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By
NICK ZEGARAC
Director Henry King's
Captain from Castile (1947) is a lumbering,
sumptuously photographed, but woefully mismanaged
would-be epic with a subtext that makes valiant --
if misguided -- attempts at presenting Spanish
conqueror, Hernando Cortez (Cesar Romero) as a
benevolent and heroic figure. Originally budgeted
and planned for a lavish 'road show', complete
with intermission and fanfare, production chief,
Darryl F. Zanuck eventually scrapped the idea and
curtailed his spending when road shows fell out of
public favor. The result is a lengthy and
laborious 141 minute excursion, based on Samuel
Shellabarger's novel, first serialized in
Cosmopolitan Magazine.
The film stars resident Fox heartthrob, Tyrone
Power as Pedro De Vargas, a courtier accused of
heresy by Diego De Silva (John Sutton) after Pedro
helps one of De Silva's tortured slaves escape to
the 'new world'. Murdering Pedro's younger sister
and imprisoning his father and mother under laws
of the Spanish inquisition, De Silva is challenged
to a duel by Pedro, at the end of which Pedro
misperceives that he has mortally wounded his arch
enemy. Forced to flee Spain, and with the aid of
the lusty Juan Garcia (Lee J. Cobb) and peasant
girl, Catana Perez (Jean Peters), Pedro journeys
to Mexico where he becomes embroiled in Cortez's
plans to conquer Montezuma's Mexican Empire and
bring back the wealth and riches of its untapped
lands.
The film, a magnificent spectacle for Technicolor,
is nevertheless full of loose ends that are never
entirely resolved. For example; after rescuing his
mother and father from prison, Pedro and Catana
and DeLora (John Burton); a man who has bartered
to help save the De Vargas family in trade for
being allowed to take Catana as his slave girl are
pursued on horseback by a regiment of Spanish
soldiers dispatched from the prison.
DeLora, Pedro and Catana head off in one direction
to misdirect the soldiers while Pedro's mother and
father go off in another direction -- presumably
to the safety of Italy. It is the last time we see
Pedro's mother or father, though Pedro is
constantly referring to them as though he knows
they have made it to Italy. Also, after plummeting
from a cliff on horseback, only Pedro and Catana
survive -- though, we are never quite told what
became of DeLora's corpse.
Furthermore, the entire focus of the narrative
seems to shift from Pedro's personal plight -- to
avenge his family's honor -- to the quest for
jewels under Cortez's expedition. Pedro, who is
love struck with Luisa De Carvajal (Barbara
Lawrence) in the first act, never sees her again
after that, and by the middle of the story has
instead made a child with Catana who has loved him
ever since he rescued her from the fate of two of
De Silva's henchmen. In the end, director Henry
King becomes engrossed with his cast of thousands,
providing endless footage of warriors and
tribesmen trekking across the Mexican countryside
-- even capturing the natural phenomenon of a
volcanic eruption, which has absolutely nothing to
do with the story.
Fox Home Video has provided a rather
inconsistently rendered DVD transfer. Colors on
the whole are richly saturated, perhaps at times
overpowering. There are, however, brief inserts
which appear quite faded. Flesh tones are garishly
orange throughout. Night scenes suffer from a
considerable loss of fine detail. Digital
anomalies are not an issue, but age-related
artifacts are present throughout. The audio has
been rechanneled to 2-channel stereo. The original
mono is also provided. Extras include a thorough
and informative audio commentary by Rudy Behlmer,
Jon Burlingame and Nick Redman; an isolated score,
magnificently presented in full stereophonic
splendor and with cue notes from composer Alfred
Newman heard before and after each track; a very
brief set of stills divided into two separate
galleries and the film's original theatrical
trailer. |
