Search - Pandora and The Flying Dutchman on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1951 DVD Release: 05/23/2000 Format: DVD - Pan and Scan Audio Tracks: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 2 hrs 3 mins Studio: Kino Members Wishing: 6 Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Romantic Fantasy

Many cineastes consider Pandora and the Flying Dutchman as the masterpiece of filmmaker Albert Lewin, while others write the film off as a pretentious bore. Ava Gardner stars as Pandora Reynolds, a predatory creature who destroys the lives of all men who've been unfortunate enough to fall in love with her. Enter Hendrick van der Zee (James Mason), a mystical figure who proves to be Pandora's match. It turns out that van der Zee is the legendary 17th Flying Dutchman, whose spirit is doomed to wander the earth until he is able to find a woman willing to love him with all her heart -- and thereby sacrifice her own life. Further elaboration would spoil the film for potential Lewin enthusiasts. Suffice it to say that the director's many cinematic obsessions (cat figurines, Egyptology, obscure literary allusions) are exercised to their fullest potential. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Mason - Hendrick van der Zee
Ava Gardner - Pandora Reynolds
Nigel Patrick - Stephen Cameron
Sheila Sim - Janet Fielding
Marius Goring - Reggie Demarest
Harold Warrender - Geoffrey Fielding

For many years, Albert Lewin's 1951 film Pandora and the Flying Dutchman was nearly as legendary as its title character. Despite a radiantly sensual performance by Ava Gardner and an impassioned portrayal by James Mason, most American filmgoers found its myth-laden plot and strangely remote European setting not to their taste; the movie vanished from theaters very quickly and was seldom shown on television, and by the 1960s it had disappeared. It did have a small but loyal cult following and, perhaps even more significantly, a serious body of potential viewers who were curious about this movie, which showed up on Gardner's and Mason's filmographies and several lists of notable fantasy films, but was nowhere to be seen. The plot itself, told as an extended flashback, is one of the stranger stories to be aimed at mainstream audiences in the 1950s. Ava Gardner plays a free-spirited singer who finds herself attracted to an enigmatic Dutch painter (James Mason), who arrives aboard a yacht that seems oddly devoid of a crew. As it turns out, he is the real Flying Dutchman of legend, cursed to sail the seven seas forever, until he finds one who will offer herself in sacrifice for him. Neither performer ever looked better, and this is arguably the best performance of Gardner's career -- certainly right up there with her work in Mogambo and Seven Days in May.
The movie resurfaced a few years ago courtesy of Kino International, which acquired it from the estate of the late Raymond Rohauer, a film collector who had acquired the rights, and it emerged on DVD in early 2000. In contrast to such British Technicolor of the same period as The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffmann, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman hasn't enjoyed a full-blown restoration of its negative elements. It looks very uneven, with hues and skin tones shifting within several scenes, and marks on some stretches of the movie, particularly the reel-change points. On the other hand, the color is generally robust and the clarity is impressive; it's obvious that a lot of effort went into making the most of the 35 mm nitrate source that was used. Moreover, the audio quality is very high, which gives full play to the richness of Alan Rawsthorne's score as well as the dialogue. The movie is broken down into 25 chapters and comes with the original trailer as a supplement. The menu must be accessed manually. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide