Captain from Castile (1947)

Really Surprised!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is a rather long film that is a bit boring. Tyrone Power (De Vargas) has a rivalry with the Spanish Inquisition in the form of John Sutton (De Silva). Both want to see each other dead. The film begins in Spain, moves to Cuba and then ends up in South America as the Cortez Expedition begins its annihilation of the Aztec culture. This, of course, is glazed over as it is Hollywood. Instead, the film curiously ends with the blood-thirsty Spanish pirates marching on to carry out their criminal pillaging of Mexican culture whilst we get an American message of how the good and great are just around the corner. What an offensive load of nonsense! A few reviews have described this as some sort of swashbuckling epic. No, it's not. There is one sword fight at the beginning of the film and that's it. It does contain the funniest moment of the film, however, when Tyrone flicks Sutton's hat off with the tip of his sword. Cool move.The cast are all fine and if Caesar Romero had been given a larger part as the invading leader Cortez, he would have walked away with the film as his star power seems to project itself more than main man Tyrone Power. I'm not sure why they went to the trouble of filming this in colour – it just doesn't seem worth it. The most memorable thing about the film is the smoke bellowing out of a volcano in the background. And there you have it – the background is the best thing about the film. A pretty bogus state of affairs.

I first saw this film as a child, around 1950, and was bitterly disappointed when it ended just at the point where it was getting interesting. Like most reviewers, I found that too much time was wasted on the melodrama and introduction of the characters, at the expense of the action. To end the film without the siege of Tenochtitlan and the battle along the causeway cheated the viewers who had sat through two hours of the build up. The whole reason for going to the New World was to escape Spain, and make their fortune, and in the case of Hernan Cortez, conquer the New World and get very, very powerful. As the film was made just after WWII and one would have expected a victorious war film set in 1518, but for whatever reason, they just cut the story short and created an anticlimax.The Technicolor was excellent and the locations added authenticity, but I was puzzled by all the native people with beards and mustaches. I had always thought that they lacked facial hair and the 26 years since the New World was first sighted was hardly enough to have resulted in a Mestizo population, especially as the first settlements were in the islands. We were told that the Mexicans worked closely with the filmmakers to ensure authenticity, so maybe they did have beards! I was almost prepared to see sombreros! The film at least addressed the conflicting motives for conquest, God and Gold! We also have to remember that Mexico was a long way from Spain, and Cortez was out for what spoils he could grab, the acceptable way to make one's fortune since time began. The fact that other peoples' possessions are not fair game to grab is a problem that we are only just beginning to recognize, and even today, pity the people who find themselves living on property standing atop an oil field or in the way of progress of one form or another.I would like to see Samuel Shellebarger's book remade in the form of a Mexican Telenovela where they have no problem with taking 100 hours to tell the story. Perhaps then we would also hear the events from the native perspective about how hard they fought, rather than the impression we are given that they surrounded at the first sight of the Conquistadores.

I don't have all that much to add to what you've read here in the comments already, but for what it's worth here are a few more impressions: *Tyrone Power was quite good. Fine fine actor and believable in the swashbuckler role.*Lee J. Cobb as a good guy(!) in tights(!!)--one of the best parts in the movie. Very good-if unexpected.*Jean Peter-very young and pretty eye candy.*Cesar Romero as Cortez, not shown as being anything but what he was-a pirate, a soldier and a greedy one at that. The Joker in one of his best roles.*I loved the score, scenery and Tonto as the escaped slave Coatl, too. All good.*Snidely Whiplash Da Silva and the Padre are quite well acted, too. Mowbray as the astrology-based hump-back was unique, shall we say.Only reall problem I had is that they take Forever to get to the actual point of the mission-the attack on Montezuma himself. The movie drags in the second half and spends too much time on the intrigue.But overall, it's well worth seeing, check it out.*** outta ****

The great adventure concerning the Conquest of Mexico, was written by Bernal Diaz De Castillo, Shield bearer for the young Hernan Cortes who was 19 when he landed on its shores in 1519. Using his wits, clever guile, guts, grit and deeply ingrained bravado plus some courageous and loyal officers in addition to five hundred men from the ships he later burned, Cortes set out to meet, befriend, betray and then later destroy the mighty Montezuma (Moctezuma) and his empire by 1521. This movie is one of the best visual adaptation of said Conquest by the Spanish Conquistadores. Despite it's flaws and inaccuracies, it is often used in many a school classroom. The conquest is put in the background with the surface story of a young aristocratic Castillian officer, one Pedro De Vargas (Tyrone Power) who in trying to defend his family against the evils of the Inqusition endangers his ambitions with an attempt on the life of Diego De Silva (John Sutton). Cesar Romero plays Hernando Cortez with a lively and jovial approach which is infectious to say the least. Lee J. Cobb, Antonio Moreno, Thomas Gomez, Alan Mowbray are the supporting cast as is Jay Silverheels. From a stand point of the times, the cast is good. However in hindsight they fall short of convincing a modern audience that any of them are Hispanic or of Spanish heritage. Yet, with the generous, beautiful scenic landscapes and ample scenery of the ocean, ships and majestic scenes, this is a wonderful attempt at capturing the era of the new world. It's tragic outcome is a couple years away, but in the meantime, enjoy the story as Hollywood presented it in 1947. ****