User reviews

There is much to enjoy in this legendary tale. The story is well told and quickly grabs the viewer. I thought the Spanish setting was perfect and the land speed record and bullfighting scenes in the main convincingly shot. The extraordinary use of Technicolor gives the whole picture an almost dream like ethereal look and many scenes have an almost surreal quality. The whole cast are splendid with Ava Gardner particularly spellbinding - I can't think of any actress today who could carry her role as convincingly.

Mention Pandora and the Flying Dutchman to a modern audience and you will be met with blank looks...To a public who thrive on Terminator 4,5,6,etc I suspect this film would be completely unknown.Good reason then for enjoying it (and it's type of film) quietly, while letting the rest get on with Hollywood's more obvious offerings. Unfortunately we don't have actors of the quality of James Mason anymore whose presence here is completely convincing as the otherwordly Dutchman of the title. The photography, clever placing of prop statues on moonlit beaches and raised camera angles viewing the coastal location in a surrealist style all help to create the fantasy illusion that echoes the art of the time....(Dali) etc. More than anything the film works precisely because it was made then.....if it was remade today it simply wouldn't work the people aren't around anymore who would make it work in the 'digital' age. Incidentally the 'voiceover'narration works very well..(as it also did in the maligned original version of Blade Runner....now never shown) In all a great film with a haunting quality....not as well known as it should be.

The story of the Flying Dutchman is given a sumptuous production here, directed by Albert Lewin. Set in the 1930s, Hendrick van der Zee, the captain of a yacht, appears in the Spanish seaport of Esperanza. There he meets the mysterious and beautiful Pandora, a man magnet who has every man in the village, it seems in love with her. Pandora herself has never been in love, but there is incredible chemistry between her and Hendrick. 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. The film moves slowly in places. But the casting is wonderful. The only woman who could have played Pandora in 1951 was Ava Gardner, stunningly beautiful and sexy with that low, husky voice and incredible face. And let's not forget her figure which was dressed in dazzling costumes throughout the film. James Mason is handsome and mysterious as Hendrik, and the entire production is gorgeous to look at.

If you're an Ava Gardner or James Mason fan, don't miss this marvelous showcase for their talents. And do they make a fantastic looking couple or what?

I was an usher in the Paramount Theater in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania when this film came out. That's when ushers were ushers! I must have seen the picture 30 times while working. The picture was not popular at the time -- and I had a heck of a time understanding it. But I do remember being fascinated by the scenery. The film was initially promoted as "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" -- but when it came to the Paramount, they changed the name to "The Loves of Pandora". I have no clue why that change was made -- but I remember that the revised title as it appeared on the screen was sort of "home made" and not of the quality of a new film. Were they experimenting with changing the name to get more patrons? I have not read anything about this anywhere on the internet. I have always been curious about this picture and intend to rent it to see it now that I'm 75 years old and may understand it at this stage of my life -- a full 58 years after seeing it at the Paramount.

Funny thing about the legend of the Flying Dutchman is that nobody knows what it exactly is all about. Different stories about the history of the alleged ghost ship exist and different names of its captain also float around. Hendrik van der Zee, as he is being called in this movie, is one of them.

This is a movie I just can't really put my finger on. I don't understand what this movie is trying to tell really. It's hard to label this movie as well. It's a romantic drama with fantasy elements in it as well. It doesn't have an everyday story and also some not so everyday characters in it. Guess the movie is about love and human nature but for me it wasn't very appealing all. The main characters are quite repulsive ones, of which the female deliberately hurt other persons feelings to get what she want and the man killed the woman he loved out of sheer jealousy. Why should we care about a love story between these two. Of course the characters redeem themselves but no, I just wasn't drawn into it.

It's also a rather slowly paced movie. Some excitement wouldn't had harmed the movie. Not that it's dull but its slow pace just makes the movie drag on in parts. You have the feeling that the movie could had easily been halve an hour shorter. The movie does still takes some nice turns though, making this movie all in all still a perfectly watchable one.

The movie is also good looking. It's a period piece, shot in color. It actually was the first motion color picture Ava Gardner appeared in. 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. Can't blame the actors for that really, since they are obviously doing the best they can with the material given to them.

By all means its not a badly made and constructed movie, I had just wished it's execution would had been a bit more lively and perhaps also some more fun. The movie is being mostly serious of tone, making this movie more heavy than it really should be.

7/10

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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. But the story itself, while it has many original touches, never really brings the characters or their motivations to life. The explanations are there, but they ring hollow for the sort of outrageous behavior committed by the principals, including peripheral characters such as the swaggering bullfighter and a racing car driver who's impulsive enough to crash his car into the ocean to prove his devotion to Pandora. 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. Aspects of that tale are present here, with Mason as an artist who at the film's start is painting a portrait of Pandora, a woman he's not yet met but is fated to encounter very shortly.

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. Fortunately, the chemistry between them does click.

I like to see giddy romantic movies where those on screen lives beyond my wildest dreams, or the wildest dreams of most people. 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. She's a heart-breaker with more than one suicide under her belt no doubt. She lives in Esperanza in Southern Spain, where near dusk there are soul-stirring pine-silhouetted coastlines, with turquoise beams from littoral white-sanded patches mesmerising. Though cruel she's not stupid, she's definitely perceptive emotionally and intellectually, perhaps she may be termed an ethical egoist, or Randian. In any case a very interesting character.

The central message of the film which is very potent is that, "The measure of love is what one is willing to give up for it". 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. Additionally the Dutchman's explanation of his painting, which is a clear Di Chirico pastiche (something of a directorial trait following the Gauguin pastiche in The Moon and the Sixpence), sounds less than authoritative. 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! Statues recovered from the sea remind one of the beautiful Artemision Bronze, hauled out of the Med during the era in which the movie is set. Archaeologist Geoffrey Fielding is a rather odd sort, buried amongst books and inscriptions and bizarrely aloof from the tempestuous desires of the other characters, though not out of ignorance.

The occasional pseudo-literacy is perhaps at one with what is a Technicolor delirium, a film that maintains its giddiness throughout. 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. One trick to show off the Technicolor wares is to have grandiose flower arrangements in the movies, here in Pandora's home. I think the green-gold lining of her cloak is an unusual colour that really ravished the screen. Actually the film is rather erotic at one point (although Fielding's description of the full moon as erotic at one point is quite titter-worthy, mainly due to delivery), just after said cloak is jettisoned and Pandora swims out to the Dutchman's yacht, naked as the day she was born.

The scenes that will remain in my head the most are probably the shots of revelry (coming after the Laurie toast). I think there's something quite Elysian about them, transporting even. 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.

You must make your own mind up here. This a rare movie but classic discovery. James Mason will disturb you as the Flying Dutchman. Ava Gardnar tries to be the star but Mason will remove you into the make believe world, that is the quality of this movie.

We don't see Mason for a while and we see Gardner a lot but this is a treat for the reasons that movies were made for. Its just beautiful and other comments like 'sentimental' or 'pretentious' are really stupid here.

This is great cinema like it should be. Of course nonesense but this is a world created successfully by the celluloid which is the whole purpose. Brilliant.

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. It's full of beautiful images and the purplest of prose and often feels like a parody of itself. It's now considered something of a cult movie and is really nobody's finest hour, except maybe Cardiff's.

Many a man might give up just about anything for a tumble with Ava Gardner. 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. Ava's character of Pandora Reynolds, cabaret singer and jet-setter is a trial run for her later role of Lady Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises.

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's been cursed for about 300 years to sail the seas in search of a woman who would lay her life down for him. 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.

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman stars Ava Gardner as the siren of a small Spanish town, the type of woman men kill and die for. She s never fallen for anyone until the arrival of the mysterious James Mason, the actual Flying Dutchman condemned to sail the seas until he finds a woman who would die for him.

This is the type of film that either ones "gets" or does not "get". If you perhaps feel that there is a deeper-dimension to this story than the tale of two lovers, then the tale of the Flying Dutchman will begin to resonate for you. It is the absence of trust which provoked the murder of the Dutch Captain's wife and it is his quest for redemption and forgiveness because of this misjudgment that creates and carries the story.

The story becomes a magical, thought provoking melding of the legend of the Flying Dutchman and eternal love. We are guided through the story by one of the characters - Geoffrey Fielding (Harold Warrender) - who provides some background and commentary about the story. James Mason and Ava Gardiner were at the peak of their careers when making this film and, although it may not seem likely, they are well cast as lovers. Pandora and the Flying Dutchman is a beautiful film, dreamlike in the words of Martin Scorsese. For me it cast a spell .

Freely based on the fantastic and legendary tale of the unfortunate captain who is condemned to travel seas for all time until he meets a woman who loves him so much that will sacrifice her own life . This is a fantasy tale, an immortal legend updated in the 30s set at a Spanish village, actually Tossa De Mar, in which various men : Nigel Patrick, Mario Cabre, Marius Goering, compete for the affections of a gorgeous, exotically lovely woman called Pandora : beautiful young American Ava Gardner. Naturally, she cares for none of them. Then there arrives a lush yacht and its mysterious captain who puts in harbour , James Mason, and things go wrong.

An interesting and glamorous film bordering on the surreal with tought-provoking script and full of exuberant literacy . Interpretations are uniformly good, though story is occassionally bold, as well as non-sense and absurd , at times. Ava Gardner as a playgirl/nightclub singer is precious , being the charming woman romanced by every man in sight and for whom any people should be prepared to suffer strong damnation . James Mason is perfect and usually impeccable self as the enigmatic sailor Hendrick Van Der Zee who is in fact the legendary Flying Dutchman condemned to wander the oceans forever, seeking for his salvation, unless a woman is willing to give up her life for him . Other actors delivering gloriously believable performances are the following ones : Nigel Patrick, Mario Cabre, Harold Warrender, Sheila Shum, John Laurie and several others.

