Pandora and the Flying Dutchman [1951 / 2022] [Blu-ray] [UK Release]
Watching This Film Is like Entering a Strange and Wonderful Dream!
Albert Lewin's adaptation of the ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ legend transposes the story into an upper-class English-speaking community in a small port in 1930’s Spain.
James Mason stars as Hendrick van der Zee, a man cursed to travel the seven seas until he can find a woman willing to die for his love. Hendrick van der Zee certainly does not think he has discovered her when he meets beautiful, spoiled, nightclub singer and femme fatale Pandora Reynolds [Ava Gardner], who is engaged to be married to racing driver Stephen Cameron [Nigel Patrick] but is also being courted by hot-headed bullfighter Juan Montalvo [Mario Cabre].
However, the pair soon discovers that love can blossom in the unlikeliest of places.
FILM FACT: The film ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ is mostly spoken in English, but some characters speak Catalan like the local fishermen at the beginning of the film and Spanish bullfighter's entourage. It was filmed mainly in Tossa de Mar, on the Costa Brava in Catalonia, Spain. The land record speed scenes were shot at Pendine Sands in Wales. Artist Man Ray, who was a friend of Albert Lewin, produced some sets for ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.’ Man Ray created particular cubist-style chess pieces and several paintings seen in the film, notably the main one, a sort of surreal scene in the De Chirico fashion. According to M-G-M records, 'Pandora and the Flying Dutchman' earned $1,247,000 in the USA and Canada and $354,000 elsewhere. The film ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ was one of the most popular films at the 1951 British box office.
Cast: James Mason, Ava Gardner, Nigel Patrick, Sheila Sim, Harold Warrender, Mario Cabré, Marius Goring, John Laurie, Pamela Mason, Patricia Raine, Margarita D'Alvarez, La Pillina, Abraham Sofaer, Francisco Igual, Guillermo Beltrán, Lilli Molnar, Phoebe Hodgson, Gabriel Carmona, Antonio Martín, Lolita Allergria (uncredited), John Carew (uncredited), Helen Cleverley (uncredited), Pepe de la Isla (uncredited), Christiana Forbes (uncredited), Eddie Leslie (uncredited), Dido Plumb (uncredited), Ricardo Valle (uncredited) and Gerald Welsh (uncredited)
Director: Albert Lewin
Producers: Albert Lewin, Joseph Kaufmann and John Woolf (uncredited)
Screenplay: Albert Lewin (story and screenplay: suggested by the Legend of The Flying Dutchman), George Barrington (based on the writings) (uncredited) and Omar Khayyam (quotation) (uncredited)
Music Composed and Conducted: Alan Rawsthorne
Musical Director: Dr. Hubert Clifford
Costume Design: Beatrice Dawson
Cinematography: Jack Cardiff, A.S.C., O.B.E. (Director of Photography)
Technicolor Color Consultant: Joan Bridge
Special Effects: W. Percy Day, O.B.E.
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1
Audio: English: 2.0 LPCM Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 123 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Romulus Films / SCREENBOUND
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: According to the legend, the Flying Dutchman was condemned to wander the seas eternally unless he could find a woman who loved him enough to die for him . . . The seaport of ESPERANZA on the Mediterranean Coast of Spain, about 20 years ago discovered two bodies.
‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ [1951] is hauntingly imaginative and eerily disconcerting, even under contemporary scrutiny of director Albert Lewin and at the same time is a lurid and menacing fantasy, spanning the boundless depths of reckless and raw human passion.
Starring the luminous, incomparable beauty, Ava Gardner and wickedly charismatic, James Mason, the picture was released in the USA by M-G-M, although its roots were firmly British, made by Romulus Films and produced by Albert Lewin and Joseph Kaufmann from his own screenplay.
‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ is set in 1930, where fishermen in the small Spanish port of Esperanza make a grim discovery in their nets, the bodies of a man and a woman. The resultant ringing of church bells in the village brings the local police and the resident archaeologist, Geoffrey Fielding [Harold Warrender], to the beach. Geoffrey Fielding returns to his villa and breaking the “fourth wall,” retells the story of these two people to the audience.
Esperanza's small group of English expatriates revolves around Pandora Reynolds [Ava Gardner], an American nightclub singer and femme fatale. All the men love her (or believe that they do), but Pandora Reynolds is unable to love anyone. Pandora Reynolds tests her admirers by demanding they give up something they value, citing Zeno of Elea's quote: “the measure of true love is how much poison one is willing to drink for it.” One of her admirers Reggie [Marius Goring] thus commits suicide in front of Pandora Reynolds and her friends by drinking wine that he has laced with poison. Pandora Reynolds shows indifference to his fate.
