Colibel Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

ShangLuda Admirable film.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

lasttimeisaw A British fantasy-drama draws inspiration from the legend of the Flying Dutchman, a ghost-ship can never approach port and is doomed to sail forever in the sea, and revamped by writer/director Albert Lewin into a lachrymose romance between a Dutch captain, the selfsame Flying Dutchman, Hendrick van der Zee (Mason), and a drop-dead gorgeous Pandora Reynolds (Gardner), in a fictitious port town Esperanza, Spain.Pandora is surrounded by admirers, some of them are expatriate Britons, one of them even gulps a poisoned wine and kills himself in the occasion of the first anniversary their acquaintance, to the dismay of her indifference, and she doesn't even care to raise an eyebrow. However, an unremitting British racing driver Stephen Cameron (Patrick) almost wins her over by pushing his state-of-the- art racing car over the cliff just to prove his undying love, because Pandora calculates the measurement of love by how much a man can give up for loving her (soon she will discover what she has to give up for love as well). They are engaged! But there is an "almost", it is clear as day that she doesn't love Stephen, or any other man, including the spunky torero Juan Montalvo (Cabré).Can she ever love somebody after being created as a perfect specimen of female desirability? Only in the fantasy, maybe, so one night, beckoned by a mysterious ship anchored near the beach, Pandora swims to the ship and finds Hendrick, the sole being on board, is uncannily drawing a painting (a work made by Lewin's friend Man Ray) with exact her image, there are connections between them far beyond this life, as it will reveal, Hendrick is a perpetual wandering soul on the sea, under the curse that only a woman who is willing to die for him because of uncontaminated, unconditional love, can he be set free from the eternity of exile for his blasphemy and spur-of-the- moment sin. Here, the whole foolish and intrinsically jaundiced perspective of treating beautiful women as the ultimate sacrifice to assuage men's guilty over their own idiotic wrongdoings, is ghastly behind our times, which tolls the death knell for this otherwise handsomely and picturesquely shot piece of supernatural romance in Technicolor by cinematographer Jack Cardiff, its close cousin should be William Dieterle's PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1948).The opening, has already given away the forbidding end, and the film is mostly narrated by Pandora's friend, a British archaeologist Geoffrey Fielding (Warrender), who is in the safe age range to stay as a bystander with a morally superior eye, and sometimes by Hendrick himself, to cursorily introduce his past to viewers, those orations are ornate and over-literary, James Mason has been ill-fitted for the role, dour, ponderous and a complete misfit for Ms. Gardner's glamour turn, but as it always the case, whether it is Clark Gable in John Ford's MOGAMBO (1953), or Richard Burton in John Huston's THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (1964), Gardner can hardly find an equal worth her divine beauty and unrestrained candour, she is Pandora in real life, that's a tailor- made role of her no doubt, but the movie only resounds with a disappointing meh, no torrid flamenco, record-breaking car-racing, or corrida extravaganza can save the damp squib.

jackeugenebarry If you dig the Classic Stuff, this is a really strange and righteously romantic fable-like take on an old legend sorta-thing, made in 1950, set in 1930, done in that Classic English version of technicolor (as opposed to the candy-colored American "Wizard of Oz" style). In the way the Brits liked to use it back in the day - usually in the capable painterly hands of this flick's cinematographer, Jack Cardiff - Technicolor was given a whole different look and feel, more muted and elusive, distant and mysterious, but no less stylized or romantic (even rapturous) than our primary-colored U.S. use of the process. In this flick, the color and look and feel of the imagery conveys the vibe of some strange stirring dream that's just so... something... that it couldn't be either true or false. It just sweeps you along in its swell... No joke, movie lovers, This Thing Is The Genuine Goods.AVA GARDNER, smack-dab in her prime right here (somewhere in between "The Killers" & "The Barefoot Contessa", both also Great), was always sultry, seductive, and at a bit of a remove from all the mere men who wanted to get it rollin' with her. Here, she takes that mold and both fills it AND breaks through it. And she stars with JAMES MASON, who was always Really Intense, and always Really Good, and whom we also have here right in the thick of his hot-streak ("Odd Man Out", "A Star Is Born", "Bigger Than Life", "Lolita"). She's this woman who has Everything she could want, but... And he's this man who asks for Nothing, but needs Something, and...Ladies, this one goes nice and old-school for you and the one you love. (and Gentlemen, go with the flow on this one. You'll be cool with it.) Hey, you know what? I can't say anything more, Y'all. Seek this one out and take it in.