It displays a brillant and sunny cinematography in Technicolor with big splendour visual by Jack Cardiff who was regular cameraman in the colorful films directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Being marvellously shot on wonderful locations in Tossa de Mar, Cataluña, Spain. The motion picture was competently and skillfully written and directed by Albert Lewin. The flick is so compellingly made that is possesses the inevitability of a masterpiece and considered to be a myth in its style . This filmmaker Albert Lewin was a good craftsman who made a few but pretty nice movies with plenty of thoughtful literature, enjoyable dialogue and combining it by adaptating popular novels, such as : "The private affairs of Bel Ami" , "The Picture of Dorian Gray", "The moon and six pence" , among others. Rating 7. 5/10 , better than average. Well worth watching. Essential indispensable watching. The yarn will appeal to Ava Gardner and James Mason fans.

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.

Albert Lewin's work as director had not impressed me prior to seeing "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" I found myself frankly quite bored by his version of Maugham's "The Moon and Sixpence" as well as "The Private Affairs of Bel Ami". "The Picture of Dorian Gray" has quite the reputation, but I unfortunately haven't seen it yet.

'Exceeded expectations' cannot begin to describe how surprised I was at how absorbing, intense, captivating, and utterly gorgeous "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman" is. 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. It's far from a perfect film but I did find it to be quite excellent; even the melodrama that tends to bother me in romances from this era of film worked in the context of this film. A surprisingly good film, overall.

8/10

The story is pure schlock, but there's enough striking imagery (including the stars) to make this worth watching. This is basically an arty Woman's Picture shot in the style of the Spanish surrealist, with burning blue skies, dark browns and bright yellows, and lonely statues standing sentry at the seashore. You know what you're in for when the Rubaiyat turns up in a drowned man's hand. It's a little clunky and it's not exactly surrealism (expensive to film because you have to build the deformed stuff) but it's an honest attempt to do something like it without the cheap trick of montage, and Lewin gets off some striking compositions. 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. No playgirl ever came from Indianapolis, but never mind. It's surrealism, like putting the Dali museum in Florida. This Indiana Pandora is unable to love...until she discovers that the sailor, who is also a sort of Sunday painter (he gets bored out there by himself) has worked up a portrait of her sight unseen.

I liked this movie in spite of myself, but the truth is its success depends entirely on the casting, not the writing. Like LAURA, it depends on having a beautiful female lead. It needs one even more than usual because Gardner's idea of how to play an enigma is about as credible as the idea of a playgirl from Indianapolis. (In France, where they like beautiful things that don't make any sense, Gardner's performance was celebrated.) Like LAURA it also needs a moody, haunted, self-loathing yet attractive male lead who can play solo scenes and put over brooding emotions in close-up. Gardner and Mason certainly fit this bill and they help make this movie a success on balance. Indeed, no one but Mason could possibly have played this role. You certainly don't confuse this movie with anything else, except maybe VERTIGO (which rips some of it off).

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. Lewin directs with a keen vision and doesn't often stray from the ethereal atmosphere, to the viewers delight. We get truly superb performances by the entire cast, particularly Ava Gardner, who delivers a heart-felt and very memorable performance. Not to mention the other-worldly photography, which is beautifully shot by two-time Oscar winner, the master cinematographer, Jack Cardiff (BLACK NARCISSUS,THE RED SHOES). Another major addition to this film is the musical score by classical composer Alan Rawsthorne, which is dream-like and uplifting, yet blended with a sense of melancholy. The score also blends poetically with the other-worldly visual richness to extraordinary effect. Fans of classic fantasy films are sure to be delighted. Highly recommended.

Ave Gardener and James Mason are perfectly cast for this epic unfolding and exploration of pure love. The love which is realised contrasts with and exceeds the self centred manifestations demonstrated by the other characters (who are colourful and vivid) and in its nobility and apparent brevity proves that context is what lends meaning to life. The final scenes are wonderfully free from restraining causes and effects with a judgement of love from....?* validating us all. The colours of the production is as intense as the mythic setting for the story and helps the suspension of disbelief. The setting is not of the same importance to the story as Shangri-la to the plot of 'Beyond the Blue Horizon' which explores similar issues of a man exploring a context to give meaning to what he is or could be. These are both aspects of the question we all eventually ask ourselves. * Insert your own conceptualisation of the divine here.

Set in 1930 (not that you'd know it from the clothes and women's hairstyles) and in a never-never world of casual opulence, racing drivers and bullfighters. This breathtakingly wordy and pretentious movie - as it's excessive reliance on narration emphasises - is a triumph of production values in rich Technicolor that provides a sumptuous but enervatingly pompous two hours in which to wallow before returning to the mundane cares of real life.

All-American gal Ava Gardner would plainly never in reality sacrifice herself even for a hunk as brooding & soulful as James Mason. And it's worth remembering that when she made this she already had two husbands behind her, starting with Mickey Rooney; the bullfighters came later.

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. However, an unremitting British racing driver Stephen Cameron (Patrick) almost wins her over by pushing his state-of-the- art racing car over the cliff just to prove his undying love, because Pandora calculates the measurement of love by how much a man can give up for loving her (soon she will discover what she has to give up for love as well). They are engaged! But there is an "almost", it is clear as day that she doesn't love Stephen, or any other man, including the spunky torero Juan Montalvo (Cabré).

Can she ever love somebody after being created as a perfect specimen of female desirability? 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.