Pandora Reynolds agrees to marry a land-speed record holder, Stephen Cameron [Nigel Patrick], after he sends his racing car tumbling into the sea at her request. That same night, the Dutch captain Hendrick van der Zee [James Mason] arrives in Esperanza. Pandora Reynolds swims out to his yacht and finds him painting a picture of her posed as her namesake, Pandora, whose actions brought an end to the earthly paradise in Greek mythology. Hendrick van der Zee appears to fall in love with Pandora Reynolds, and he moves into the same hotel complex as the other expatriates.
Geoffrey Fielding and Hendrick van der Zee become friends, collaborating to seek background information on Geoffrey Fielding's local finds. One of these relics is a notebook written in Old Dutch, which confirms Geoffrey's suspicion that Hendrick van der Zee is the Flying Dutchman, a 16th-century ship captain who murdered his wife, believing her to be unfaithful. Hendrick van der Zee blasphemed against God at his murder trial, where he was sentenced to death. The evening before his execution, a mysterious force opened the Dutchman's prison doors and allowed him to escape to his waiting ship, where in a dream it was revealed to him that his wife was innocent and he was doomed to sail the seas for eternity unless he could find a woman who loved him enough to die for him. Every seven years, the Dutchman could go ashore for six months to search for that woman.
Despite her impending wedding to Stephen Cameron, Pandora Reynolds declares her love for Hendrick van der Zee, but he is unwilling to have her die for his sake, and tries to provoke her into hating him. Pandora Reynolds is also loved by Juan Montalvo [Mario Cabré], an arrogant, famous bullfighter, who murders Hendrick van der Zee out of jealousy. But as soon as Juan Montalvo leaves, Hendrick van der Zee comes back to life as if nothing had happened. He attends the bullfight the next day, and when Juan Montalvo sees him in the audience, he becomes petrified with fear and is fatally gored by the bull. Before dying, Juan Montalvo tells Pandora Reynolds about his murder of his romantic rival, leaving her confused. On the eve of her wedding, Pandora Reynolds asks Geoffrey Fielding if he knows anything about Hendrick van der Zee that will clear up her confusion. Once he sees the Flying Dutchman preparing to sail away, he hands her his translation of the notebook. However, the Dutchman's yacht is becalmed and us unable to sail.
On learning the truth, Pandora Reynolds swims out to Hendrick van der Zee again, and shows her a small portrait of his murdered wife. She and Pandora Reynolds look exactly alike. Hendrick van der Zee explains they are man and wife and that through her he has been given the chance to escape his doom, but he rejected it because it would cost her death. Pandora Reynolds is undaunted, however. That night, there is a fierce storm at sea. So if you want to know the tragic outcome, then of course you will have to view the film, which is well worth waiting to find out what happens to the two tragic lovers and their fateful demise.
‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ is as noteworthy for the only documented “living footage” of the great Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas, who attended the shooting of the car race at Pendine Sands, a beach near his home in Wales. If you can spot him, the as-ever reclusive and dapper Dylan Thomas is the diminutive fellow, sporting a brown jacket and beige trousers, situated to the extreme left of the film frame.
‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ was shot mostly in Costa Brava and Tossa de Mar, Catalonia, Spain, where today stands a statue of Ava Gardner, erected on the hillside to mark the occasion, and ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ eventually got a general release, but was delayed so M-G-M could capitalize on Ava Gardner’s standout performance in their Technicolor reboot of ‘Show Boat’ [1951].
There are many who may well argue that Ava Gardner never looked more beautiful than she does in this film. Ava Gardner and James Mason give the film a feeling, a theme of beauty and both are filled with so much longing and sadness. Ava Gardner as the otherworldly Pandora Reynolds, lusty, desirable and is also one who is seeking something, peace or love or excitement that eludes her. James Mason as Hendrick van der Zee, the Dutchman, cursed to roam the seas alone with his ghostly crew, only to come ashore every seven years to seek a woman who would die for him and release him from his torment. The rest of the cast is filled out with Harold Warrender as the narrator Geoffrey Fielding, Nigel Patrick as Stephen Cameron, and a brief cameo by Marius Goering as Reggie and Mario Cabré as Juan Montalvo.
