I love this movie so much

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

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

This film could have been even greater had they spent more time with the escape of Horatio and his men from enemy France.The first part of the film was often tedious. Some momentum builds with the battle scenes. They really appeared to be quite authentic.Surprisingly, to me, Gregory Peck lacked the stamina for the part of Horatio Hornblower. It is only when the picture progresses that he really takes command of the title role. Virginia Mayo,as his love interest, first appears as if she is a dance hall queen. How surprising it is when Hornblower returns home to find out that he is widowed with a baby boy. There was never any hint whatsoever that he had been married while he cavorted with Mayo on board the ship.Too bad that Errol Flynn was regarded as too old for the part by 1951. While Peck wanted Margaret Leighton for his leading lady, she would have been entirely too regal. Susan Hayward, or Jean Crain should have been brought in. How about Deborah Kerr? After all, she was British.

I don't think the good citizens of the United Kingdom with their proud tradition of sea power could complain too much about the American leads in a film about one of their popular fictional heroes. You can't get too much more heroic than Gregory Peck on screen and he certainly does fit C.S. Forrester's conception of Captain Horatio Hornblower, R.N.In fact even recently with Russell Crowe's Master and Commander kind of reinvigorating this genre of literature, I still kind of like what Gregory Peck did with the role. The age of Napoleon where Great Britain stood for a time very much alone against his domination of Europe was another their finest hours. The film is taken from two of the Hornblower novels and sad to say the film's weakness is that the first part of it is much the superior of the second. Personally I think they should have padded out the first part and dealt with it alone. Recurring characters from the Hornblower novels appear here such as the Duke of Wellington's fictional sister Lady Barbara Wellesley played by Virginia Mayo and members of Hornblowers crew played by Robert Beatty, James Robertson Justice, and Terence Morgan among others. There's also a very touching performance by young James Kenney as the midshipman on board the HMS Lydia.The first part of the film deals with Hornblower sailing the Lydia to the western coast of Central America in secret to reach a potential rebel ally against Spain which has joined with France. Hornblower makes contact with Don Julian Alvarado, the self-styled El Supremo. Hornblower captures a Spanish ship of the line and gives it to his new ally.Then he learns that Spain has switched sides in the Napoleonic War while he's been at sea and now this heavily armed vessel is in the hands of a real psycho. Now he has to undo what he did.If you don't see Captain Horatio Hornblower, R.N. for any other reason, than see it for Alec Mango's over the top performance as the psychotic El Supremo. It's a piece of scenery chewing for the ages and it fits with the character. You take your allies in war where you find them and Spain was not the first or the last country that ever switched sides during a conflict.The second half concerns Peck and the crew in action off the Bay of Biscay and the vessel Lydia runs aground. Peck and the crew are taken prisoner and the rest of the film concerns with their escape. These are in fact two different Hornblower stories and the first is much the superior of the second.Of course another viewer might feel differently and the film is recommended for all of you who like a good sea yarn.

"Make sail, men!" cries Horatio Hornblower, "We're on our way to England!" But before we arrive at this point in the movie we've taken part in a rousing boy's own adventure of the naval wars pitting the Royal Navy against Napoleon. We're with Captain Hornblower (Gregory Peck) on the 38-gun frigate H.M.S. Lydia as he deals with a Central American megalomaniac who calls himself El Supremo, then battles and beats -- twice -- the 60-gun Spanish ship- of-the-line Natividad. When he returns to England and assumes command of the 74-gun H.M.S. Sutherland, we're right there as he takes on four French ships-of-the-line, nearly destroys them and, as his ship sinks, deliberately holes her so she bottles up a vital French port. And then, captured by the French and on his way to Paris to be tried as a pirate, we're with him as he and his two companions escape, make it to a Dutch port, manage to steal a captured sloop, man it with English prisoners-of-war and then sails it across the channel to England. And what had seemed a doomed romance with the brave and beautiful Barbara Wellesley (Virginia Mayo), sister of the Duke of Wellington, comes to a happy conclusion due to various deaths in battle or to small pox. Movies about iron men in wooden ships, who battle scurvy and thirst as well as the French, are for me always stirring occasions. Grape shot, flogging, amputations without anesthesia and oaken splinters flying into one's face would be enough to convince me that even accounting would be a better profession than the navy in those times. Captain Horatio Hornblower, the movie, is an audience-pleasing romantic adventure where the battles are packed with lots of action but little gore, and that's not a bad thing. The two-hour movie slows down only in the middle when Hornblower and Lady Barbara, sailing back from Central America to England, realize their deepening feelings for each other. But he is married, and she is not only above his station in life, but engaged to a suspicious prig of an admiral under whom Hornblower will find himself assigned. Peck manages not to embarrass himself. He wisely avoids trying an English accent. Hornblower is a smart, decent man, harrumphing now and then when he's caught off guard or at a loss for words, respected by his crew, a skilled navigator, a gifted battle tactician, a captain who inspires love and loyalty. Peck's own great gift as an actor of projecting decency serves him well. Mayo may not have a lot to do, but she's gorgeous to look. The one amusing aspect of the movie is the propensity for the officers to wear dress uniforms during their everyday duties. We're treated to them sailing on the hot Central American waters in their best wool uniforms, complete with white weskits, cocked hats and shiny swords dangling from their waists. One assumes the Hollywood producers had no confidence that the audience could distinguish officers from the men without the equivalent of signs around the officers' necks. Lady Barbara also has a habit on board of wearing gowns that risk sunburn and peeling on some sensitive parts of her upper anatomy. The movie features fine performances from familiar faces and names, including Robert Beatty, James Robertson Justice, Terence Morgan and Denis O'Day. In smaller roles are faces that later became much better known, those of Stanley Baker and Christopher Lee. Alec Mango gives us an over-ripe and enjoyable turn as the strutting, sweating El Supremo. The movie is drawn primarily from C. S. Forester's Beat to Quarters, with the later half of the movie pulled from episodes from Ship of the Line and Flying Colors. These are the first three Hornblower novels Forester wrote. The Hornblower series still holds up as exciting adventures in the age of sail and the life-and-death struggle pitting Britain against Napoleon.

Raoul Walsh has many great films to his credit and once you see his name as director, you know the man has imbued his work with all the panache of a great artist. To his credit and well placed among his best work is the sea epic " Captain Horatio Hornblower." This story comes from the fertile and imaginative mind of novelist C. S. Forester who's famed hero has spawned a dozen books, films and T.V. specials. In this particular movie, we have legendary actor Gregory Peck playing the gallant and dashing swashbuckler aboard His Majestys' ship Lydia, Her secret mission is placed in the mists of the Napoleonic wars, charged to deliver guns and ammunition to a pint-size delusional dictator Don Julian Alvarado (Alec Mango) who greets him as a ally but later becomes a belligerent adversary. To help him in his quest is, Lt. William Bush (Robert Beatty) an admirable and courageous second in command. Lt. Crystal (Moultrie Kelsall) an excellent navigator. 2nd Lt. Gerard, Gunnery Officer (Terence Morgan) and Mr. Longley, (James Kenny) Midshipman and junior ensign. Together, with James Justice as 'Seaman Quist' they spend five years on the high seas, braving hunger, thirst and war time experiences, including saving beautiful Lady Barbara Wellesley (Virginia Mayo). A fine story fit for re-telling to any generation ****