The Spanish Main is a 1945 swashbuckling adventure film directed by Frank Borzage. The film stars Maureen O’Hara, Paul Henreid, and Walter Slezak.
Director: Frank Borzage
Production Company: RKO Radio Pictures
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Cast: Maureen O’Hara, Paul Henreid, Walter Slezak, Binnie Barnes, John Emery, Barton MacLane, J.M. Kerrigan
US Box Office: $7,962,500 ($217,700,000 adjusted for inflation)
Film Format: Technicolor
Genre: Adventure
Release Date: October 10, 1945 (San Francisco premiere)
Plot Summary: Dutch Captain Laurent Van Horn’s (Paul Henreid) ship is wrecked off the coast of the Spanish port of Cartagena. On the orders of the cruel governor Don Juan Alvarado (Walter Slezak), Van Horn is imprisoned and his passengers are enslaved. Van Horn escapes and becomes the pirate captain “the Barracuda” to seek revenge against Don Alvarado. Van Horn raids a Spanish ship containing Countess Francisca (Maureen O’Hara), Alvarado’s bride-to-be, and he quickly marries her to spite the Don. Although Van Horn is ambivalent at first and Francesca initially hates him, the two soon fall in love.
Production: The idea for The Spanish Main came from actor Paul Henreid. Henreid, who was under contract with Warner Bros., was bored of always playing romantic womanizer characters and was especially tired of having to star in World War II films. Henreid had recently starred in the World War II dramas: Night Train to Munich (1940), Joan of Paris (1942), and Casablanca (1942) [additionally In Our Time (1944), Between Two Worlds (1944), and The Conspirators (1944) were also produced before The Spanish Main was released]. The actor wanted to play against type by starring in a pirate adventure film so he wrote a short treatment for The Spanish Main and presented it to studio head Jack L. Warner in 1943. Warner rejected Henreid’s proposal, believing that the actor wouldn’t be believable as a swashbuckling hero.
Henreid also had a contract with RKO Radio Pictures that allowed him to make one film a year for the studio, so he presented his treatment to RKO head of production Charles Koerner. Koerner loved the treatment and agreed to make the film. RKO chose Aeneas MacKenzie to rewrite the film’s story and George Worthing Yates to write a screenplay based on MacKenzie’s story. Stephen Ames was the associate producer for The Spanish Main and Robert Fellows was the film’s executive producer.
Henreid was furious about the changes to his treatment and threatened to quit the film if the screenplay wasn’t rewritten to be closer to his story. Producers Ames and Fellows re-assigned scriptwriting duties to RKO contract screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who rewrote Yates’ script to be closer to Henreid’s treatment. Henreid was pleased with Mankiewicz work on The Spanish Main. Veteran director Frank Borzage was hired to direct The Spanish Main. Borzage was notably the first person to win the Academy Award for Best Director, which he received at the 1st Academy Awards ceremony for 7th Heaven (1927). He recently directed the drama Till We Meet Again (1944), the comedy His Butler’s Sister (1943), and the musical Smilin’ Through (1941).
In October 1943, RKO announced in a press release that Paul Henreid, Maureen O’Hara, and Walter Slezak would be cast in the main roles of The Spanish Main. The studio considered replacing O’Hara with Laraine Day in January 1944 when the latter signed a contract with RKO, though O’Hara had been reassigned to The Spanish Main by July. Irish actress Maureen O’Hara played the role of Countess Francisca, the leading lady who is initially betrothed to Don Alvarez but later falls in love with Captain Van Horn. O’Hara had a contract with RKO Radio Pictures at the time and she was sometimes referred to as “the Queen of Technicolor” because her green eyes and natural red hair always looked stunning when shot in Technicolor. She recently starred in The Black Swan (1942), another Technicolor pirate adventure film, and the Technicolor western Buffalo Bill (1944). Ann Dvorak and Binnie Barnes both auditioned for the role of Anne Bonny, loosely based on the real-life female pirate and a supporting character in The Spanish Main. Barnes ended up being cast.
Frank Borzage began filming The Spanish Main in November 1944. The initial planned budget was $1.75 million but that eventually increased to $2.25 million. The film was mostly shot on set at RKO Studios in Hollywood. The initial finale for The Spanish Main would have involved a slave revolt at Cartagena and the burning of the pirate port Tortuga, but executive Koerner thought that was too expensive and only agreed to film it if Henreid paid the required additional $200,000 cost himself. Henreid’s agent advised him against it, so the ending was changed. Mankiewicz was so upset that his ending was changed that he completely refused to rewrite the script and another writer had to be brought in.
Fun Facts and Trivia: If a leading man was to be shown shirtless in a 1940s Hollywood film, the studio typically required that the actor be waxed to remove hair. Paul Henreid refused to be waxed for The Spanish Main, and thus Henreid’s Captain Van Horn is one of the few swashbuckling film heroes of the era to be shown with a hairy chest.
The Spanish Main was the third of four films to co-star Maureen O’Hara and Walter Slezak. The two previously appeared together in This Land Is Mine (1943) and The Fallen Sparrow (1943). They later starred together in Sinbad the Sailor (1947). Sinbad the Sailor was a similar seafaring adventure in which O’Hara was the leading lady and Slezak played one of the villains. O’Hara and Binnie Barnes later starred together in the British adventure film Malaga (1954) which was retitled Fire Over Africa in the United States.
Reception: The Spanish Main had its San Francisco premiere on October 10, 1945 and its New York premiere on November 6. The film was a success at the box office and it earned a profit for RKO. The Spanish Main was one of the top thirty highest grossing films of the year. In general 1945 was a very good year for the box office and many films became hits due to the post-World War II economic boom in the United States combined with the return home of millions of American veterans (and potential theater goers). RKO later re-released The Spanish Main together with the western Badman’s Territory (1946) starring Randolph Scott and Ann Richards.
Variety gave The Spanish Main a positive review when it was first released. The magazine praised the film for its Technicolor cinematography, exciting action, and Frank Borzage’s direction. The also applauded the actors, particularly Paul Henreid’s performance. In modern times, Matt Brunson of Film Frenzy also gave The Spanish Main a positive review. Brunson noted that while Henreid was somewhat miscast as pirate Captain Van Horn, he still gave a good enough performance and called the film a “rousing swashbuckler.” Dennis Schwartz thought that The Spanish Main was very conventional, but praised Frank Borzage’s direction.
Oscars: The Spanish Main was nominated for one Oscar at the 18th Academy Awards ceremony: Best Color Cinematography (George Barnes). Barnes lost the Oscar to Leon Shamroy who won for his work on Leave Her to Heaven.
Why You Should See It: The Spanish Main is a mostly enjoyable swashbuckling adventure film. George Barnes’ Technicolor cinematography is stunning. The ship scenes (including the miniature work) look fantastic. The duels and fight scenes are exciting and well-choreographed. Maureen O’Hara is quite beautiful in The Spanish Main. Paul Henreid is alright, but not great in his role. In my opinion, he is too brooding and does not have the same level of charm and likeability as Errol Flynn.