Btexxamar I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

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.

Charles Herold (cherold) This is a bad movie. A bad, ponderous, ridiculous movie. A movie that would have worked great for a Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode.The movie screams out terrible movie from the moment it starts, with characters talking in ponderous, pretentious verse. When one starts talking directly to the camera, it's like something from an Ed Wood movie. The score is also insanely melodramatic, screaming out for the viewer's attention.Ava Gardner plays a femme-fatale, and while she is certainly an attractive woman,she is so disgustingly self-centered and callous that it's a little hard to believe so many guys are worshiping her. I mean, there are always dumb guys, but there are also smart guys who know better, and they seem to be lacking.As far as I can tell, a lot of people don't think much of the movie but are still giving it a decent score because they think Ava is hot and they think the movie is pretty. Well, I thought Ava was hot in Night of the Iguana, but I've known too many self-centered jerks to be attracted to them (anymore; yes, I was once a very dumb guy).As for the look of the film, I must have seen a bad print (quite possible; the sound wasn't very good), because it looked rather washed out.To be fair, I only watched a half hour of this. I never even saw James Mason, a brilliant actor. But I knew with every fiber of my being that this was a bad movie five minutes in, and only kept watching it longer because my girlfriend wanted to give it a chance. When she gave up, I was free.

blanche-2 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?

writers_reign It seems churlish to begin with a cavil but this print was preceded by an on-screen message that it was a 'restored' version, only to be followed by what looked like a washed-out third or fourth generation print. It may well have been Lewin's intention to shoot in dull tones in 1950 but somehow I tend to doubt it. There's an immediate nod to A Matter Of Life And Death both in the central couple - one dead, one living - and the use of Harold Warrender, a 'scientific' type who complements perfectly Roger Livesey's 'doctor' and also serves as narrator. As for the hokum that masquerades as plot the less said the better, in this case it is definitely a case of Style not Content. Gardner is so gorgeous she doesn't really need to do anything else yet by 1950 MGM had moulded her into a fairly half-decent actress and Mason was well up to handling any real acting that needed doing. On the other hand Sheila Sim demonstrates yet again why her screen career consisted of a mere ten movies, just as well she married Dickie Attenborough otherwise she may have starved to death. Dorothy Parker wrote only a handful of lyrics, notably I Wished On The Moon, but another is performed by Gardner here, How Am I To Know, and performed well. Apart from this it's the visuals and symbolism that are the main interest and in a decent print they would have been stunning.