Pandora and The Flying Dutchman (1951)

The moving finger writes: and, having writ, moves on...

‘a wire-haired fox-terrier- that most 1930s of dogs…’

If you’ve never seen Pandora and The Flying Dutchman (1951), you’re in for a treat: billed as a ‘romantic fantasy’, it’s a rich, Surrealist porridge. A film packed with so many themes, ideas, references and sub-plots- it’s bonkers. Harold Warrender stars as Geoffrey Fielding: a bearded, bow-tied archaeologist turned treasure hunter and coin collector, a splendid antiquarian with Man Ray chess set and magnificent house overlooking the bay at Esperanza, a quaint Spanish fishing village (aka Tossa del Mar on the Costa Brava, now the haunt of kiss-me-quick Brits and shiny hotels and apartment blocks, but in 1951, a tourist free zone). And he’s the avuncular leader of a circle of well-heeled expats obsessed with femme fatale, Pandora Reynolds (Ava Gardner), a voluptuous, dreamy American nightclub singer, the bored owner of a wire-haired Fox Terrier- that most 1930s of dogs: a woman so bloody hot that men are prepared to kill for her, die for her- or drive their cars off the side of a cliff. A ‘secret goddess who all men in their hearts desire’.

Ava Gardner by Man Ray: ‘a secret goddess who all men in their hearts desire…’

‘A mysterious Dutchman with a penchant for painting…’