"Pandora and the Flying Dutchman", director Albert Lewin's 1951 Brit Technicolor drama based on the legend of the 'Flying Dutchman', starring Ava Gardner, James Mason, Nigel Patrick, Sheila Sim, Harold Warrender, Mario Cabré and Marius Goring, will be released theatrically as a 4K restored release February 7, 2020:
"...in 1930, fishermen in the small Spanish port of 'Esperanza' make a grim discovery in their nets, the bodies of a man and a woman. The resultant ringing of church bells in the village brings the local police and the resident archaeologist, 'Geoffrey Fielding' (Harold Warrender), to the beach. Fielding returns to his villa, and, breaking the 'fourth wall', retells the story of these two people to the audience.
"Esperanza's small group of English expatriates revolves around 'Pandora Reynolds' (Ava Gardner), an American nightclub singer and femme fatale. All the men love her (or believe that they do), but Pandora is unable to love anyone. She tests her admirers by demanding they give up something they value, as 'the measure of love is how much you are willing to sacrifice for it'.
"One of her admirers (Marius Goring) even commits suicide in front of Pandora and her friends by drinking wine that he has laced with poison, but Pandora apparently shows indifference.
"Pandora agrees to marry a land-speed record holder, 'Stephen Cameron' (Nigel Patrick), after he sends his racing car tumbling into the sea at her request.
"That same night, the Dutch sea Captain 'Hendrick van der Zee' (James Mason) arrives in Esperanza. Pandora swims out to his yacht and finds him painting a picture of her posed as her namesake, Pandora, whose actions brought an end to the earthly paradise in Greek mythology.
"Hendrick appears to fall in love with Pandora, and he moves into the same hotel complex as the other expatriates. Geoffrey and Hendrick become friends, collaborating to seek background information on Geoffrey's local finds.
"One of these relics is a notebook written in Old Dutch, which confirms Geoffrey's suspicion that Hendrick van der Zee is the 'Flying Dutchman', a ship captain who murdered his wife, believing her to be unfaithful. He blasphemed against God at his murder trial, where he was sentenced to death.
"The evening before his execution, a mysterious force opened the Dutchman's prison doors and allowed him to escape to his waiting ship, where in a dream it was revealed to him that his wife was innocent and he was doomed to sail the seas for eternity unless he could find a woman who loved him enough to die for him. Every seven years, the Dutchman could go ashore for six months to search for that woman..."
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