Page 46 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 138

46 Issue #138 July 2024
In Reel Time
Get Your Sea Legs Ready
By Nikolai Adams
night (or matinee) at the movies
A isn’t what it used to be. Now,
we’re lucky if we see two trailers,
the rest of the lengthy pre-show
being packed with commercials that
frustrate – bringing the atmosphere
down several notches. Drawing your
attention to what you would have
seen circa 1940, you would have
experienced a newsreel, followed by
a live action short, then an engaging
cartoon. . . all of this leading into
the main event (the trailers running
after the film’s closing. . . if you’ve
ever wondered why they are called
trailers, now you know).
Flashing back to August 1940, air
conditioned audiences would have
witnessed the visual horrors of the
war – specifically, the bombing of
Britain (which started in July), these
realities then leading into Alice in
Movieland – a short depicting the
dream machine that is Hollywood
leading a girl to fame and glory
(a fascinating watch due to its
young lead – soon to be star Joan
Leslie; How to Marry a Millionaire
director Jean Negulesco’s direction
[this a much earlier work]; and
perhaps more than anything else,
a screenplay written by young
journalist Ed Sullivan – long before
his rise to fame).
The final lead-in to the feature is a
Looney Tunes’ adventure – Porky’s
Poor Fish, a seven minute musical
laughfest full of visual gags.
Written by Melvin Millar, directed
by Robert Clampett and starring
the great Mel Blanc (voicing six
characters), the simple story opens
with a rascally cat attempting to nab
a jauntily walking down the street successful films? Rather cleverly,
mouse.
Like Sylvester, this cat has little
luck, next trying his ‘misfortune’
by sneaking into Porky Pig’s fish
store for a snack (as the owner has
skipped out for lunch). Each fish
has its own gag (sole fish actually
looking like the bottom of a shoe;
an oyster actually having a bed; two
eels being named AC and DC. . .),
this school coming together to foil
the hungry feline once again.
After all of these wonderful
experiences, you are greeted with
a Warner Bros. picture featuring
their legendary matinee idol –
Errol Flynn. Their biggest box
office earner (more so than even
Humphrey Bogart and James
Cagney), he is once again paired
with expert director Michael Curtiz
– though best known for being the
man behind Casablanca, this is the
tenth of twelve films the pair would
make together – one of the greatest
director/actor teams of all-time, in
The Sea Hawk.
How do you follow up years of
www.sportsenergynews.com
if clever tale that links to what was
occurring at the time in Europe.
Spain’s King Phillip II (Montagu
Love) is the narrative’s Adolf
Hitler stand-in – a sneaky, Armada
building dictator gearing up for
war while pretending to bandy
about peace. Don José Alvarez de
Corboda (Claude Rains) – with a
name like that, you just know that
he is going to be snooty – is the
Photo Submitted King’s emissary and ambassador,
a snake oil salesman attempting
to hoodwink the Queen. At first
seeming like gullible, peace
chasing Neville Chamberlain,
studio execs actually scrapped she eventually becomes Winston
the Sea Hawk story (based on the Churchill, her speech (like Charlie
1915 novel of the same name and
the successful 1924 silent feature), Chaplin’s in The Great Dictator
bringing in talented Seton I. Miller – clearly 1940 was the year for
(Here Comes Mr. Jordan) to re- impassioned monologues) of, “and
write it as a unique combination now, my loyal subjects, a grave
of Flynn’s greatest hits (Howard duty confronts us all: To prepare
Koch also came in a bit later and our nation for a war that none of
reworked it into its final product). us wants, least of all your Queen.
Encompassing the swashbuckling We have tried by all means in our
escapades of 1935’s Captain power to avert this war. We have no
quarrel with the people of Spain or
Blood, the steal from the rich and
give to the poor heart of 1938’s of any other country; but when the
The Adventures of Robin Hood, ruthless ambition of a man threatens
and the political/historical intrigue to engulf the world, it becomes the
of 1939’s The Private Lives of solemn obligation of all free men
Elizabeth and Essex (all three to affirm that the Earth belongs
also directed by Curtiz), The Sea not to any one man, but to all men,
Hawk (set in the sixteenth century) and that freedom is the deed and
follows cheeky Geoffrey Thorpe title to the soil on which we exist.
(Flynn), a pirate privateer beholden . .”, somehow transcending through
screen, her words spoke directly
to Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson), to the audience – influencing and
in his dangerous escapades. Fun inspiring them in this most dire
fact: many of the same costumes time (a most powerful message, to
and sets were reused from the above be sure).
mentioned 1939 feature.
Amongst all of this political
Though this is the general basis,
Miller also weaves in a rather clear interplay, there is Thorpe. The
Continued on page 47