StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

edwagreen This film could have been even greater had they spent more time with the escape of Horatio and his men from enemy France.The first part of the film was often tedious. Some momentum builds with the battle scenes. They really appeared to be quite authentic.Surprisingly, to me, Gregory Peck lacked the stamina for the part of Horatio Hornblower. It is only when the picture progresses that he really takes command of the title role. Virginia Mayo,as his love interest, first appears as if she is a dance hall queen. How surprising it is when Hornblower returns home to find out that he is widowed with a baby boy. There was never any hint whatsoever that he had been married while he cavorted with Mayo on board the ship.Too bad that Errol Flynn was regarded as too old for the part by 1951. While Peck wanted Margaret Leighton for his leading lady, she would have been entirely too regal. Susan Hayward, or Jean Crain should have been brought in. How about Deborah Kerr? After all, she was British.

MARIO GAUCI Though it’s been a staple on Italian TV ever since childhood, for some reason I never got around to watching this seafaring epic – given its popular source material (C.S. Forester penned a series of novels about this fictional British naval hero), not to mention the imposing director and star (Gregory Peck) credentials. Anyway, going through a mini-swashbuckling marathon, it seemed the ideal opportunity to check it out; having said that, this is another film to which the epithet shouldn’t perhaps be attached – due to the fact that cannons are the sole weapons that are adopted during the various sea battles (after all, it’s closer to “Mutiny On The Bounty” than, say, the Errol Flynn vehicles made by the same studio, Warner Bros.)! Unsurprisingly, however, the end result still proved to be extremely typical of its kind and era: a colorful spectacle full of adventure, drama and romance, to say nothing of a stalwart cast. In fact, many a future British star is featured in this Anglo-American production, among them James Robertson Justice (a role he would virtually recreate that same year in another pirate romp, ANNE OF THE INDIES, which I’ve also just watched for the first time), Stanley Baker and Christopher Lee! The film basically resolves itself into a series of vignettes, designed to showcase the many facets of Hornblower’s personality: able navigator, disciplined commander and clever strategist. However, it takes care as well (albeit less successfully) to promote his human side – not merely through the all-too-predictable romantic complications involving the Virginia Mayo character, but the Captain’s rather silly idiosyncrasy of clearing his throat whenever he finds himself at a disadvantage!CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER, therefore, is an incident-packed and generally entertaining ride – albeit longish at nearly two hours; for the record, Walsh and Peck would collaborate on another adventure film with the same milieu – THE WORLD IN HIS ARMS (1952) – while the star had one of his most atypical and challenging roles in the best cinematic adaptation of an equally famed seafaring source, Herman Melville’s MOBY DICK (1956)…

Terrell-4 "Make sail, men!" cries Horatio Hornblower, "We're on our way to England!" But before we arrive at this point in the movie we've taken part in a rousing boy's own adventure of the naval wars pitting the Royal Navy against Napoleon. We're with Captain Hornblower (Gregory Peck) on the 38-gun frigate H.M.S. Lydia as he deals with a Central American megalomaniac who calls himself El Supremo, then battles and beats -- twice -- the 60-gun Spanish ship- of-the-line Natividad. When he returns to England and assumes command of the 74-gun H.M.S. Sutherland, we're right there as he takes on four French ships-of-the-line, nearly destroys them and, as his ship sinks, deliberately holes her so she bottles up a vital French port. And then, captured by the French and on his way to Paris to be tried as a pirate, we're with him as he and his two companions escape, make it to a Dutch port, manage to steal a captured sloop, man it with English prisoners-of-war and then sails it across the channel to England. And what had seemed a doomed romance with the brave and beautiful Barbara Wellesley (Virginia Mayo), sister of the Duke of Wellington, comes to a happy conclusion due to various deaths in battle or to small pox. Movies about iron men in wooden ships, who battle scurvy and thirst as well as the French, are for me always stirring occasions. Grape shot, flogging, amputations without anesthesia and oaken splinters flying into one's face would be enough to convince me that even accounting would be a better profession than the navy in those times. Captain Horatio Hornblower, the movie, is an audience-pleasing romantic adventure where the battles are packed with lots of action but little gore, and that's not a bad thing. The two-hour movie slows down only in the middle when Hornblower and Lady Barbara, sailing back from Central America to England, realize their deepening feelings for each other. But he is married, and she is not only above his station in life, but engaged to a suspicious prig of an admiral under whom Hornblower will find himself assigned. Peck manages not to embarrass himself. He wisely avoids trying an English accent. Hornblower is a smart, decent man, harrumphing now and then when he's caught off guard or at a loss for words, respected by his crew, a skilled navigator, a gifted battle tactician, a captain who inspires love and loyalty. Peck's own great gift as an actor of projecting decency serves him well. Mayo may not have a lot to do, but she's gorgeous to look. The one amusing aspect of the movie is the propensity for the officers to wear dress uniforms during their everyday duties. We're treated to them sailing on the hot Central American waters in their best wool uniforms, complete with white weskits, cocked hats and shiny swords dangling from their waists. One assumes the Hollywood producers had no confidence that the audience could distinguish officers from the men without the equivalent of signs around the officers' necks. Lady Barbara also has a habit on board of wearing gowns that risk sunburn and peeling on some sensitive parts of her upper anatomy. The movie features fine performances from familiar faces and names, including Robert Beatty, James Robertson Justice, Terence Morgan and Denis O'Day. In smaller roles are faces that later became much better known, those of Stanley Baker and Christopher Lee. Alec Mango gives us an over-ripe and enjoyable turn as the strutting, sweating El Supremo. The movie is drawn primarily from C. S. Forester's Beat to Quarters, with the later half of the movie pulled from episodes from Ship of the Line and Flying Colors. These are the first three Hornblower novels Forester wrote. The Hornblower series still holds up as exciting adventures in the age of sail and the life-and-death struggle pitting Britain against Napoleon.

Al I remember seeing this film when I was about 10 years of age on our black and white telly. I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread but had to wait for ages and ages for it to be shown again (no videos in those days!) When it finally came on, there was a bit of a gale blowing and our aerial was blown off the roof half way through the film. You can imagine how I felt. I have seen it many times since and it has stood the test of time,a good old fashioned adventure story with excellent actors, tons of excitement and loads happening from beginning to end. There are no false accents from Gregory Peck or Robert Beatty and we even have Richard Hearne (Mr Pastry, remember him, people of my age?) as Pecks batman. Stanley Baker, James Robertson Justice, Terence Morgan (He played the lead in the series 'Sir Francis Drake' in the early sixties) and Christopher Lee also make fine appearances. I recommend it without reservation.