The Sea Hawk

At the end of the sixteenth century the English privateer Geoffrey Thorpe raids Spanish shipping with Queen Elizabeth's quiet approval. Spain is assembling its navy and preparing to invade England. Thorpe sails for Panama, is betrayed, ends up chained to a galley oar, escapes, and returns to court with Spain's invasion plans. Michael Curtiz directed, the tenth film he made with Errol Flynn. Howard Koch and Seton I. Miller wrote it. It looks like an adventure picture and its timing is not accidental. Made in 1940 with Britain already in the war, it was meant to do two things: lift British morale and move American audiences toward a pro-British view. King Philip of Spain is built as an open allegory for Hitler, introduced with his shadow falling across a map of the world. Elizabeth's closing speech about building a fleet and defending the island against the enemies of freedom speaks directly to the audience of that moment. There is a visual choice too: the Panama sequence is in sepia against the black and white of the rest. The cinematographer Sol Polito used that yellow wash to give the tropical humidity and rot. Who it is for: viewers who like classic pirate films and the Flynn and Curtiz partnership. Who it is not for: anyone after neutrality. The film does not hide that it is war propaganda and the final speech declares it outright.