Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
Tags: romantic, murder

Plot synopsis:
In 1930, fishermen in the small Catalan 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. 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 is unable to love anyone.
She tests her admirers by demanding they give up something they value, citing Geoffrey Fielding's quote that the "measure of love is how much you are willing to sacrifice for it." One of her admirers (Marius Goring) even commits suicide in front of Pandora and her friends by drinking wine that he has laced with poison, but Pandora apparently shows indifference.
Pandora 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 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 appears to fall in love with Pandora, and he moves into the same hotel complex as the other expatriates.
Geoffrey and Hendrick become friends, collaborating to seek background information on Geoffrey'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. He 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, Pandora declares her love for Hendrick, but he is unwilling to have her die for his sake, and tries to provoke her into hating him.
Pandora is also loved by Juan Montalvo (Mario Cabre), an arrogant, famous bullfighter, who murders Hendrick out of jealousy. But as soon as Montalvo leaves, Hendrick comes back to life as if nothing had happened. He attends the bullfight the next day, and when Montalvo sees him in the audience, he becomes petrified with fear and is fatally gored by the bull. Before dying, Montalvo tells Pandora about his murder of his romantic rival, leaving her confused.
On the eve of her wedding, Pandora asks Geoffrey if he knows anything about Hendrick 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. On learning the truth, Pandora swims out to Hendrick again. He shows her a small portrait of his murdered wife. She and Pandora look exactly alike. Hendrik 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 is undaunted, however. That night, there is a fierce storm at sea. The next morning, the bodies of Pandora and the Dutchman are recovered.

Review: Sure, there are flaws, mostly in the script which occasionally seems to think it's smarter than it actually is and goes for the sort of intrusive voice-over narration that never fails to annoy, but also in scenes where Lewin's decisions as director become frustrating and in the score which is generally quite good but often overbearing.Regardless of its flaws, "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" is a literate, creative, fairly original, and exceptionally well-acted film, with the exceptional feature of being photographed by Jack Cardiff OBE, who was on quite a run going into this film having photographed the three Powell/Pressburger classics from the 40's: "A Matter of Life and Death", "Black Narcissus", and "The Red Shoes" as well as the underrated if not exactly great 1949 Hitchcock offering "Under Capricorn".
James Mason and Ava Gardner are really excellent here in the lead roles.I was not looking forward to "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" but I found myself very pleasantly surprised by it.
Ava Gardner, never more beautiful and just about to emerge as a star, is the Pandora of the title, a night-club singer and femme fatale, engaged to be married to a gentlemanly racing car driver (Nigel Patrick), but with a hotheaded bullfighter (Mario Cabré) eager to win her.
A perfectly delicious and contentedly cruel Pandora (Ava Gardner) here lives the great life, she has both the world land speed record holder and Spain's champion bullfighter after her, both of whom she treats callously.
For The Flying Dutchman, his Lazarus-like wandering of the globe can only be stopped by his falling in love with a woman who is prepared to die for him.The movie tries to portray itself as quite clever but at times falters, with a classics professor who cannot pronounce "Phoenician", and quotations from the Ruba'iyat that are a little screwy in terms of context.
Pandora's response to the Dutchman quoting the ending of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach suggests that she hadn't fully grasped it, and he only half-grasped.On the other hand Marius Goring, who is underused, gets a good line from Webster's The Duchess of Malfi: "I know death hath ten thousand several doors / For men to take their exits; and 'tis found / They go on such strange geometrical hinges, / You may open them both ways" It probably helps if you understand that the last line is a reference to suicide versus involuntary death, which requires Dover Notes for me, and perhaps most viewers!
And yet although the film is quite the most outrageous love story, Lewin does provide a brief counterpoint, when John Laurie's mechanic, quite wonderfully cocks a toast to Sheila's Sims' Janet when she epically denounces Pandora's way of life at a celebratory dinner.A feature of Technicolor films, which is always nice to see, is that the directors generally didn't take colour for granted.
