O Falcão Dourado

It's the 17th century in the Caribbean seas. The Spanish and English are allied against the French. Kit 'The Hawk' Gerardo (Sterling Hayden) is a French privateer. His obsession is to take down Spanish pirate Luis del Toro who is responsible for his mother's death. Lady Jane (Rhonda Fleming) is an English pirate known as Captain Rouge.

This is a Technicolor seafaring adventure. Everybody's costumes are too clean. The fake background is fake although I do like some of the real exterior actions. The ship action has miniatures. I don't buy Sterling Hayden as French. I don't see him as any hero. I don't know if anybody is the hero of this piece. Maybe Lady Jane is one. It all feels rather fake and old fashion, but there is a kind of charm to all that. I just wouldn't recommend this to anybody.

Kit Gerardo, also known as The Hawk, is one of Frances's most daring privateers, rescues Rouge from a Spanish ship. She is also a pirate, working to restore the fortune the French took from her. When Kit is captured by the governor of Cartagena, Luis del Toro, Rouge demands that he be hanged for piracy. Only one person knows it, but Kit is the governor's son.

The Golden Hawk has all the usual ingredients of a pirate romp: ship, adventures, sword fights, plots/counter plots and gunpowder explosions and of course romance - there's a little twist regarding the man Golden Hawk wants to kill. It's a bit melodramatic and sometimes talky but the sprightly sword fights and ship battles as well as the beautiful ladies like Rhonda Fleming uplifts this film. As for Sterling Hayden, he's an odd choice as a dashing pirate captain, a Casanova of the high seas, and largely he isn't too bad. He's a bit more alive than he's in other films. But someone like John Payne would've been a better fit.

Kit Gerardo (Hayden) has a strong motive to get revenge over his mother's death, carrying the quest for twenty years against Captain Luis Del Toro; but when an opportunity arises, instead of killing the man, he collects a ransom from a prisoner he holds, which happens to be Del Toro's fiancée. He also battles other foes, some of which were on land while riding horses after getting commissioned by a French leader to destroy the Spanish settlements - in return he and his men can be rewarded with land to settle on.

Rhonda Fleming was Captain Rouge, and she was a pirate; but this was not discovered until after the first 30 minutes. Now that delay had some circumstances for her, and would have been okay if she still would have maintained her Captain's status, giving off vibrations that definitely could put a man in erection city; but she soon ends up back on her plantation, becoming a victim to Kit Gerardo's men who are on that mission to destroy settlements … stoking her hatred of men.

Part of Hayden's character was to be a lover, and he passes the test since he does not overdo any charming routine. His success with women sure does take a nose dive, though; he finds that the fiancée and Captain Rouge are women who sure are fickle: one minute they want Kit Gerardo dead, and the next minute they want his loins … all this in the midst of a twist in the story.

There were believable characters, authentic clothes, villages … good fighting scenes, and beautiful mature women - a pretty good swashbuckler for only half of the movie being filmed at sea. The reason I gave it a 7 instead of an 8 was because of Rhonda's character not staying in her pirate's mode.

I'm a fan of the genre - nothing better than a good swashbuckling adventure on the high seas. Well, actually there are plenty better than this rather poor effort. Sterling Hayden is certainly no natural as the eponymous privateer "Kit Gerardo" caught up in the Napoleonic war in the Caribbean. His marauding is perilous, though, particularly once he rescues the feisty "Rouge" (Rhonda Fleming) and discovers that she is also in his line of work - and out to avenge herself on the French. As the warfare hots up, the affianced of the Governor is also apprehended. "Bianca de Valdiva" (Helena Carter) takes a shine to our hero, but he has already taken a shine to "Rouge" but she in turn is trying to get the governor "del Toro" (John Sutton) to catch and hang the man! Still with me? Well, one further complication arises as we discover just why "Kit" is so determined to bring down the governor. To be fair, it does finish strongly with a good hearty battle, but the build up and relentless chatter robs the film of much pace or sense of peril and nobody at all in front of the camera is having a very good - or convincing - day. The production is a bit basic and stage bound which doesn't help, but at the end of the day this is just a let down that has little to redeem it.

This Sam Katzman production is actually pretty good, considering the talent in front of the camera and the botched story. Sterling Hayden shows some life as a French privateer and, considering the by-the-numbers acting -- which seems to concentrate more on the clarity of the words than the subtlety of the emotions -- even Rhonda Fleming as another pirate captain with whom he is in love, is pretty good.

The best part of the movie, however, is provided by William Skall's cinematography. A Technicolor specialist, he keeps the camera moving in a lively fashion throughout and seems to have settled on 17th Century Dutch painting, with frequent Rembrandt-like dark backgrounds and muted tones for a lot of shots. This was something you could do with Technicolor, playing around with the chroma of the prints, that was lost when Technicolor fell out of fashion, that has only recently been restored to modern movies by computer techniques.

There isn't much that will surprise anyone familiar with pirate movies, but the overall effect is worthwhile.