In the film we hear a brilliant and prophetic quote “The measure of love is what one is willing to give up for it” which Geoffrey Fielding quotes, which of course with the outcome of the film, is that never a true word was said.
Perhaps the most compelling star of the film is the cinematography of Jack Cardiff. The film is filled with atmosphere, shadows, and light and muted halftone evening shots. Some people may not like it, especially if you expect the vibrant Technicolor schemes. I found that the cinematography sets the mood so perfectly, as well as adding to the mystery and the leisurely manner in which the story unfolds. Ava Gardner is treated to stunning close up after close up of Pandora Reynolds. In fact, everyone in the film is filmed with such care. The film is just pure pleasure to watch.
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman Music Track List
YOU’RE DRIVING ME CRAZY (uncredited) (Music by Walter Donaldson) (Lyrics by Walter Donaldson) [Sung by an uncredited male voice]
HOW AM I TO KNOW (uncredited) (Music by Jack King) (Lyrics by Dorothy Parker) [Sung by Ava Gardner]
SAILOR’S SONG (uncredited) (Based on "Canticas de Santa Maria") (Music by Alfonso el Sabio) [Sung by sailors' chorus]
Etude #1 In A Flat, Op. 25/1, CT 26, Aeolian Harp (uncredited) (Written by Frédéric Chopin) [Played by Pandora Reynolds at her home]
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Blu-ray Image Quality – Romulus Films and SCREENBOUND presents us the film ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ with stunning 1080p Technicolor image and shown in the standard 1.37:1 aspect ratio. After an exhaustive worldwide search, no original negatives could be found. Working from separation master positives created in 1951, the film was restored photochemical the Cineric Single Pass System to re-register the colour records and manufacture timed separation negatives. Sections of the film were scanned 4K resolution to perform digital dirt and scratch removal, in doing so the film has virtually eradicated all of the age-related damage that afflicted a good deal of the image before, and, homogenized the visual disparities inherent when working with source materials from various generations. The results speak for themselves, a refined, gorgeous and brilliantly achieved master, resurrecting the vibrant hues of vintage 3-strip Technicolor to their very best advantage. Jack Cardiff’s magnificent cinematographer looks more exquisite than arguably it ever has on home video. While nothing can precisely duplicate the picture’s opening night splendour on 35mm, this Blu-ray comes about as daringly close as anyone might have hoped. Technicolor is superbly balanced. Flesh tones sparkle. The moody moonlit skies are once again azure, and Ava Gardner’s lipstick, blood-red and glistening. Contrast is excellent and film grain appears very indigenous to its source. Please Note: At the start of the film we are informed that the film ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ has been restored by George Eastman House in cooperation with The Douris Corporation. Funding provided by The Film Foundation, the Rome Film Festival, and the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a partnership of the Directors Guild of America; Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musique; the Motion Picture Association of America; and the Writers Guild of America West, Los Angeles, California. The 2019 restoration was completed by the Cohen Film Collection with support of OCS. Additional colour correction and digital clean-up was performed by The Eastman Museum. Special thanks goes to Prasad Corporation and Audio Mechanics for their assistance with this restoration.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Romulus Films and SCREENBOUND brings us the film ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ with a 2.0 LPCM Digital Stereo Audio experience, which is obviously good news is that you are hearing what the audience heard with the film in 1951. Dialogue, effects and film music score are all delivered without any problems and is pitch perfect. What is also totally exquisite is hearing the beautiful song “How Am I to Know?” sung by Ava Gardner at the piano is totally marvellous and the actress has a beautiful melodic singing voice. Additionally, the soundtrack was fully restored by Audio Mechanics in Burbank, California. Funding was provided by The Film Foundation, the Franco-American Cultural Fund, and the Rome Film Festival. Please Note: On the back of the SCREENBOUND Blu-ray cover it says the audio is 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, well this is wrong, because that specific audio is only available on the American Blu-ray release.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Theatrical Trailer [1951] [1080p] [1.37:1] [0:48] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ and it informs us that this is An Unforgettable Love Story.
Finally, ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ was released in the post-war era is probably best thought of as the age of Film Noir. Certainly, the film going public having survived the conflagration of WWII came home forever changed. Films became in many ways, for lack of a better phrase, more adult. Not to generalize too much, the opulent fantasy and escapism of the early 1940’s was not what people wanted. Grit and realism were more where it was at. The post-war era also gave us some films that are mystical, magical and time bending tales. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
