BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Martin Bradley Romatic tosh of the campest kind but then it was written and directed by that most florid of film-makers Albert Lewin and told, in contemporary terms, the story of the legend of the Flying Dutchman, condemned to roam the seas until he found a woman willing to die for him. He's James Mason at his most inscrutable and she's' Ava Gardner at her most glamorous and others camping it up in the cast include Nigel Patrick, Harold Warrender and Marius Goring though the main reason to see it is Jack Cardiff's gorgeous cinematography. It's full of beautiful images and the purplest of prose and often feels like a parody of itself. It's now considered something of a cult movie and is really nobody's finest hour, except maybe Cardiff's.

clanciai A fascinating variation on the old story of the Flying Dutchman and his eternal damnation, which only a true love can save him from, here Ava Gardner at her most intoxicating, while the Dutchman couldn't have been anyone better than James Mason, who later also played Captain Nemo, almost the same character. The film also offers some fabulous bullfighting scenes with its dances of death in some way symbolically illustrating the character of the film, which emanates into the final difficult and unresolvable issue of what death really is, if not just a gateway to another or even the eternal life? The archaeologist, who is the only one who realizes who James Mason is at an early stage, tries to solve the riddles but only succeeds in documenting them. It's a well written story by the director of other similar cases, like "The Moon and Sixpence" and "The Portrait of Dorian Gray", both with George Sanders, somewhat spiritually related with James Mason with the same kind of more bottoms than one, and this is perhaps Albert Lewin's best film, succeeding very well with his characters, especially James Mason and Ava Gardner - I don't think I ever saw her more to her advantage, and still she is not entirely sympathetic here. Her final black dress really puts the final crown on the performance. There are also some very commendable taverna scenes with flamencos and gipsies, which adds to making this half supernatural story more realistic than it is. Everything happens in a small coastal village of Spain, which you recognize from several other films for its picturesqueness, contributing essentially to the very enjoyable beauty of the scenery throughout the film. The brief appearance of Marius Goring in the beginning should not be ignored in any review - it sets the mood for the entire half melodrama, half noir, half science fiction and half occult character of timelessness of the film, which clearly was the aim of the writer/director, which he succeeds in reaching.

jackeugenebarry If you dig the Classic Stuff, this is a really strange and righteously romantic fable-like take on an old legend sorta-thing, made in 1950, set in 1930, done in that Classic English version of technicolor (as opposed to the candy-colored American "Wizard of Oz" style). In the way the Brits liked to use it back in the day - usually in the capable painterly hands of this flick's cinematographer, Jack Cardiff - Technicolor was given a whole different look and feel, more muted and elusive, distant and mysterious, but no less stylized or romantic (even rapturous) than our primary-colored U.S. use of the process. In this flick, the color and look and feel of the imagery conveys the vibe of some strange stirring dream that's just so... something... that it couldn't be either true or false. It just sweeps you along in its swell... No joke, movie lovers, This Thing Is The Genuine Goods.AVA GARDNER, smack-dab in her prime right here (somewhere in between "The Killers" & "The Barefoot Contessa", both also Great), was always sultry, seductive, and at a bit of a remove from all the mere men who wanted to get it rollin' with her. Here, she takes that mold and both fills it AND breaks through it. And she stars with JAMES MASON, who was always Really Intense, and always Really Good, and whom we also have here right in the thick of his hot-streak ("Odd Man Out", "A Star Is Born", "Bigger Than Life", "Lolita"). She's this woman who has Everything she could want, but... And he's this man who asks for Nothing, but needs Something, and...Ladies, this one goes nice and old-school for you and the one you love. (and Gentlemen, go with the flow on this one. You'll be cool with it.) Hey, you know what? I can't say anything more, Y'all. Seek this one out and take it in.

winles Just to point out to anyone in the UK,a new restored DVD version of this movie is available from 31st January 2011. I have purchased this from Amazon,and can assure you that it truly IS restored (colour & sound)to the original Technicolor version. For the completists it also has several extras,but if you want to know what they are you will have to look on Amazon. Make sure the DVD you order is on the Park Circus label, as this is the restored one,any others may not be. I got mine(Feb 2011) for £10.99,as I had been waiting for an "original & restored" version for a long time I was even better value!PS:~ I presume this also available in the States but I am not sure?