DVDs in Review

Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951)

Title: Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951)

Release date: August 9 2010

Certificate: PG

Format: DVD/Blu-ray combi-pack

RRP: £19.99

Rating: 3.5/5

Reviewed by Dave Lancaster

‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ walks a fine line between the fantastic and the ludicrous. The legend of its title is somewhat of a stretch in itself – the Flying Dutchman (James Mason) is a 17th century sailor cursed to sail the seas for eternity until he finds a woman willing to really die for him.

That woman is the utterly unobtainable Pandora Reynolds (Ava Gardner), a spoiler 1930s nightclub singer and pianist. She has driven the local men on a Spanish seaport crazy, but has agreed to marry a daring racedriver. Also in the frame is a jealous bullfighter. You don’t find office workers in these kinds of films.

It’s all larger than life, which is why Jack Cardiff’s stunning cinematography is extremely welcome. This is the man who really made Powell and Pressburger universally regarded as visual artists, thanks to his photography of groundbreaking classics such as ‘Black Narcissus’, ‘The Red Shoes’ and ‘A Matter of Life and Death’. Unfortunately, Albert Lewin isn’t quite as visionary a director as the aforementioned duo, and his craftsmanship is stilted, kitsch and dated.

Nevertheless the imagery, tone and use of symbolism was ahead of its time and still intriguing today. Mason and Gardner put in expansive performances, lacking the subtlety of their later work but they’re magnetic enough to make for an extremely memorable screen pairing.

This is more of a Saturday matinee than an everyday fixture to your collection – bring it out for those moments when you don’t want to watch anything particularly challenging, but you still want well made escapism that really pushes the envelope. The wonderful new Blu-ray makes this quite a treat for the senses.