Maddyclassicfilms 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. Cardiff's beautiful Technicolor photography makes it look more like an exquisite painting rather than a film. 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. In flashback we follow the story of American singer Pandora Reynolds(Ava Gardner),Pandora has many men desperate for her attention and love including British racing driver Stephen Cameron(Nigel Patrick)a good and kind man who is in love with her.There's also pitiful Reggie Demarest(Marius Goring)who is slowly drinking himself to death because Pandora isn't in love with him. Pandora is also involved with the dashing bull fighter Juan Montalvo(Mario Cabre)a jealous and passionate man who would kill any man who love her just to have her as his own.Not really interested in any of these men Pandora meets her predestined match, the mysterious Dutchman Hendrick Van Der Zee(James Mason)a tourist who lives on his yacht just off the shore. Pandora falls in love with him and is intrigued by him and the mystery surrounding him. Her curiosity deepens when it seems he could be the famed Flying Dutchman, cursed to sail the seas for eternity until he finds a woman willing to die for him. 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.

Jackson Booth-Millard From the pages of the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die I found this title, I wrongly assumed it was going to be a foreign film, perhaps a fantasy or mythology based story, but I was looking forward to whatever it would entail, from director Albert Lewin (The Picture of Dorian Gray). Basically, set in 1930, in the small Catalan port of Esperanza fishermen discover the bodies of a man and a woman in their nets, police and resident archaeologist Geoffrey Fielding (Harold Warrender) are at the scene, and returning home Geoffrey tells the story of these two dead people as he makes sense of the events that lead to their deaths. Pandora Reynolds (Ava Gardner) is an American nightclub singer and femme fatale who has many men who believe they love her, but she is unable to love anyone, and these admirers she often tests their devotion to her, including Reggie Demarest (Marius Goring) who commits suicide drinking poisoned wine for her, but she seems to show no reaction. Land speed record holder Stephen Cameron (Nigel Patrick) is her latest admirer, but she says she will only marry him if he sacrifices his treasured racing car by pushing it off a cliff into the sea, but she is curious to know the captain of a yacht that has sailed into Esperanza. One night she swims out to the yacht, and inside she finds Dutch captain Hendrik Van Der Zee (James Mason), he is painting a picture of a woman who bares a striking resemblance to her, and he is calling her Pandora, representing the mythological Greek legend, and as with other men he finds himself falling for the American woman and moves to a hotel on the land to spend more time with her. Geoffrey and Hendrick become friends and collaborate to identify local finds, they even find a notebook from the 16th Century, it was written in Dutch by Hendrick, who is revealed to be the accursed Flying Dutchman, he murdered his wife who he believed was unfaithful, his loss led to blasphemy and his death sentence, but before his execution a spirit showed him his wife was innocent, ghosts were all over the ship, and he was cursed to endlessly sail the seas until he finds a woman who loves and is willing to die for him, and to this day he appears every seven years to try and find this woman. Pandora is in love with Van Der Zee, but he does not want her to die so he does everything he can to make her hate him, and meanwhile she has bullfighter Juan Montalvo (Mario Cabré) to gain her affection, he even murders Hendrick in jealousy, but after leaving Hendrick is alive as if nothing happened, and the next day he turns up at a bullfight, where Juan is so shocked to see him he ignores the bull and gets fatally wounded by it, he explains the murder to Pandora before dying, she is confused. It comes to the day of her wedding to Stephen, but Pandora wants to know from Geoffrey the translations of the notebook, and now she knows the truth she swims out the yacht again, and he reveals that the painting is done from memory, he was married to Pandora in her past reincarnation, she is his chance to lift his punishment, but it would mean her dying, but ultimately he accepts her love and they embrace, but of course fate takes them went a fierce storm turns the yacht over, and the next morning Hendrick and Pandora's bodies are found, destiny has been fulfilled and the curse has been lifted. Also starring Sheila Sim as Janet, John Laurie as Angus, Pamela Mason, James's then wife as Jenny, Patricia Raine as Peggy and Margarita D'Alvarez as Senora Montalvo. 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. Very good!

wes-connors A 1930s Spanish seaport is riveted by alluring saloon singer Ava Gardner (as Pandora Reynolds). A strange yacht brings intriguing "Flying Dutchman" James Mason (as Hendrik van der Zee) into her life. She drifts from Nigel Patrick (as Stephen Cameron) to Mr. Mason. Mason's wife Pamela Kellino (as Jenny) keeps an eye on the co-stars. While the original Pandora's box contained hope, Ms. Gardner's holds desire. She is beautiful and bewitching in Technicolor. Alas, the pace is funereal rather than mysterious; sometimes, it feels like the film is running in slow-motion. 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

oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx 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.