REGENT THEATRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 February 1941, Page 2

REGENT THEATRE

-THE SEA HAWK." The “Sea Hawk," which will be shewn tonight at the Regent Theatre is cine for a tremendous success, not only for its historic parallels —it recalls the birth of the British Navy in answer to the menace of the Spanish Armada at a time when Spain had Napoleonic drcams of European conquest—but because of the splendid acting of Errol Flynn as Captain Thorpe, one of Elizabeth’s disowned but privately abetted privateers. Captain Thorpe has the rugged courtiership and independence to win the

heart of the Warrior Queen, but it is as captain of the Albatross, scourge of Spanish galleys, that he shines. The sea fights are thrillingly real, the scenes below decks, where the chained galley slaves sweat in filth in the halfdark. the ambush in the sticky tropical heat oi the Panama forests, even the treachery in the English Court have such fierce actuality that the audience is carried away. England then, as now. was faced with invasion, and the spirit that responds in the Sea Hawk to the situation is shown in every phase of a long film that winks by all too quickly. Brenda Marshall, captured from a Spanish ship on her way to Elizabeth's Court, wins the hero's fiery heart, and Claude Rains. Flora Robson, Donald Crisp. Alan Hale. William Lundigan. Henry Daniell. and Una O'Connor are included in the strong supporting cast. There arcexcellent supports.