ElMaruecan82 Temperatures got pretty hot in theaters in 1951, with "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "A Place in the Sun" but even these two official masterpieces didn't come close to the emotional impact "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" left on me.The film opens with Costa Brava's fishermen catching two bodies in their nets, presumably belonging to the titular protagonists. The village's Englishman archaeologist Geoffrey (Harold Warrender) discover near their dead hands lying on the sand, his Omar Khayyam's poems book, a historical relic, magnificently handwritten, with words resonating like an inspirational testimony from a couple that lived love to the fullest, until the ultimate breath shared together.As I rediscover Albert Lewin's gem, I feel exactly like Geoffrey. With its old-fashioned and imperfectly grainy Technicolor imagery, the film is also the historical relic of an era forever gone, when romances still fueled their energy from timeless mythology, when passion was of a few words, but each word cut straight to the heart. And like the poem, the film speaks more infinite statements about that unique passion between Ava Gardner at the peak of her never equaled beauty, and James Mason, more tormented and desperately in love than ever.The film's magic is transcended by the setting: the country of flamenco, gypsies and bullfighting. The village is one of these Mediterranean places where summer breeze and beach waves whisper the most luscious temptations, where a majestic sun and a delicious red wine draw men's boiling blood in the most fearless accomplishments. Corrida plays a significant part in the film and beyond the local color it provides, the ballet with death and expression of courage work like powerful metaphors of Pandora's power with men. Her beauty is like the red cap, luring men into a deadly trap.It's tempting to call Pandora femme-fatale from the way she inspires men's most suicidal behavior, she has a strange black-(potential)-widow quality, starting with the suicide of one of her lovers, an intellectual malcontent, resigning to have a last drop of wine laced with poison after one rejection too many. Pandora's reaction is revealing, she's indifferent not because she's insensitive, but because she accepted her incapability to love, or on a less pessimistic note, to find the man to challenge her idea of love. And it's on the seemingly unfertile heart of a seemingly femme-fatale that blooms the flower of a real romantic heroine.The idea of 'true love' is hinted through the recurring line about the measure of love, being what we're willing to give up for it. This saying is echoed when Pandora is taken near a ravine dominating the beach, after a fast-driven tour on Stephen's sport car. Stephen (Nigel Patrick) loves Pandora and without hesitation, drops his car on the sea, to prove how much he's ready to give up. The courageous act pays off, yet her engagement is quickly troubled by the arrival of a mysterious boat coming from and going to nowhere. Then the film takes us into a fantasy universe, revealing the identity of Hendrik, who is nothing but the most legendary Dutchman ever, the Flying one.After killing his wife out of jealousy, Hendrik made a blasphemous rant during his trial, daring God to a more severe punishment than death. The night before his execution, a mysterious force guides him to his ship, which becomes strangely deserted in the morning. Hendrik understands that God condemned him to sail the seas for eternity, until he finds a woman willing to die for him, relieving him from his curse. As unbearable as the curse is, the salvation is even worse because implying the death of an innocent woman. This is the roots of Hendrik's torment, graved in Mason's solemn face.A curious Pandora meets him on the boat as if destiny was already on march. He's drawing a mysterious portrait of Pandora, the Greek Eve who released all the evils of humanity by opening the forbidden box. Pandora, although given to a nightclub singer from Indianapolis, couldn't have been a more fitting name, as if she truly was the unknowing incarnation of the legendary figure. And I could believe that Pandora was the kind of woman to drive (literally) men to the most dangerous extremes for I believe Ava Gardner is the most beautiful woman who ever graced the silver screen.After Hendrick, another rival, the closer to an antagonist, comes in town, the local bullfighter named Montalvo (Carlo Libre). Eventually, both Stephen and Montalvo accomplished intrepid exploits (a beach speed racing and bullfighting) to prove their value, but it didn't matter much to Pandora, Stephen takes the car back and Montalvo thought only a man of his stature deserved here: more than Pandora, he loved himself. Hendrik though loved Pandora enough to sacrifice his most valuable asset: love itself. During the romantic climax, Pandora opens her heart but Hendrik rejects her pretending he doesn't want to betray Stephen. His face is devastated as he only tries to ignite her hatred to preserve her life."Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" is about "a man unable to die and a woman unable to love". With Pandora, Hendrik can die if he accepts her love, and she can finally 'love' for a reason as mysterious as the curse, two mysteries borrowed from Germanic and Greek mythology that don't need more answers. We understand that the sportsmen saw Pandora as the ultimate trophy but Hendrik was ready to sacrifice it, , ignoring that Pandora, tired of inspiring sacrifices, was ready to offer her life for her love life's salvation, hence accomplishing her own sacrifice and closing an extraordinary character's arc.There are reasons why I believe this is one of the most romantic movies ever made. "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" is elevated by many heart-pounding unspoken moments and strikes of philosophical genius deliberately breaking the fourth wall to involve our hearts, and hook them to the inspirational love story between two generous souls.

winles Just to point out to anyone in the UK,a new restored DVD version of this movie is available from 31st January 2011. I have purchased this from Amazon,and can assure you that it truly IS restored (colour & sound)to the original Technicolor version. For the completists it also has several extras,but if you want to know what they are you will have to look on Amazon. Make sure the DVD you order is on the Park Circus label, as this is the restored one,any others may not be. I got mine(Feb 2011) for £10.99,as I had been waiting for an "original & restored" version for a long time I was even better value!PS:~ I presume this also available in the States but I am not sure?