Product Details

• Actors: James Mason, Ava Gardner, Nigel Patrick, Sheila Sim, Harold Warrender
• Directors: Albert Lewin
• Writers: Albert Lewin
• Producers: Albert Lewin, Joe Kaufmann, John Woolf
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Kino Video
• DVD Release Date: May 23, 2000
• Run Time: 122 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305848750
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,093 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Pandora and The Flying Dutchman" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

There are few films that can be acclaimed as truly mad, but Pandora and the Flying Dutchman stands rather wonderfully in this category. Its combination of lust and erudition is inspired by mythology but seems peopled by characters from some hybrid novel co-authored by Somerset Maugham and Ernest Hemingway. Pandora Reynolds (Ava Gardner) is a singer in a coastal town in Spain, where her hobby is attracting the devoted love of powerful men made helpless in her presence. (A race-car driver blithely pushes his one-of-a-kind vehicle over a cliff, just to earn her trust.) While fending off other suitors, including a bullfighter, she becomes intrigued by the mystery man (James Mason) whose yacht is moored offshore. Since he is Dutch, perhaps he is related to the mythical, immortal Flying Dutchman? Don't think it can't happen in this overheated affair. Gardner and Mason are not at their best (she looks ultra-glamorous, of course), but their movie-star wattage is high. The real star is the Technicolor cinematography by the great Jack Cardiff (The Red Shoes); the throbbing colors are just right for the unreal scenario playing out before us. Writer-director Albert Lewin, probably best known for his Picture of Dorian Gray, had a literary bent, and in this movie that means people are constantly planting their feet and reciting snippets of poetry toward the moonlit sea. Somehow this fits in perfectly with the rest of the delirium. --Robert Horton

Product Description

PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless Beauty, Mystery and Romance, January 31, 2006

By 

J. Kara Russell "Actress/Artist/Musician/Writer" (Hollywood - the cinderblock Industrial cubicle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pandora and The Flying Dutchman (DVD)

This is one of a handful of films from this period of saturated color and the gorgeous cinematography of Jack Cardiff. Many of these films incorporate within their story and script elements of literature, art, mystery and timeless love that transcends death. This one delivers all.
Ava Gardner's character is beautiful and untouchable in this film, her heart is as cold as the statues she caresses, her attention as bloodthirsty as the bullfights of her ex-lover... one of many we discover. Her requirements of a lover are that she be given all, and of course, no one can deliver. The story begins in one of these trite vacation atmospheres - playground of the very rich dilletantes. We are told she was a singer - not a very good one by her own admission. We are treated to Gardner's real singing voice, which is not cultured, but unique and husky (too bad they didn't let her sing all her own stuff in SHOWBOAT - it's the right voice for that character). She seems to get by on her beauty, which is immense, and her capriciousness. She is not particularly likable, but she doesn't pretend to be better than she is, and that is interesting. Then a mysterious boat appears, with a sad handsome man who is working on a painting of Pandora... which bears a resemblance to her.
At this point the movie moves from the mundane into the magical, with tormented love at its most operetic. This movie was an artistic enterprise, with high emotions, high risk. If F.Scott Fitzgerald's characters interbred with Greek mythology, this is the child they would create. It has some faint awkward moments of voiceover and explanation, but it is magical in it's look, and moreover, it is, like many other Jack Cardiff films, simply one-of-a-kind. The perfect rainy day movie. Very watchable.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVED THIS FILM! Still do 50 years later. Even better, November 11, 2000

By 

"westwindwalker" (El Segundo, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pandora and The Flying Dutchman (DVD)

than the first time I saw it. The new remastered DVD is awesomely clear, color crisp and Ava G as always beautiful.

And Leonard Maltin, you said: "Sorry to say, a big Technicolor bore, one of writer-director Lewin's misfires, about a woman who destroys the lives of all the men around her; then mystical, otherworldly Mason materializes." ... aside from that did you like it? LOL.

Not boring, yes about a selfish lady who finds a reason to not be selfish. geeeeee what a concept.

Seriously, if you like mystical possibilities, beautiful women, and scenery... buy this, you'll like it.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful escape from reality, April 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Pandora & The Flying Dutchman [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie is a very deep and philosophical story of the Flying Dutchman. A man doomed to roam the seven seas for eternity unless he meets someone who loves him enough to die for him. There are wonderful quotations from 'Dover Beach' and 'Omar Khayyam' which say so much. If you want an escape from reality and enjoy well made movies with deep characters then this is THE movie. One of James Mason's great performances, in my opinion, and a great performance by Ava Gardner. Nothing wooden about it!!