Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
Kino Video (1951)
Drama, Mystery, Romance
In Collection
#9859
0*
Seen ItYes
738329016326
IMDB   7.1
2 hr 2 mins UK / English
DVD  Region 1   NR
James Mason Hendrik van der Zee
Ava Gardner Pandora Reynolds
Nigel Patrick Stephen Cameron
Sheila Sim Janet
Harold Warrender Geoffrey Fielding
Mario Cabré Juan Montalvo
Marius Goring Reggie Demarest
John Laurie Angus
Pamela Mason Jenny
Patricia Raine Peggy
Virginia Huston
Gabriel Carmona
Ricardo Valle
Albert Lewin
Margarita D'Alvarez Senora Montalvo
La Pillina Spanish dancer
Abraham Sofaer Judge
Francisco Igual Vicente
Guillermo Beltrán Barman
Lilli Molnar Geoffrey's housekeeper
Phoebe Hodgson Dressmaker
Antonio Martin Member of Montalvo's cuadrilla
Lolita Allergria Singer
John Carew Priest
Helen Cleverley Second nurse
Pepe de la Isla Guitarist
Christiana Forbes Nurse
Eddie Leslie Doctor
Gerald Welsh Assistant doctor
Director
Albert Lewin
Producer Joe Kaufmann
Albert Lewin
John Woolf
Writer Albert Lewin
Cinematography Jack Cardiff
Musician Alan Rawsthorne

There are few films that can be acclaimed as truly mad, but Pandora and the Flying Dutchman stands rather wonderfully in this category. Its combination of lust and erudition is inspired by mythology but seems peopled by characters from some hybrid novel co-authored by Somerset Maugham and Ernest Hemingway. Pandora Reynolds (Ava Gardner) is a singer in a coastal town in Spain, where her hobby is attracting the devoted love of powerful men made helpless in her presence. (A race-car driver blithely pushes his one-of-a-kind vehicle over a cliff, just to earn her trust.) While fending off other suitors, including a bullfighter, she becomes intrigued by the mystery man (James Mason) whose yacht is moored offshore. Since he is Dutch, perhaps he is related to the mythical, immortal Flying Dutchman? Don't think it can't happen in this overheated affair. Gardner and Mason are not at their best (she looks ultra-glamorous, of course), but their movie-star wattage is high. The real star is the Technicolor cinematography by the great Jack Cardiff (The Red Shoes); the throbbing colors are just right for the unreal scenario playing out before us. Writer-director Albert Lewin, probably best known for his Picture of Dorian Gray, had a literary bent, and in this movie that means people are constantly planting their feet and reciting snippets of poetry toward the moonlit sea. Somehow this fits in perfectly with the rest of the delirium. --Robert Horton
Edition Details
Distributor Kino Video
Release Date 5/23/2000
Packaging Keep Case
Screen Ratio 1.33:1
Audio Tracks Dolby Digital Mono [English]
No. of Disks/Tapes 1