Main Cast: Paul Henreid, Maureen O'Hara, Walter Slezak, Binnie Barnes, John Emery
Release Year: 1945
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
RKO Radio's first film in the three-color Technicolor process was the standard-issue swashbuckler The Spanish Main. Paul Henried is his usual stoic self as Laurent Van Horn, a Dutch sea captain shipwrecked on the coast of Cartagena, a Spanish-held island. Sentenced to be hanged, Van Horn and his crew escape from jail and take up piracy as revenge against Spain. Soon afterward, they capture a ship carrying Francisca (Maureen O'Hara), the fiance of Cartagena's corrupt governor Don Alvarado (Walter Slezak). Van Horn vengefully forces Francisca to marry him instead, which causes dissension at the Pirate colony of Tortuga. Naturally, Van Horn and Francisca eventually fall in love with each other, but the bad guys must be vanquished before a happy ending can be realized. Binnie Barnes steals the show as feisty female buccaneer Anne Bonney (who in real life looked less like Barnes and more like Walter Slezak!) The script is a cynical melange of pirate-movie cliches and the performances are generally routine, but The Spanish Main pleased the crowd in 1945, posting a profit of nearly $1.5 million and encouraging future Technicolor adventure films from RKO. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Dutch sea captain Laurent van Horn (Henreid) is shipwrecked off the coast of the Spanish settlement of Cartagena. After being held and sentenced to death, Van Horn and his crew manage to escape. They capture Francisca Alvarado (O'Hara) who has been arranged to marry the corrupt governor (Slezak). Over time Francisca and Van Horn become attracted to each other and must set out to defeat villainous local politicians and treacherous pirates. The film also includes the character Anne Bonny (Barnes), in a fictionalized account of a real-life cross-dressing female pirate (see List of female pirates).
The Pride and the Man •Dollars of Dross •Land o' Lizards •Immediate Lee •Flying Colors •Until They Get Me •The Gun Woman •The Curse of Iku •The Shoes That Danced •Innocent's Progress •Society for Sale •An Honest Man •Who Is to Blame? •The Ghost Flower •The Atom •Toton the Apache •Whom the Gods Would Destroy •Prudence on Broadway
1920s
Humoresque •The Duke of Chimney Butte •Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford •Back Pay •Billy Jim •The Good Provider •The Valley of Silent Men •The Pride of Palomar •The Nth Commandment •Children of the Dust •The Age of Desire •Secrets •The Lady •Daddy's Gone A-Hunting •The Circle •Lazybones •Wages for Wives •The First Year •The Dixie Merchant •Early to Wed •Marriage License? •Seventh Heaven •Street Angel •Lucky Star •They Had to See Paris •The River
Strange Cargo •The Mortal Storm •Flight Command •Smilin' Through •The Vanishing Virginian •Seven Sweethearts •Stage Door Canteen •His Butler's Sister •Till We Meet Again •The Spanish Main •Magnificent Doll •I've Always Loved You •That's My Man •Moonrise
