Review of The Sea Hawk (1940) by Benjamin S — 08 Sep 2008

Awesome. A fantastic, taught adventure movie that opens with an excellent and surprisingly violent ship battle and closes with one of the best sword fights I've ever seen. Errol Flynn is great, playing an actual character in Captain Thorpe with real decision-making, as opposed to his usual smug shenanigans. It's no secret that Michael Curtiz was a fine director, but my eyes were opened here with his beautiful movements, excellent shot selection and brilliant subtext. One scene is just wonderfully directed: It begins with Thorpe seeing a woman, then cuts to Thorpe's crew discussing how he loves his ship and the sea more than he could love a woman, then after Thorpe's bumbling conversation with his leading lady, Curtiz cuts from her close-up to a wide of the ship on the open ocean. These kinds of subtle edit decisions just don't seem to happen in early, fluffy B-adventure movies. Also, the score is a rousing good time. This has everything; I can't recommend it more.

A+.