Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

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

Prismark10 Raoul Walsh has directed this film in glorious Technicolour with great sets and costumes. An adaptation of the books from C S Forester, it cast Gregory Peck as the steely, calm and cerebral Horatio Hornblower aboard His Majesty's ship, 'Lydia.'The film is a combination of swashbuckling high seas adventure, a study of leadership and romance as Hornblower meets Lady Barbara Wellesley, the sister of the Duke of Wellington and fall for each other when she has been rescued by his ship.The film has a broad scope but is very much of its time. Its limitation are that the story is told in a rather dry way and does not always sustain your interest. I did not feel that the film was exciting enough. Its beautiful to look at but I saw Peter Weir's more modern film, 'Master and Commander' first which told a complex (and in ways a similar tale) in a more riveting manner.

Spikeopath It's fun, it's exciting, and it looks fabulous at times, it is however far from being a great movie. In the absence of Errol Flynn, Gregory Peck steps in to Hornblower's shoes and as much as he gives it his all {rumoured to have been one of his favourite performances}, it's a spot of miscasting that thankfully doesn't kill the picture dead, he's just sadly a tad too straight laced to really make the role work. The same can be said for the casting of Virginia Mayo as Lady Barbara Wellesley, pretty as she is, it's an odd bit of casting that never quite comes off, yet as daft as it may sound, neither case of miscasting hurts the picture, and this comes down to the astute direction from Raoul Walsh.The pace never flags so we are never over concerned with the central actors struggles to make the characters work, backed up by Guy Green's camera work and Robert Farnon's jaunty score, the technical aspects of the piece steer the viewer on to safe waters {ahem}. The sets are excellent and the recreation of the ships is first rate, with the final quarter of the movie giving us a blood pumping battle that's full of heroic bluster. It's a film that is easily recommended to adventure fans, tho far from perfect and it remains a wasted opportunity in my eyes, it's still a very enjoyable film for all the family. 6/10

Robert J. Maxwell C. S. Forester's Captain must have been part of the global collective consciousness at one time. Lyndon Johnson's Vice President was once mistakenly introduced at a public gathering as "Hubert Horatio Hornblower." I'm not sure anything like that could happen today since the art of reading novels has all but died and this film isn't shown so often on television.This is an above-average adventure film, a salubrious blend of sea battles, romance, politics, and history. It lies somewhere between the comic fantasy of "The Crimson Pirate" and the earnest drama of "Damn the Defiant" -- maybe in the suite next to "The Sea Hawk." Hornblower, a stern but fair captain, somewhat stiff, takes the British frigate Lydia to the coast of central America to deliver arms to a would-be dictator whose ambitions will draw ships of Spain -- Napolean's ally -- away from Europe. Well, I'll tell you, the dictator, who calls himself El Supremo ("The Supreme") is one nasty banana eater. Half mad, he crucifies dissidents, tries to order the very proper Hornblower around, and is made up to look like he just crawled out of a vat of grease. He fairly drips with it.Fortunately, Spain switches sides in the wars and Hornblower discovers that El Supremo is now an enemy, which gives Hornblower a chance to take his small frigate and blow the much larger Natividad, and her captain, El Supremo, to smithereens in a well-staged and exciting battle.Hornblower is forced by adventitious circumstance to take aboard the sweet but tangy Virginia Mayo. She's supposed to be the sister of the Duke of Wellington but she looks and speaks as if she's been raised on Midwestern corn and cream. Come to think of it, amid all the rest of the English cast, Gregory Peck as Hornblower doesn't try for an English accent, which is just as well, if his pronunciation of French is any indication of his talent with dialects. Anyway, pfui with the romance. It's just thrown in there as a sop to the women in the 1953 audience. This is an adventure movie.The Lydia arrives back in England where Hornblower is treated as a hero and given a ship of the line to command. Against orders he sails her into the harbor at Nantes or someplace, under the guns of the French fort, sinks four of Napolean's ships, which by a chain of contingencies too circuitous to detail would have supplied Napolean with the arms he needed to fight Wellington. (In other words, Hornblower more or less saves the continent of Europe.) He sinks his punctured ship of the line in the main channel, bottling up the entire French fleet. The French are ridiculed too, but not nearly as much as El Supremo.For his sins, he is captured and he and two subordinates are being sent to Paris for trial as pirates. They escape, disguise themselves as Dutchmen, capture another ship, and sail her out of France to England, where all is resolved, including the nascent romance with the Duke of Wellington's sister. I almost wrote Duke of Ellington.The whole thing is done breezily and with few serious moments. Peck seems to be enjoying himself during some of the action scenes but is otherwise his rather wooden professional persona. In this case, as in some of his other films, it fits the character well. Just enough attention in paid to period detail to mask any carelessness. The outdoor scenes were shot on the French Riviera (which may in part account for Peck's seeming to enjoy himself) and every scene, whether in Central America or England or France's Atlantic coast, is bright, sunny, and very temperate. The sailors never even have to wear coats or change their wardrobe. In the romantic scenes aboard ship -- on the weather deck, with the wind billowing the sails above -- Peck's hair is jelled to perfection with not a strand out of place.I gather that Forester's novels were more dramatic in tone and full of details about seamanship. But that doesn't matter. The movie is easily digested. Sit back and enjoy it.

Boba_Fett1138 Yeah, sure I missed Errol Flynn, but Gregory Peck is of course a more than great substitute. He plays a great and compelling character and I way only he could do. And just leave it up to director Raoul Walsh to make a good entertaining swashbuckler!The movie has a great adventurous historic story, about life on the sea. It isn't constantly action but still the movie constantly maintains a pleasant atmosphere. But still the movie also has some good action moments in it as well. The sea battles are truly great! But unfortunately the movie also feels the need to put in a love interest and love-story of course. The movie starts to go a bit downhill after the love-story kicks in, since it takes away lots of the pace and adventurous atmosphere of the movie. Luckily after that the movie soon starts to become fast and entertaining again. Because there are many different things happening in the movie, with changing characters and enemies, the movie feels much longer than its 'merely' 117 minutes, which is a real positive thing to say in this case. No, this movie really ain't no swashbuckler like the used to make in the '30's but nevertheless the movie has different qualities and is great to watch on its own, mainly because it's such a well made movie.The directing is great and so is the overall pace. You can really tell director Raoul Walsh is really comfortable within the genre. The effects are also very good and convincing looking for its time. Only problem is that the movie too often makes sudden leaps in time. The time-line of the movie doesn't always feel sensible.The movie truly benefits from Gregory Peck's presence. He uplifts the movie and he fits the role surprisingly well. It's fun that the movie also features a still young Christopher Lee as well, in one of his first small movie roles. At least he can say that he once crossed swords with Gregory Peck. Most other actors in the movie aren't really much impressive, including Virginia Mayo (who?).All in all a great movie to watch!8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/