Captain Horatio Hornblower RN *** (1951, Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty, James Robertson Justice, Terence Morgan) – Classic Movie Review 4808

Gregory Peck stands steady in a tense and taciturn star turn as the fictional early 19th century British Navy hero Captain Horatio Hornblower at the helm of producer-director Raoul Walsh’s 1951 ocean-going story based on C S Forester’s novels of the Napoleonic Wars. The sea-going epic movie is certainly colourful and entertaining, but it is also longueur ridden and dull in places.

The exciting sea battle action scenes are underlined by Robert Farnon’s rousing score, while other strong assets are the British support cast, Warner Bros’ expensive-looking, top production in the UK, the extremely handsome Technicolor cinematography by Guy Green, location work in France, the Mediterranean and in England, and Walsh’s robust handling.

However, heroine Virginia Mayo (as Lady Barbara Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington’s sister whom Peck’s Hornblower rescues) and the studio-bound backdrops at Teddington Studios (Middlesex, England), sail against the tide. The sometimes sluggish screenplay is by Ivan Goff, Ben Roberts and Aeneas MacKenzie.

It also stars Robert Beatty as Lieutenant William Bush, James Robertson Justice as Seaman Quist, Terence Morgan as 2nd Lieutenant Gerard, Moultrie Kelsall as Lieutenant Crystal and James Kenney as Midshipman Longley.

Also in the cast are Richard Hearne (as Hornblower’s batman Polwheal), Christopher Lee (as a Spanish captain), Stanley Baker (as the Bosun Mr Harrison), Denis O’Dea, Michael Dolan, Alan Tilvern, Alec Mango and John Witty.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4808

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