Memorable, crazy movie

A Disappointing Continuation

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

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.

The studio sets and models are not too bad although the matts are visible in some shots. The action is a bit lacking. There is the obligatory duelling galleys in the early part of the movie but you don't really get the feel that these are men fighting for their lives.The lack of action is not made up for by the story. There are some amusing bits of dialogue, most of the good bits are on IMDb.Maureen O'Hara looks terribly mature for a 25 year old but plays her role well but the film lacks a strong central role such as Robert Newton.More a sailing than a pirate movie.

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