Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (2020)

From the pages of the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die I found this title, I wrongly assumed it was going to be a foreign film, perhaps a fantasy or mythology based story, but I was looking forward to whatever it would entail, from director Albert Lewin (The Picture of Dorian Gray). Basically, set in 1930, in the small Catalan port of Esperanza fishermen discover the bodies of a man and a woman in their nets, police and resident archaeologist Geoffrey Fielding (Harold Warrender) are at the scene, and returning home Geoffrey tells the story of these two dead people as he makes sense of the events that lead to their deaths. Pandora Reynolds (Ava Gardner) is an American nightclub singer and femme fatale who has many men who believe they love her, but she is unable to love anyone, and these admirers she often tests their devotion to her, including Reggie Demarest (Marius Goring) who commits suicide drinking poisoned wine for her, but she seems to show no reaction. Land speed record holder Stephen Cameron (Nigel Patrick) is her latest admirer, but she says she will only marry him if he sacrifices his treasured racing car by pushing it off a cliff into the sea, but she is curious to know the captain of a yacht that has sailed into Esperanza. One night she swims out to the yacht, and inside she finds Dutch captain Hendrik Van Der Zee (James Mason), he is painting a picture of a woman who bares a striking resemblance to her, and he is calling her Pandora, representing the mythological Greek legend, and as with other men he finds himself falling for the American woman and moves to a hotel on the land to spend more time with her. Geoffrey and Hendrick become friends and collaborate to identify local finds, they even find a notebook from the 16th Century, it was written in Dutch by Hendrick, who is revealed to be the accursed Flying Dutchman, he murdered his wife who he believed was unfaithful, his loss led to blasphemy and his death sentence, but before his execution a spirit showed him his wife was innocent, ghosts were all over the ship, and he was cursed to endlessly sail the seas until he finds a woman who loves and is willing to die for him, and to this day he appears every seven years to try and find this woman. Pandora is in love with Van Der Zee, but he does not want her to die so he does everything he can to make her hate him, and meanwhile she has bullfighter Juan Montalvo (Mario Cabré) to gain her affection, he even murders Hendrick in jealousy, but after leaving Hendrick is alive as if nothing happened, and the next day he turns up at a bullfight, where Juan is so shocked to see him he ignores the bull and gets fatally wounded by it, he explains the murder to Pandora before dying, she is confused. It comes to the day of her wedding to Stephen, but Pandora wants to know from Geoffrey the translations of the notebook, and now she knows the truth she swims out the yacht again, and he reveals that the painting is done from memory, he was married to Pandora in her past reincarnation, she is his chance to lift his punishment, but it would mean her dying, but ultimately he accepts her love and they embrace, but of course fate takes them went a fierce storm turns the yacht over, and the next morning Hendrick and Pandora's bodies are found, destiny has been fulfilled and the curse has been lifted. Also starring Sheila Sim as Janet, John Laurie as Angus, Pamela Mason, James's then wife as Jenny, Patricia Raine as Peggy and Margarita D'Alvarez as Senora Montalvo. Gardner is beautiful looking but obviously has her inability to truly love any man until she finds the unlikely one, Mason is good as the mysterious man who is later revealed to be a cursed sailor who does not want his love to be hurt by his punishment, it is an interesting story of legend mixing with strangeness, it may be a bit barmy and an acquired taste for modern audiences, but it is certainly a most watchable romantic fantasy drama. Very good!

This is a bad movie. A bad, ponderous, ridiculous movie. A movie that would have worked great for a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode.The movie screams out terrible movie from the moment it starts, with characters talking in ponderous, pretentious verse. When one starts talking directly to the camera, it's like something from an Ed Wood movie. The score is also insanely melodramatic, screaming out for the viewer's attention.Ava Gardner plays a femme-fatale, and while she is certainly an attractive woman,she is so disgustingly self-centered and callous that it's a little hard to believe so many guys are worshiping her. I mean, there are always dumb guys, but there are also smart guys who know better, and they seem to be lacking.As far as I can tell, a lot of people don't think much of the movie but are still giving it a decent score because they think Ava is hot and they think the movie is pretty. Well, I thought Ava was hot in Night of the Iguana, but I've known too many self-centered jerks to be attracted to them (anymore; yes, I was once a very dumb guy).As for the look of the film, I must have seen a bad print (quite possible; the sound wasn't very good), because it looked rather washed out.To be fair, I only watched a half hour of this. I never even saw James Mason, a brilliant actor. But I knew with every fiber of my being that this was a bad movie five minutes in, and only kept watching it longer because my girlfriend wanted to give it a chance. When she gave up, I was free.

I knew the story of the Flying Dutchman before, not least from Richard Wagner's wonderful opera, which I love. But for some reason I found the same (or more or less the same...) story-line a little silly in this movie. It became too incongruous, when they mixed up the ancient captain with bull-fighters, car races, jazz-music and what-not... It was difficult to believe in the fantastic old ghost story, and get into the mood of it, when it was placed in that otherwise so realistic setting.The main actors were gorgeous, though. Mason was perfect for his role with his dark, handsome, melancholy looks - he should have made a perfect Mr Rochester in a rendering of "Jane Eyre"! Ava Gardner was just as beautiful as everyone is always saying she was, although I have always thought that it was something haughty and impudent over her beauty - and this came out also in this movie. I would have preferred someone more simple, soulful and innocent-looking, and maybe a little younger as well, for this part.The ending, when the love couple were together on the ship, was wonderful. One of the most romantic scenes I have ever seen! I wish I had known of this movie when I were younger, and could appreciate tragedy and romance to the full!

A beautiful 1951 fantasy. James Mason plays the Flying Dutchman-Hendrik van der Zee--who is doomed to sail the seas until he finds a woman who will die for him. He meets gorgeous Pandora Reynolds (Ava Gardner) who happens to look just like his dead wife...but he won't tell her he's a ghost. Naturally she falls for him.The plot is predictable and silly (even for a fantasy) and the dialogue is terrible--people make speeches and verbalize ALL their feelings. The pace is also way too slow and they throw in a silly subplot about bullfighter Juan Motalvo (badly played by Mario Cabre). But the film is absolutely beautiful to watch. The colors are deep and rich and every frame is like a beautiful picture. Gardner and Mason were young and look impossibly beautiful. Some of their shots took my breath away! It was shot in Spain and the settings were gorgeous. Also it's beautifully directed and has a wonderful score. Gardner and Mason are as good as anyone can be in this and everybody else--save for Cabre--are very good. So it's beautiful to watch but the silly dialogue (no one talks like the people here) and slow pace made this hard to sit through.