DVD: Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (PG) Albert Lewin

Albert Lewin's 1951 film reworks the Flying Dutchman legend, transporting us to a 1930s Spanish seaside town where Pandora, played by a radiant Ava Gardner, falls for a mysterious man who sails into the harbour.

The Dutchman has been condemned to sail the seas since the 17th century, unable to die, until he finds a woman prepared to die for love of him. The plot sails close to the ridiculous but Jack Cardiff's glowing Technicolor cinematography (newly restored), Lewin's surreal shot constructions (there's a great party scene on a beach among washed-up antiquity statues) and, as the Dutchman, a brooding James Mason ensure there is much to enjoy, too.