The movie manages despite many absurdities (the Dutchman has a 17th century photograph) to hold together well, even with the central absurdity, which is that the love that Pandora has for Hendrik van der Zee, is basically groundless, we're never even shown how it came about..
The mystical romance between a society girl (AVA GARDNER) and a man condemned to roam the seas and only hit port every seven years (JAMES MASON) is brought to the screen with handsome production values and gorgeous Technicolor.
NIGEL PATRICK is excellent in the pivotal role of the man who loves Pandora unwisely.Albert Lewin, the director, seems drawn to these kind of other world stories, having done some of his best work in the fantasy genre, as for example with THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY.
The mystical elements aren't drawn together too convincingly but seem more like pieces of a puzzle that are missing and will never be found.Ava Gardner was at the peak of her beauty and is well cast as Pandora in a role that might have easily been played by another star of that era, Rita Hayworth.
Mason manages to look grimly determined on cue and gives an effortless performance as the Flying Dutchman, but this is a film that is not likely to have wide appeal outside of patrons who can appreciate its artistic leanings.Nevertheless, it's a "must see" for fans of either Ava Gardner or James Mason even though their characters are not as strongly realized by the scriptwriter as one could wish.
cause ,though a bit too long,"Pandora" is an unique film .It is part of those movies in which love refutes everything ,including space and time.It is continuously constructed and when it's over we have the strange feeling of having come full circle."Pandora" is wrapped in mystery and it renewed the genre which "Peter Ibbetson "and "portrait of Jennie" had pioneered in the thirties and late forties which "Somewhere in Time" (based on a Richard Matheson novel) would continue in the eighties.Ava Gardner,the most beautiful woman of that era (and for me the most beautiful woman of all time) is ideally cast as the female lead.Who else could play such a gorgeous creature ?James Mason gives a tormented heartrending performance.Albert Lewin made few movies but the best of them (the picture of Dorian Gray" "the private Affairs of Bel-Ami" ) are worth seeking out.The only real horror is "Saadia" which even Michel Simon could not redeem.Ava Gardner and James Mason would play another legendary couple (real this time):Francis-Joseph and Elisabeth of Austria.("Mayerling",Terence Young,1968).
Albert Lewin's independently produced and directed UK film PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (1951) is one of the most ethereal and haunting love stories ever filmed.
Every seven years he is permitted to re-appear on land briefly, to attempt to find a woman who will agree to die for him, thus freeing him from his curse of sailing the seas for eternity.Those who's taste in movies runs to to things like "Speed II" and "Prom" will probably not like this one.
But what would Ava give up, would she give it all up for a man she truly loved?That questioned is answered if not to everyone's complete satisfaction in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.
She's a cool one Ava, one guy commits suicide over her, Nigel Patrick trashes a perfectly good car to prove something to her, even Harrold Warrender who has a sort of Van Helsing like role is not immune to her beauty and charm.But the guy who's really taken with her is James Mason, the legendary Flying Dutchman.
He gets to port once every seven years to search and he's put in on the northern coast of Spain this time.The color photography by Jack Cardiff is nice, the scenery is almost as beautiful as Ava. But I think for this film to work, a more innocent type rather than the worldly Ms. Gardner would have to have been written into the story..
It still obviously wan't the most expensive movie to shoot, judging by its visual qualities but it helps that movie that it was being shot at location rather than in sound-studio somewhere.Ava Gardner and James Mason are both obviously some capable actors but because I just wasn't drawn into the movie and it's story I also didn't really got into their characters.
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.
The beauty of Ava Gardner is awesome in the role of a woman that does not love any man until she finds the doomed captain Hendrik van der Zee, falling in love with him and becoming capable of an ultimate act of love.
Hendrick is soon found to be the 17th century Flying Dutchman, cursed to wander the world forever, unless he meets a woman willing to die for him.Lewin does a good job both on the screenplay and direction, though both have flaws, and the music is a little overpowering at times.
Man Ray did the paintings.The title tells the story: a cursed sailor from the past (Mason), doomed to sail the oceans forever, finds himself drawn to modern Spain, where a singing American playgirl (Gardner) is tormenting male expats, including an English race car driver and a local matador while an archaeologist investigates.
