Gregory Peck

Virginia Mayo

Robert Beatty

Moultrie Kelsall

Terence Morgan

James Kenney

James Robertson Justice

Denis O'Dea

Richard Hearne

Michael Dolan

Stanley Baker

Alan Tilvern

Alec Mango

Christopher Lee

John Witty

Michael Goodliffe

Eugene Deckers

Ingeborg von Kusserow

Amy Veness

Kynaston Reeves

Ronald Adam

Chris Adcock

Basil Bartlett

André Belhomme

David Birks

Robert Cawdron

Diane Cilento

Howard Connell

Alexander Davion

Steve Donahue

Patric Doonan

Anthony Forwood

Arthur Gomez

Lindsay Hooper

Richard Johnson

Raoul Walsh

Ivan Goff

Ben Roberts

Æneas MacKenzie

Robert Farnon

Guy Green

Jack Harris

Thomas N. Morahan

Sheila Graham

Tony Sforzini

Harold V. King

Cliff Richardson

Arthur Rhoades

George Blackwell

Harry Barndollar

Louis Levy

C. S. Forester

Adventure

History

Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.

Warner Bros. Pictures

United Kingdom

Beat To Quarters!

It's fun, it's exciting, and it looks fabulous at times, it is however far from being a great movie. In the absence of Errol Flynn, Gregory Peck steps in to Hornblower's shoes and as much as he gives it his all (rumoured to have been one of his favourite performances), it's a spot of miscasting that thankfully doesn't kill the picture dead, he's just sadly a tad too straight laced to really make the role work. The same can be said for the casting of Virginia Mayo as Lady Barbara Wellesley, pretty as she is, it's an odd bit of casting that never quite comes off, yet as daft as it may sound, neither case of miscasting hurts the picture, and this comes down to the astute direction from Raoul Walsh.

The pace never flags so we are never over concerned with the central actors struggles to make the characters work, backed up by Guy Green's camera work and Robert Farnon's jaunty score, the technical aspects of the piece steer the viewer on to safe waters (ahem). The sets are excellent and the recreation of the ships is first rate, with the final quarter of the movie giving us a blood pumping battle that's full of heroic bluster. It's a film that is easily recommended to adventure fans, though far from perfect and it remains a wasted opportunity in my eyes, but it's still a very enjoyable film for all the family. 6/10

CinemaSerf

This is effectively three short stories bolted together as Raoul Walsh creates quite an exciting and enjoyable seafaring story based around the Napoleonic Wars. Gregory Peck takes the lead role as the eponymous, rather stiff-necked, Royal Navy captain carrying out a mission to provision a rather unreliable ally with arms and munitions. When events in a Europe being terrorised by Napoleon take a series of more treacherous turns, he must now battle his way across the Atlantic and return to help protect his country from the French. Virginia Mayo provides the love interest and Robert Beatty and a feisty James Robertson Justice work well too, to help keep the ship off the rocks as the battle comes down to tactics and becomes personal! It is a good, old-fashioned and enjoyably paced, boy's own yarn based on the C. S Forester character and well worth watching.

English

Captain Horatio Hornblower | Dismantling the French Garrison | Warner Classics

HMS Lydia Battles The Natividad

Theatrical Trailer