Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

MissSimonetta 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.

bkoganbing According to Maureen O'Hara in her memoirs RKO made The Spanish Main in order to capitalize on what 20th Century Fox did with The Black Swan in which she also starred. The results however were not nearly as good.In the former film Maureen had the good fortune to co-star with Tyrone Power in one of his best swashbuckling roles. Later on RKO gave O'Hara a truly good swashbuckling leading man in Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in Sinbad The Sailor, but in this film her co-star is Paul Henreid whose swash doesn't buckle quite as well as Power or Fairbanks. Maureen didn't think so herself either.Anyway Henreid is an honest potential colonist who is a Dutch refugee seeking a home in the British Carolinas when his ship is blown off course to Cartagena. The governor of Cartegena Walter Slezak promptly claps all the passengers in prison. Henreid is lucky to escape, but his time there twists him as prison does to most people.Five years later and Henreid is the notorious Barracuda with the fastest ship on The Spanish Main. He's now in the capturing business and he manages to capture Maureen O'Hara the intended bride over from Spain for Slezak. It was one of those arranged things, she wouldn't have married him if she had seen and/or known Slezak.She's not real keen on pirates either, but she warms up to Henreid after a fashion. That doesn't sit well with some of Paul's crew. namely Barton MacLane and John Emery. And it really doesn't sit well with the legendary female pirate Captain Anne Bonney played by Binnie Barnes who has a thing for Paul herself.Those are the plot ingredients and The Spanish Main plays like a road company version of The Black Swan. Best in the cast is Binnie Barnes who has a real fire in her portrayal of Captain Bonney.This was apparently RKO's big budget film for the year and it got an Oscar nomination for the color cinematography, the better to show off Maureen's red tresses. A lot of it is done tongue in cheek, maybe if the whole thing had been a satire, The Spanish Main might get a better rank from me.

studiojudio I have never appreciated the manly-jawed Maureen O'Hara. I never thought she could act, and I never particularly thought she was pretty. She was NO Rita Hayworth, nor was she even a Rhonda Fleming, if you're going to compare redheads. BUT! Paul Henreid was the most gorgeous creature ever to don a pirate costume. His only flaw in this film was, that he actually could ACT. Walter Slezak was, as usual, the Evil Walter Slezak, so I didn't appreciate him, either. He's always the same.It's a greatly enjoyable flick, especially if you are a Henreid fan. Have fun!studiojudio

tedg I'm following pirate movies now. Its because of The second Depp pirate movie and its success — Success even by the Ted-o-meter in the way the environments are exploited. So I've been digging out movies featuring sailing ships and most of those are pirate movies.This one follows the pattern set by "Black Pirate." I'm not sure if there is a strong precedent before that.The setup is simple: you have a beautiful princess, strongwilled but privileged and arrogant (but a worthy soul). You have a pirate who forces himself on her, is rejected by our womanly prize, but she finally is "won." Sure, he is a murdering thief, but he was forced into it, you see, so his brutishness is a sort of honorable characteristic.(Oh, she's a redhead.) Everything else is secondary to this spine, the idea of a man taking a woman and her eventually appreciating him, even though initially she finds herself in a violent, exploitive marriage.A whole industry has been built around this notion, the idea of manliness, action and possession. So it must tap something in women. The appeal to men is easy to suss.I saw this on a double feature with classic Bettie Page bondage films. A perfect fit, a tight knot.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.