather well staged. Maureen O'Hara and Paul Henried are great! The scene stealer of course is that great character actor Walter Slezak, who plays a mean egocentric governor, but who gets it in the end. The duelling scenes are particularly good, and Paul Henried does a good job duelling. Binnie Barnes, who I remember so well in early films was especially great as a woman pirate