Errol Flynn stars in the epic adventure film “The Sea Hawk” Friday, Jan. 28, at 7 p.m. in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium at Brigham Young University. The BYU Motion Picture Archive Film Series will also begin the new year with the addition of the 12-chapter serial “Spy Smasher,” with episodes shown at each of the five film presentations between January and May.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, and early arrival is encouraged. Children ages 8 and older are welcome. BYU dress standards apply.
“The Sea Hawk,” released in 1940 by Warner Bros., was one of the biggest hits of the year and is a thinly veiled story of Sir Francis Drake when he became centrally involved in the conflict between England’s Queen Elizabeth and King Phillip II of Spain. The swashbuckling epic will, in the words of one contemporary reviewer, “hold you spellbound for two hours and sweep your fancy back to the stirring days of ‘Good Queen Bess.’”
Multi-chaptered serials were the staple of movie-going during Hollywood’s Golden Age. “Spy Smasher” (1942), complete with cliffhanger endings for each of its 12 chapters, involves the Mask and his Nazi agents infiltrating the United States during World War II only to be outsmarted by Spy Smasher, played by Kane Richmond. Episodes one, “America Beware,” and two, “Human Target,” will be shown before the screening of “The Sea Hawk.”
The BYU Motion Picture Archive Film Series, now in its 12th season, shows classic American films from the large permanent collection preserved in BYU’s L. Tom Perry Special Collections film vault. It is sponsored by the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, the Friends of the Harold B. Lee Library and Dennis and Linda Gibson. A complete schedule of this season’s films is online at sc.lib.byu.edu.
For more information, contact James D’Arc at (801) 422-6371.
Writer: Mel Gardner
