The Sea Hawk

1924 AdventureDrama 123 minutes Directed by Frank Lloyd

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About The Sea Hawk

Lionel Tressilian has his half-brother, Sir Oliver, shanghaied and blamed for killing Peter Godolphin, the brother of Oliver's fiancée Rosamund. Lionel did the killing. Spaniards take Oliver at sea and put him on a galley. He escapes to the Moors and becomes Sakr-el-Bahr. When he hears Rosamund is to marry Lionel, he kidnaps them both. Rather than hand her to Asad-ed-Din, the Basha of Algiers, he gives himself up to a British ship. Rosamund saves him. Lionel dies, and they marry.

Cast & crew

More about The Sea Hawk

Frank Lloyd directed and produced it. J. G. Hawks wrote the screenplay from Rafael Sabatini's 1915 novel. Walter Anthony wrote the titles. Norbert Brodine photographed it. Modest Altschuler wrote music for it. First National released it. It premiered in New York on 2 June 1924 and opened on 14 June. It runs 123 minutes. The sea scenes were shot off Catalina Island. The cost was $800,000.

Themes

  • A brother who arranges the shanghai
  • A galley and a new name
  • A surrender so she is not given to the Basha
  • Oliver Tressilian
  • Rosamund
  • Sakr-el-Bahr
  • Lionel
  • Algiers
  • Catalina

Making

Lloyd spent $800,000 and took the ships off Catalina. The Cornwall baronet becomes a galley slave, then a Moorish captain, then a prisoner of a British ship.

Look

Norbert Brodine photographed the Catalina sea scenes and the galley.

Music

Modest Altschuler wrote a score for the silent film.

Preservation

A print survives. UCLA included it in the 1994 Festival of Preservation.

Notes

  • Milton Sills plays Sir Oliver Tressilian. Enid Bennett plays Lady Rosamund Godolphin. Lloyd Hughes plays Lionel. Wallace MacDonald plays Peter Godolphin.
  • Wallace Beery plays Captain Jasper Leigh. Marc McDermott plays Sir John Killigrew. Frank Currier plays Asad-ed-Din. Claire Du Brey is billed.
  • Sakr-el-Bahr is the name Oliver takes among the Moors.
  • UCLA showed a print in its 1994 Festival of Preservation.

Scenes

  • Oliver is shanghaied and blamed for Peter Godolphin's death.
  • He escapes the Spanish galley and takes the name Sakr-el-Bahr.
  • He kidnaps Rosamund and Lionel, then surrenders to a British ship.

Influenced by

  • Rafael Sabatini's novel The Sea Hawk

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (The Sea Hawk (1924).webm)

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