There are few films that can be acclaimed as truly mad, but Pandora and the Flying Dutchman stands rather wonderfully in this category. Its combination of lust and erudition is inspired by mythology but seems peopled by characters from some hybrid novel co-authored by Somerset Maugham and Ernest Hemingway. Pandora Reynolds (Ava Gardner) is a singer in a coastal town in Spain, where her hobby is attracting the devoted love of powerful men made helpless in her presence. (A race-car driver blithely pushes his one-of-a-kind vehicle over a cliff, just to earn her trust.) While fending off other suitors, including a bullfighter, she becomes intrigued by the mystery man (James Mason) whose yacht is moored offshore. Since he is Dutch, perhaps he is related to the mythical, immortal Flying Dutchman? Don't think it can't happen in this overheated affair. Gardner and Mason are not at their best (she looks ultra-glamorous, of course), but their movie-star wattage is high. The real star is the Technicolor cinematography by the great Jack Cardiff (The Red Shoes); the throbbing colors are just right for the unreal scenario playing out before us. Writer-director Albert Lewin, probably best known for his Picture of Dorian Gray, had a literary bent, and in this movie that means people are constantly planting their feet and reciting snippets of poetry toward the moonlit sea. Somehow this fits in perfectly with the rest of the delirium.

Restored under the auspices of Martin Scorsese, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman stars Ava Gardner as the siren of a small Spanish town, the type of woman men kill and die for. She s never fallen for anyone until the arrival of the mysterious James Mason, the actual Flying Dutchman condemned to sail the seas until he finds a woman who would die for him. Featuring stunning color cinematography by Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes).

Product Details

Actors: James Mason, Ava Gardner, Nigel Patrick, Sheila Sim, Mario Cabré
Directors: Albert Lewin
Format: Color, NTSC, Original recording remastered
Language: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 1
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: KINO INTERNATIONAL
DVD Release Date: August 3, 2010
Run Time: 123 minutes

To celebrate the release of the fully restored Pandora and The Flying Dutchman on DVD available from 9th August 2010, we are taking a look back to the most classic of love stories that have graced our screens.