THE SPANISH MAIN On Blu-ray From Warner Archive

 

Warner Archive brings out another fantastic restoration of a Technicolor classic with its Blu-ray release of the 1945 RKO pirate adventure THE SPANISH MAIN. 

Paul Henreid plays Laurent Van Horn, a 17th Century sea captain who is transporting immigrants to the New World. Van Horn's ship is caught in a hurricane and winds up wrecked at Cartagena, where the bullying local Spanish governor (Walter Slezak) insults him and throws him in jail. Van Horn escapes, and in a few years time, becomes known as "The Barracuda", a notorious pirate who preys upon the Spanish fleet. When the daughter of the viceroy of Mexico (Maureen O'Hara) is being transported to Cartagena in order to marry the governor, Van Horn sees this as another opportunity to get his revenge against the Spanish, but things become more complicated when he starts to fall for the proud lady. 

THE SPANISH MAIN gets shown fairly often on TCM, but seeing it the way it is presented on this Blu-ray is a revelation. The colors are bold, bright, and sharp, and one realizes that this was a major production for RKO at the time. The sets, costumes, and production design are all top notch, and it's easy to understand why George Barnes' cinematography was nominated for an Academy Award. The sound quality is impressive also, highlighting Hanns Eisler's epic score. 

Paul Henreid is a rather unlikely choice to play a swashbuckling adventurer, but it was the actor himself who instigated this project (he wanted to get away from usually being cast as suave romantic types). Henreid is better than one would expect--he's obviously having fun, and what actor wouldn't? (The increased visual detail on this Blu-ray does reveal that Henreid was doubled by a stuntman for a number of scenes.) 

If any actress was perfect for Technicolor, it was Maureen O'Hara. She's an absolute knockout on this Blu-ray, and her appearance is accentuated by the many gorgeous costumes she gets to wear. Her role in THE SPANISH MAIN is very much like the one she played in THE BLACK SWAN (another pirate adventure that sorely deserves a Blu-ray restoration). There's no way you can believe that O'Hara is the daughter of a Spanish nobleman, but THE SPANISH MAIN is so fun and entertaining it's not that big of a deal. The supporting cast has plenty of faces familiar to film buffs, with Binnie Barnes deserving mention for her performance as legendary pirate Anne Bonney. Walter Slezak is a decent enough villain, but he's too much of a strutting buffoon to be in the same dastardly class as a Basil Rathbone or a Claude Rains. 

Director Frank Borzage was as unlikely to helm a story about buccaneers on the Caribbean as Paul Henried was to star in it, but Borzage handles all the action elements quite well, and he gives the tale the sweep and rhythm it needs. 

The only extras on this Warner Archive Blu-ray are a couple of pirate-influenced Looney Tunes, and a original trailer for THE SPANISH MAIN that has not been restored and shows in comparison how magnificent the movie looks on this disc. 

Warner Archive once again shows how much life there is in classic Hollywood features when they are restored and presented in such an amazing fashion as THE SPANISH MAIN is on this Blu-ray.