The Sea Hawk
The Sea Hawk is a 1940 American black-and-white swashbuckling adventure film from Warner Bros. that stars Errol Flynn as an English privateer who defends his nation's interests on the eve of the launch of the Spanish Armada. The film was the tenth collaboration between Flynn and director Michael Curtiz. Its screenplay was written by Howard Koch and Seton I. Miller. The rousing musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold is recognized as a high point in his career. The film was both an adventure and a period piece about Elizabethan England's struggles with Spain. It was also meant as a deliberately pro-British propaganda film to both build morale during World War II, and to influence the American public into having a more pro-British outlook. King Philip was seen as "an obvious" "allegorical Hitler".
Plot
King Philip II of Spain (Montagu Love) declares his intention to destroy England, the first step to world conquest. He sends Don Álvarez (Claude Rains) as his ambassador to allay the suspicions of Queen Elizabeth I (Flora Robson) about the great armada he is building to invade England. In England, some of the Queen's ministers plead with her to build a fleet, which she hesitates to do in order to spare the purses of her subjects.
Cast
- Alan Hale
- Alec Craig
- Brenda Marshall
- Charles Irwin
- Claude Rains
- Clyde Cook
- Colin Kenny
- Crauford Kent
- David Bruce
- Donald Crisp
- Edgar Buchanan
- Errol Flynn
- Flora Robson
- Francis McDonald
- Frank Wilcox
- Frederick Worlock
- Fritz Leiber Senior
- Gerald Mohr
- Gilbert Roland
- Halliwell Hobbes
- Harry Cording
- Henry Daniell
- Herbert Anderson
- Ian Keith
- J. M. Kerrigan
- Jack La Rue
- James Stephenson
- Jay Silverheels
- Lester Matthews
- Mary Anderson
- Montagu Love
- Nestor Paiva
- Pedro de Cordoba
- Robert Warwick
- Una O'Connor
- Victor Varconi
- William Lundigan