Sat 18 Oct 2014
A Movie Review by Walter Albert: THE SEA HAWK (1924).
Posted by Steve under Action Adventure movies , Reviews , Silent films[4] Comments
THE SEA HAWK. First National Pictures, 1924. Milton Sills, Enid Bennett, Lloyd Hughes, Wallace MacDonald, Marc MacDermott, Wallace Beery, Frank Currier, Medea Radzina, William Collier, J. Lionel Belmore. Based on a novel by Rafael Sabatini. Director: Frank Lloyd. Shown at Cinefest 26, Syracuse NY, March 2006.
The Sea Hawk was a substitution for the originally scheduled L’Argent (1929; Marcel L’Herbier, director) L’Argent was certainly the film I was looking forward to with the most anticipation. However, although I’d seen The Sea Hawk more than once and have a Turner showing on tape, I didn’t miss the opportunity to watch it again.
Some of you will be familiar with the Errol Flynn remake (WB, 1940), although the silent version is more faithful to Sabatini’s novel than the later version, which eliminates the extensive Moorish section that’s one of the glories of this film.
When Sir Oliver Tressilian (Sills) is betrayed by his villainous younger brother and delivered into the greedy hands of rascally Jasper Leigh (Beery), his Christian upbringing is so damaged by his sense of outrage that when he falls into the hands of Moorish pirates, he quickly becomes Sakr-el-Bahr, the “Sea Hawk,” Muslim scourge of the high seas, and the favorite of Asad-el-Din, Sasha of Algiers, much to the chagrin of the Sasha’s favorite wife and heir apparent son.
Enid Bennett, the lovely star of Hairpins, and Sir Oliver’s intended bride until his betrayal, is imprisoned in unbecoming costumes that mask her beauty until she’s captured by Moorish pirates (guess who?) and put up for auction, her clothes in tatters that reveal something of her native charms, and sold to… guess who again?
Beery is a rascal, but lovable, and Sills is a splendid corsaire, with a focused rage that distinguishes his portrayal from that of the rakish, devil-may-care Flynn. I like both portrayals and both films.
Now, the downside: this was, for much of the screening, an inferior print that only occasionally incorporated a reel of superior quality, most notably during the Moorish episodes. Of course, I missed the great score that Korngold composed for the sound remake, but the accompanist was more than competent.
October 18th, 2014 at 4:46 pm
Sills and the film were legends so I was expecting a let down when I saw it despite knowing Lloyd’s work, but pleased that it was as good as I hoped and much closer to Sabatini — it is one of his best books which is no small thing considering how many great swashbuckler’s he wrote (name me another popular author who has a line of his engraved in stone over an arch at Princeton — though to be fair they didn’t believe it originated with him — “He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad” from SCARAMOUCHE).
This is really fast moving for a silent swashbuckler and compares well with THE BLACK PIRATE and THE IRON MASK. You can see the money that went into this in much of the work at sea and elaborate sets and costumes.
Quite a few captured Europeans converted to Islam then since ironically Islam was much more open than Christianity then and certainly Moslem’s were cleaner (strange to say now, but the more liberal sexual attitudes didn’t hurt). Even as late as the mid 19th century Burton converted because he found it a cleaner and more moderate religion, much more accepting of other faiths and new believers. There is an impressive number of well known figures who fell in love with the lifestyle and ways of that culture certainly in the mid Victorian era. Much of that changed with the Mahdi and the Sudanese War (off and on`1868-1888).
And like Walter I can find no fault with Curtiz splendid remake (in name only) with Errol Flynn, a gorgeous imaginatively shot and impeccably played swashbuckler only marred a tiny bit by the fact Brenda Marshall — who I like in most films — is no Olivia de Haviland.
The duel with Henry Daniell outside Elizabeth’s quarters with the candles projecting giant shadows on the wall is still a remarkably effective scene and the model work on the ships exceptional.
Next time you watch it look for William Holden (the future Mr. Marshall) as one of the galley slaves.
But the silent is a splendid film — a rare time when the sequel and original are on total equal footing, maybe because they are totally different films, the hero’s name not even the same.
October 19th, 2014 at 3:05 am
Seems like Sabatani’s works are timeless enough that with the right actor and director they could be remade again today
October 19th, 2014 at 1:14 pm
In the meanwhile we can enjoy reprints of the classic novels and such collections of his short fiction as the one that Crippen and Landru published awhile back.
October 19th, 2014 at 1:58 pm
The book I mentioned in #3 is _The Evidence of the Sword and Other Mysteries_ by Rafael Sabatini, collected and edited by Jesse F. Knight. Norfolk, VA: Crippen & Landru, 2008.