646f9e108c The seafaring adventures of French privateer Kit 'The Hawk' Gerardo during the Franco-Spanish-English war of the 17th century. Kit Gerardo, also known as The Hawk, is one of Frances's most daring privateers, rescues Rouge from a Spanish ship. She is also a pirate, working to restore the fortune the French took from her. When Kit is captured by the governor of Cartagena, Luis del Toro, Rouge demands that he be hanged for piracy. Only one person knows it, but Kit is the governor's son. Although Rhonda Fleming and Maureen O'Hara were both Titian-tressed beauties whom technicolor was seemingly invented, O'Hara was known for playing the kind of parts that she would have been playing in The Golden Hawk, that of a lady pirate. I wonder if Sam Katzman sent this script to the wrong redhead or he couldn't get O'Hara and settled for Rhonda Fleming.<br/><br/>As history I really couldn't quite figure out just when The Golden Hawk is taking place. We've got Spanish pirate John Sutton, French pirate Sterling Hayden, and English lady pirate Fleming. Add to that Helena Carter who is the promised bride of Sutton who Hayden holds for a ransom at one point. So we've got the nationalities straight, but I couldn't figure out the time and place historically for how these alliances seem to shift and change.<br/><br/>As for the casting these are all competent players, but Sterling Hayden is as French as Anna May Wong. As for Sutton, fine actor that he is why didn't Sam Katzman go get Gilbert Roland who would have been believable. Maybe he did and Roland turned him down.<br/><br/>The hidden plot gimmick is that there's something going on between Sutton and Hayden which I can't reveal. There are some nice battle sequences, but that's the best thing The Golden Hawk has to recommend it.<br/><br/>Maureen and Gilbert dodged a bullet with this one. This Sam Katzman production is actually pretty good, considering the talent in front of the camera and the botched story. Sterling Hayden shows some life as a French privateer and, considering the by-the-numbers acting – which seems to concentrate more on the clarity of the words than the subtlety of the emotions – even Rhonda Fleming as another pirate captain with whom he is in love, is pretty good.<br/><br/>The best part of the movie, however, is provided by William Skall's cinematography. A Technicolor specialist, he keeps the camera moving in a lively fashion throughout and seems to have settled on 17th Century Dutch painting, with frequent Rembrandt-like dark backgrounds and muted tones for a lot of shots. This was something you could do with Technicolor, playing around with the chroma of the prints, that was lost when Technicolor fell out of fashion, that has only recently been restored to modern movies by computer techniques.<br/><br/>There isn't much that will surprise anyone familiar with pirate movies, but the overall effect is worthwhile.
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