Prismark10 Raoul Walsh has directed this film in glorious Technicolour with great sets and costumes. An adaptation of the books from C S Forester, it cast Gregory Peck as the steely, calm and cerebral Horatio Hornblower aboard His Majesty's ship, 'Lydia.'The film is a combination of swashbuckling high seas adventure, a study of leadership and romance as Hornblower meets Lady Barbara Wellesley, the sister of the Duke of Wellington and fall for each other when she has been rescued by his ship.The film has a broad scope but is very much of its time. Its limitation are that the story is told in a rather dry way and does not always sustain your interest. I did not feel that the film was exciting enough. Its beautiful to look at but I saw Peter Weir's more modern film, 'Master and Commander' first which told a complex (and in ways a similar tale) in a more riveting manner.

LydiaOLydia Captain Horatio Hornblower RN is a 1951 tale of, well, the exploits of an impossibly perfect captain and his ship during the Napoleonic War era of big sail and cannons.By the standards of 1951, it was an exciting, technologically advanced, swashbuckler. Today, we as audiences are more mature and more demanding, and as such significant portions of the movie have aged very, very badly. Nevertheless, it remains a decent picture - far better than many of its era and is worth seeing by those such as myself who enjoy high seas adventure. However, modern films such as Master and Commander and the updated Hornblower mini-series are infinitely better. Here are some random observations: - the accents are laughably bad. The Duke of Wellington's daughter in the move has a pure American accent - and that's probably the best accent of them all since this meant that the actress didn't even try to fake a British accent - something many other roles in the film did--and did very very very badly. Perhaps the worst accents I have ever heard on film. I'm amazed - I'm guessing this was a Hollywood picture. Were there no Mexicans around somewhere nearby to at least show them a Spanish (or Mexican, which for the purposes of this movie would have been infinitely better) accent. Were we really so backwards of a people in 1951 that our actors simply felt that they could affect whatever accent they wanted by rolling their Rs in some random way?Related to the above, there is a lot of ridiculous ethnic stereotyping and several characters that don't act as real humans do. This movie pretends to be serious, but, it was from 1951. The British are human and basically everybody else is a cartoon. This seems inappropriate, even for 1951. I can excuse the blackface as a technical necessity (of sorts), but the actual characterizations were insulting to anybody with half a brain.The basic plot is sound, and could be updated. However, if this movie were done today, the character of Hornblower would need to be completely revamped. He's unrealistically flawless in this movie, and the characters spend a heck of a lot of time standing around saying things like "Hornblower is flawless!". High comedy.Special effects are good.This movie today is a solid 5/10. Anybody who gives it more than that is adding extra stars out of nostalgia.

Robert J. Maxwell C. S. Forester's Captain must have been part of the global collective consciousness at one time. Lyndon Johnson's Vice President was once mistakenly introduced at a public gathering as "Hubert Horatio Hornblower." I'm not sure anything like that could happen today since the art of reading novels has all but died and this film isn't shown so often on television.This is an above-average adventure film, a salubrious blend of sea battles, romance, politics, and history. It lies somewhere between the comic fantasy of "The Crimson Pirate" and the earnest drama of "Damn the Defiant" -- maybe in the suite next to "The Sea Hawk." Hornblower, a stern but fair captain, somewhat stiff, takes the British frigate Lydia to the coast of central America to deliver arms to a would-be dictator whose ambitions will draw ships of Spain -- Napolean's ally -- away from Europe. Well, I'll tell you, the dictator, who calls himself El Supremo ("The Supreme") is one nasty banana eater. Half mad, he crucifies dissidents, tries to order the very proper Hornblower around, and is made up to look like he just crawled out of a vat of grease. He fairly drips with it.Fortunately, Spain switches sides in the wars and Hornblower discovers that El Supremo is now an enemy, which gives Hornblower a chance to take his small frigate and blow the much larger Natividad, and her captain, El Supremo, to smithereens in a well-staged and exciting battle.Hornblower is forced by adventitious circumstance to take aboard the sweet but tangy Virginia Mayo. She's supposed to be the sister of the Duke of Wellington but she looks and speaks as if she's been raised on Midwestern corn and cream. Come to think of it, amid all the rest of the English cast, Gregory Peck as Hornblower doesn't try for an English accent, which is just as well, if his pronunciation of French is any indication of his talent with dialects. Anyway, pfui with the romance. It's just thrown in there as a sop to the women in the 1953 audience. This is an adventure movie.The Lydia arrives back in England where Hornblower is treated as a hero and given a ship of the line to command. Against orders he sails her into the harbor at Nantes or someplace, under the guns of the French fort, sinks four of Napolean's ships, which by a chain of contingencies too circuitous to detail would have supplied Napolean with the arms he needed to fight Wellington. (In other words, Hornblower more or less saves the continent of Europe.) He sinks his punctured ship of the line in the main channel, bottling up the entire French fleet. The French are ridiculed too, but not nearly as much as El Supremo.For his sins, he is captured and he and two subordinates are being sent to Paris for trial as pirates. They escape, disguise themselves as Dutchmen, capture another ship, and sail her out of France to England, where all is resolved, including the nascent romance with the Duke of Wellington's sister. I almost wrote Duke of Ellington.The whole thing is done breezily and with few serious moments. Peck seems to be enjoying himself during some of the action scenes but is otherwise his rather wooden professional persona. In this case, as in some of his other films, it fits the character well. Just enough attention in paid to period detail to mask any carelessness. The outdoor scenes were shot on the French Riviera (which may in part account for Peck's seeming to enjoy himself) and every scene, whether in Central America or England or France's Atlantic coast, is bright, sunny, and very temperate. The sailors never even have to wear coats or change their wardrobe. In the romantic scenes aboard ship -- on the weather deck, with the wind billowing the sails above -- Peck's hair is jelled to perfection with not a strand out of place.I gather that Forester's novels were more dramatic in tone and full of details about seamanship. But that doesn't matter. The movie is easily digested. Sit back and enjoy it.

hoppything C S Forester was my favourite author growing up (I have now switched to Patrick O'Brien) and "A Ship of the Line" (the middle part of the film) remains my favourite book. Films of favourite books seldom fare well but even without that issue this film is seriously flawed at its conclusion. In the book Hornblower places his ship between four enemy ships and their port at his Admiral's orders. Before surrendering (with half his crew dead or wounded and not a mast left standing) he damages the enemy seriously enough that they remain confined to port where three of the vessels are subsequently destroyed by fire ships. He lost his ship but cost the French much more. After escaping back to England he is court martialled for surrendering (a standard procedure) but honourably acquitted (as he should be). In the film he is ordered NOT to attack a port containing some French ships but does so anyway and loses his ship. He escapes and is told before his court martial that he will be acquitted and knighted. RUBBISH. He disobeyed a direct order. As a result his ship was lost and his crew captured. Hang the idiot. He has no right to live. It is ridiculous to have any other verdict. Even if he hadn't lost his ship he should still have been court martialled and, at best, dismissed from the service. Add to this arrant piece of nonsense the Americanisation of the terminology (the Royal Navy had midshipmen not ensigns) and the tinkering with all the characters and you have a film that severely disappoints a fan of the books. In comparison "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" is even further removed from the plot and characters of the various books from which it borrows but it is possible to watch and enjoy. Not so with Hornblower, I fear.