MovieChat Forums > The Sea Hawk (1940) Discussion > Shadow on the Wall

Shadow on the Wall

posted 15 years ago by georgegauthier
14 replies | jump to latest

Great direction by Michael Curtiz in the big fight scene at the end where the hero, privateer Captain Thorpe confronts Lord Walshingham, the dastardly traitor. As they cut and parry with their sword blades, their shadows are cast upon the wall by candle and firelight. This was very much a reprise of the well conceived photography of the fight scene in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), when Robin fights Guy of Guisbourne, played by the great Basil Rathbone. A really great swashbuckling scene including swipes with their blades that cut candles in two. (like the scene from Mark of Zorro).

I only wish this movie had been colorized. Some movies should stay black and white, especially war movies from WW II, but this was a pirate movie.By all means, let us see it in color.

[–] turtletommy 15 years ago

Sure, The Sea Hawk would have looked great in color but it still looks great as it is in glorious black and white (and sepia), as does Captain Blood, another pirate movie. I've read that the film was made in B&W so they could re-use several action clips from at least one previous Warner B&W silent pirate movie to pad the story/running time. Though not a low-budget production (over $1 million) I believe filming in color was ruled out for budgetary reasons anyway.

Yes there definitely was some reprising going on with the sword fight.

[–] liscarkat-2 14 years ago

"I only wish this movie had been colorized."

I'll pray for your soul, my son, I'll pray for your soul.

...and it's Wolfingham.

[–] BartDudeInX 14 years ago

It was colorized and released on home video in that version several years back. In fact, that's how I first saw it.

[–] xerses13 13 years ago

turtletommy; Color and Olivia DeHavilland were originally slated. Ms. DeHavilland wanted to move on with her career so she was replaced with Brenda Marshall. Color was eliminated due too the cost of building a new studio tank and the two (2) 16th Century Galleons. Budget for the film was 1.7 Million$.

Note the scenes grafted in it had NOTHING to do with the Silent SEA HAWK (1924). Why Robert Osborne keeps reiterating this specious information cannot say.

[–] cwente2 13 years ago

Somehow it occurs to me that those scenes were from Fairbanks Sr.'s silent "The Black Pirate". Think I've seen some of them grafted into other seafaring epics, but can't remember which ones.

[–] xerses13 13 years ago

cwente2; Have seen THE BLACK PIRATE several times and can attest that no scenes from it were used either in CAPTAIN BLOOD or THE SEA HAWK. The Pirate ships in THE BLACK PIRATE were built up from 'coal barges'.

The scenes in THE SEA HAWK (1940) either came from the silent CAPTAIN BLOOD which for the most part is a 'lost film'. Or from some British epic. Go on the www.wikipedia.org and search H.M.S. VICTORY. You can clearly see that it does not look anything like the vessels used in THE BLACK PIRATE or the silent SEA HAWK.

[–] cwente2 13 years ago

Thanks. I stand corrected.

[–] xerses13 13 years ago

cwente2; Now the challenge is to find out where the footage REALLY came from!

[–] turtletommy 13 years ago

Yes DeHavilland apparently felt especially after the big role of Melanie in GWTW that her love interest roles beside Flynn were unchallenging and in the past. Marshall fit the role fine to me & looked more Spanish anyway. Yep the production costs were soaring on the film. The tank and the apparatus to move the "ship" proved very costly. Whatever the source(s) of the grafted in pirate attack scenes they certainly were used as padding filler once the determination was made to shoot in B&W. I didn't find my info on that from Robert Osborne/TCM.com but from other sources I can't recall now.

[–] xerses13 13 years ago

turtletommy; Agreed they did pad out the footage, just not from the silent SEA HAWK. Time for Osborne to change his tune.

[–] turtletommy 13 years ago

Fwiw I came across this http://www.rafaelsabatini.com/mc_blood_rev.html, I'm not about to vouch for the accuracy of the info within- especially regarding any footage from the silent (1924) The Sea Hawk, which I haven't seen, making it into The Sea Hawk (1940)- but I think it makes some sense that since Warner Bros had rights to the silent Captain Blood, and had already used some of that footage in their 1935 Captain Blood, they very well may have used it again in The Sea Hawk (1940). Btw, I have read your posts about this on The Sea Hawk (1924) board. I guess one could compare battle footage between the two sound versions of Capt. Blood & Sea Hawk to see how much was duplicated from the same "mystery" source at least. I can't since I don't own Captain Blood.

[–] xerses13 13 years ago

turtletommy; Reviewed your information link. Have compared both sound versions of Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, both use footages which I believe is from silent Captain Blood or unknown British sea epic.

[–] turtletommy 13 years ago

Does it appear that the footage in both sound films was from a single source (re: possibly silent Capt. Blood) or more than one? No knock on the British film industry but did they make any notable sea epics or films with big scenes like that in them prior to the 1935 Captain Blood? Any large scale scenes such as that depicted in our mystery tacked-on footage, if they didn't come from the silent Capt. Blood or another Hollywood production, would seem to me more likely to have been produced in Italy, France, Germany or Russia in that era.

[–] xerses13 13 years ago

turtletommy; Our belief that it is from a British film is that the full sized ships were real not REEL, Ships of the Line. Only England in the early 20th Century still had some in existence other then H.M.S. Victory. They can be found referenced in CONWAY'S; All The Worlds Warships 1860-1905 and 1906-1921.
Some not struck off the lists until the late 1920s.