L'aigle des mers

I joined this film in progress on TCM earlier this month. Well this film kept me riveted to my seat. Milton Sills' performance is so impressive, so dashing, so heroic that I was completely enchanted. The magic of movie-making. While this film has none of the advantages of modern special effects and lighting and so forth it is nevertheless a slam-bang, rip-roaring, adventure romance. There is something in this film that permits one to fully enter within the story, to suspend disbelief and to experience, if for that brief time, a land of fantasy that entertains as well as elevates. Superlatives are not hyperbole when it comes to The Sea Hawk.

Well you don't get much chance to draw breath for the first fifteen minutes of Frank Lloyd's silent interpretation of this exciting seafaring story. "Sir Oliver" (Milton Sills) is sitting by the fireside of his manor house dreaming of his fiancée "Lady Rosamund" (Enid Bennett) when the wheels start to come off his well ordered life. He finds himself wrongly blamed for killing "Godolphin" (Wallace MacDonald) who happens to be her brother and who has actually been bumped off by "Lionel" (Lloyd Hughes) who happens to be the half brother of the poor soul who's now in a lot of trouble! Fleeing seems like the order of the day, but that is just a frying pan to fire exercise as he is captured by the Spaniards and put to the oars of a galley. He's quite a wily fellow, makes some friends amongst the shackled and manages to escape. Once free, he does his own "Count of Monte Cristo" impersonation, becoming "Sakr-el-Bahr" and scaring the wits out of the other seafarers using the high seas to trade. Meantime, a dejected "Rosamund" is facing the prospect of a marriage to the treacherous "Lionel" and when news of their impending nuptials reaches a certain Morrish stronghold, "Sir Oliver" sets off to kidnap the pair. Thing is, she is a beauty and she turns the head of the ageing but clearly still up for it Basha (Frank Currier) so now they must make other arrangements before she heads to his harem... Can they manage to reconcile, deal with their duplicitous relative and make it back to home and hearth in Blighty in one piece? It's a quickly paced and lively swashbuckler this, with some seriously impressive maritime combat scenes with life-sized ships and an astonishing degree of attention to detail amongst the costumes, action and the settings. Sills looks like he's enjoying himself - especially when he gets into his Arab garb and starts a-pirating, and Bennett and the engaging Wallace Beery contribute strongly too. It's a good adventure film, and though there is romance at times it doesn't ever bog down the plot and, indeed, "Lady Rosamund" is just as formidable a character as any of the men.

A brave English knight, betrayed by his brother, kidnapped by pirates, and captured by Spaniards, takes up a new identity under the Moors as 'Sakr-el-Bahr,' -the Sea Hawk - to become the scourge & terror of the Spanish navy near Gibraltar.

Although sadly neglected for years, this is a splendid swashbuckler, full of action & romance, which should please the fans of silent cinema adventure. Much more faithful to Rafael Sabatini's original novel than the Errol Flynn 1940 version, this is a film which can stand on its own worthy merits. Given excellent production values by First National, the rousing sea battle sequences are especially worthy of mention. Using full scale ships, they possess an aura of authenticity not possible with models. Indeed, some of these nautical scenes were extracted for years for use in other films.

Milton Sills gives a grand performance as the hero. Although lacking in bravura athletic skills, he becomes almost Fairbankian by the film's conclusion. (He even resembles Fairbanks in the shipboard scenes, surely no mere accident.) Appearing in movies since 1914, this was the film which made Sills a major star, and he would be given other popular, courageous roles before his career - and life - were ended by a heart attack in 1930, at the age of 48. Although he had appeared in 85 films, Milton Sills is all but forgotten today.

Beefy Wallace Beery, blustering & bullying as usual, steals all his scenes as a pirate captain who becomes Sills' toady. Enid Bennett is beautiful as the young Cornish woman beloved by the Sea Hawk. Lloyd Hughes gives a good performance as Sills' faithless half-brother. Wallace MacDonald is the very picture of a violent young bully. Lionel Belmore appears briefly as a friendly magistrate. Elderly Frank Currier & young William Collier Jr. both do well in roles that exude Moorish duplicity. Quick eyed movie mavens may spot George O'Brien as a galley slave.

Although the film has been tinted & toned, notice the nice extra touch during the 3 shots of the Basha's nighttime visit to the Sea Hawk, in which the flickering torches have been hand colored a theatric yellow.

Composer Robert Israel has given the film's restored print a very fine organ score which interpolates familiar melodies from as far afield as Gilbert & Sullivan.

Frank Lloyd was definitely the director of sea adventure films. Definitely, entirely, absolutely. And I am sure there are many other gems that are forever lost, silent gems of course. But this one was at least saved, so let's take advantage of it...It is not below nor bettter than the Michael Curtiz's remake starring Errol Flynn, in terms of production design, budget, I mean. Not at all, and the technical elements were not the same either.... Let's consider this please. For me Frank Lloyd would deserve a total research of his filmography, despite the fact that the bulk of it is lost. Back to this one, of coourse the action sequences are jaw dropping, for this period of time: the 1920's...A must see.

This particular adaption of Rafael Sabatini's swashbuckling novel remains faithful to the original story. For those of us who are fans of the Errol Flynn version of The Sea Hawk and I consider it his best film, it has no resemblance to this silent film whatsoever.

In a way that's good because both versions can truly stand on their own merits. Milton Sills is the lead in this version, playing Sir Oliver Tressilian, prosperous landowner in Cornwall. He's looking to wed Enid Bennett who is the daughter of an adjacent estate, but Sills has two problems, her brother Wallace McDonald who doesn't think Sills's family is good enough and Sills's half brother Lloyd Hughes who wants Bennett for himself.

After this The Sea Hawk becomes a mixed version of The Master of Ballantrae and Ben-Hur. Sills is framed for McDonald's murder and captured by pirates who sell him to the Spaniards as a galley slave and then he gets rescued by the Moors.

When Sills gets rescued by the Moors it's his good fortune that the Pasha of Algiers takes a liking to him and he becomes their top pirate with the fearsome name of Sakr El-Bahr, The Sea Hawk.

The rest of the film follows a similar path of Sabatini's other work Captain Blood.

Warner Brothers when they remade The Sea Hawk though they didn't use the story certainly did retain several of the battle scenes which the viewer will immediately recognize. This version is every bit as grand and grandiose as the better known sound film. Sills and Bennett do indeed remind one of Errol Flynn and Brenda Marshall. And Sills in treading on territory that Douglas Fairbanks staked out delivers a fine performance, though without the flair for dramatics that Fairbanks had.

I'm definitely glad this silent classic is not lost.