The Spanish Main

The Spanish Main

1/10/1945 1h 40m 6.3/10

Overview

Laurent van Horn is the leader of a band of Dutch refugees on a ship seeking freedom in the Carolinas, when the ship is wrecked on the coast of Cartagene, governed by Don Juan Alvardo, a Spanish ruler. Alvarado has Laurent thrown in prison, but the latter escapes, and five-years later is a pirate leader. He poses as the navigator on a ship in which Contessa Francesca, daughter of a Mexican noble, is traveling on her way to marry Alvarado, whom she has never seen. Laurent's pirates capture the ship and Francesca, in order to save another ship, gives her hand-in-marriage to Laurent, who sails her to the pirate hideout. This irks his jealous pirate comrades Anne Bonney and Captain Benjamin Black. They overpower Laurent and send Francesca to Alvarado, and then Mario du Billar, a trusted right-hand man, makes a deal to deliver Laurent to Alvarado.

Director

Frank Borzage

Top Billed Cast

Maureen O'Hara

Maureen O'Hara

Contessa Francesca

Walter Slezak

Walter Slezak

Don Juan Alvarado

Binnie Barnes

Binnie Barnes

Anne Bonney

Barton MacLane

Barton MacLane

Capt. Benjamin Black

Paul Henreid

Paul Henreid

Capt. Laurent Van Horn

John Emery

John Emery

Mario Du Billar

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

7/1/2022

6/10

This is quite a fun high-seas swashbuckling adventure that pits a rather oddly cast Paul Henreid as "Van Horn" - a Dutch captain whose ship runs aground on the coast of Spanish America. When the local governor - the undoubted star of the film, Walter Slezak - commits them to a life of slavery Henried must conceive of a plan to free them all and avenge themselves. Skip on five years and Henreid is now a feared pirate who manages to capture the typically feisty Maureen O'Hara who is on her way to be the governor's new bride and the path to revenges clear. It's the usual mix of colour, costumes and swordplay with some good old-fashioned romance - and a decent soupçon of jealousy courtesy of another odd casting in Binnie Barnes as the legendary Anne Bonny. I found Henreid a bit hard to take seriously - each time he opened his mouth I expected him to say "Mr. Chipping..." in that gentle Austrian timbre of his but I still enjoyed it. It looks good, and though by no means the best of the genre, is still a decent bit of escapism.

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