A British fantasy-drama draws inspiration from the legend of the Flying Dutchman, a ghost-ship can never approach port and is doomed to sail forever in the sea, and revamped by writer/director Albert Lewin into a lachrymose romance between a Dutch captain, the selfsame Flying Dutchman, Hendrick van der Zee (Mason), and a drop-dead gorgeous Pandora Reynolds (Gardner), in a fictitious port town Esperanza, Spain.Pandora is surrounded by admirers, some of them are expatriate Britons, one of them even gulps a poisoned wine and kills himself in the occasion of the first anniversary their acquaintance, to the dismay of her indifference, and she doesn't even care to raise an eyebrow.
Only in the fantasy, maybe, so one night, beckoned by a mysterious ship anchored near the beach, Pandora swims to the ship and finds Hendrick, the sole being on board, is uncannily drawing a painting (a work made by Lewin's friend Man Ray) with exact her image, there are connections between them far beyond this life, as it will reveal, Hendrick is a perpetual wandering soul on the sea, under the curse that only a woman who is willing to die for him because of uncontaminated, unconditional love, can he be set free from the eternity of exile for his blasphemy and spur-of-the- moment sin.
Here, the whole foolish and intrinsically jaundiced perspective of treating beautiful women as the ultimate sacrifice to assuage men's guilty over their own idiotic wrongdoings, is ghastly behind our times, which tolls the death knell for this otherwise handsomely and picturesquely shot piece of supernatural romance in Technicolor by cinematographer Jack Cardiff, its close cousin should be William Dieterle's PORTRAIT OF JENNIE (1948).The opening, has already given away the forbidding end, and the film is mostly narrated by Pandora's friend, a British archaeologist Geoffrey Fielding (Warrender), who is in the safe age range to stay as a bystander with a morally superior eye, and sometimes by Hendrick himself, to cursorily introduce his past to viewers, those orations are ornate and over-literary, James Mason has been ill-fitted for the role, dour, ponderous and a complete misfit for Ms. Gardner's glamour turn, but as it always the case, whether it is Clark Gable in John Ford's MOGAMBO (1953), or Richard Burton in John Huston's THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA (1964), Gardner can hardly find an equal worth her divine beauty and unrestrained candour, she is Pandora in real life, that's a tailor- made role of her no doubt, but the movie only resounds with a disappointing meh, no torrid flamenco, record-breaking car-racing, or corrida extravaganza can save the damp squib..
A strange yacht brings intriguing "Flying Dutchman" James Mason (as Hendrik van der Zee) into her life.
Gardner and the location photography by Jack Cardiff are the main attractions.***** Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (2/51) Albert Lewin ~ Ava Gardner, James Mason, Nigel Patrick, Sheila Sim. A film that attempts with some success to bring an old mythical tale to life in our times..
Their apparent desire for one another was flat, uninspired and way off the mark.Set on the very picturesque, Mediterranean side of coastal Spain - Yes. I will admit that this decidedly expensive production (Gardner's umpteen gowns, alone, must've cost a small fortune) certainly contained some fine camera-work, throughout, with its many, many blue skies and equally blue waters.But, alas, the facade of impressive Technicolor cinematography certainly wasn't sufficient enough to detract from the fact that the "Flying Dutchman's" story (along with its ludicrous characters and their absurd dramas) was nothing but stuffy, boring and pretentious nonsense of the highest order.And, to add insult to injury here - I was not in the least bit convinced that Gardner's character could competently play a piano (as a singer she sure hit enough bum-notes) and that Mason's character was, in fact, supposed to be an accomplished artist.
James Mason is the titular Dutchman, cursed to sail the seas for eternity unless he can find a woman who will die out of love for him - enter Ava Gardner.A very strange yet compelling tale with Mason wonderfully sad as the man who longs for love and death and Gardner, gorgeous and much in demand from various suitors who cannot decide on what she wants ie will she / won't she go with him?Certainly odd and now has something of a cult following..
