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The Spanish Main
The Spanish Main
- Status: Released
- 01-10-1945
- Runtime: 100 min
- Score: 6.2
- Vote count: 28
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.
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Review
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.