Romatic tosh of the campest kind but then it was written and directed by that most florid of film-makers Albert Lewin and told, in contemporary terms, the story of the legend of the Flying Dutchman, condemned to roam the seas until he found a woman willing to die for him.
He's James Mason at his most inscrutable and she's' Ava Gardner at her most glamorous and others camping it up in the cast include Nigel Patrick, Harold Warrender and Marius Goring though the main reason to see it is Jack Cardiff's gorgeous cinematography.
James Mason as the Flying Dutchman meets his final common fate with Ava Gardner..
A fascinating variation on the old story of the Flying Dutchman and his eternal damnation, which only a true love can save him from, here Ava Gardner at her most intoxicating, while the Dutchman couldn't have been anyone better than James Mason, who later also played Captain Nemo, almost the same character.
It's a well written story by the director of other similar cases, like "The Moon and Sixpence" and "The Portrait of Dorian Gray", both with George Sanders, somewhat spiritually related with James Mason with the same kind of more bottoms than one, and this is perhaps Albert Lewin's best film, succeeding very well with his characters, especially James Mason and Ava Gardner - I don't think I ever saw her more to her advantage, and still she is not entirely sympathetic here.
This tragic legendary story of the Flying Dutchman is expertly woven into a wonderful drama about the tale of a beautiful but spoiled destructive lover, night club singer Pandora Reynolds, the beautiful femme fatal played by Ava Gardner.
She is immediately attracted to him and finds a new meaning to her life abandoning her selfish, spiteful deceit with her past life and her other suitors including jealous bull fighter Mario Cabre who kills Mason not knowing he has immortality and where Mason then shows up at a bullfight shocking the performing Cabre, and distracting him so, that he mortally wounded by an attacking bull.Harold Warrender as archaeologist Geoffrey Fielding provides a brilliant narration of this story throughout the movie and holds it together with gentleman expertise.The final part of this movie is absolutely moving with the fatal love scene between Mason and Gardner culminating in the cracked hour glass in which they succumb to their mortal qualities in a storm where their lives are consumed and he is released from his imposed curse of wandering the seven seas for an eternity until he could find a woman who was prepared to die for him.
You also learn that Gardner is some sort of reincarnated version of the lady Mason murdered--hence, cursing him to his fate."Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" is a lovely film, as the color stock used is quite nice and makes the leading lady (Gardner) look her best.
James Mason fits perfectly in the mysterious role of the fictitious Captain Hendrik van der Zee. And, the alluring Ava Gardner is the perfect siren.
Then, the role of the narrator could be eliminated and we would have a tight enough story that viewers would have been able to make sense of it without the narration.My five stars are for the good acting overall, especially that of Mason and Gardner; and for the setting, scenery and production aspects of the film.
And like the poem, the film speaks more infinite statements about that unique passion between Ava Gardner at the peak of her never equaled beauty, and James Mason, more tormented and desperately in love than ever.The film's magic is transcended by the setting: the country of flamenco, gypsies and bullfighting.
His face is devastated as he only tries to ignite her hatred to preserve her life."Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" is about "a man unable to die and a woman unable to love".
Pandora and The Flying Dutchman is directed by Albert Lewin, produced by Albert Lewin and Joseph Kaufman, has a screenplay by Albert Lewin, photography by Jack Cardiff and stars James Mason, Ava Gardner, Nigel Patrick, Mario Cabre, Harold Warrender, Shelia Sim and Marius Goring.Haunting, poetic, romantic and moving Pandora and The Flying Dutchman is one of the most beautiful films ever made.
Ava Gardner is at the height of her beauty and James Mason is at his most intense and brooding.Set on the coast of Spain in the 1930's the film begins with some local fisherman discovering two dead bodies, a man and a woman.
Archaeologist Geoffrey Fielding(Harold Warrender)is also intrigued by Van Der Zee and becomes more and more convinced that he may be the cursed Captain.You're not sure for a while whether Van Der Zee is the cursed Flying Dutchman or just a lonely man with some mystery and sadness in his life and if Pandora and Fielding are reading too much into the odd things about him.This film is a love story like no other and the entire cast give brilliant performances..
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.