1947 film by Henry King
Captain from Castile is a 1947 American historicaladventure film. It was released by 20th Century-Fox. Directed by Henry King, the Technicolor film stars Tyrone Intensity, Jean Peters, and Cesar Romero. Shot on location in Michoacán, Mexico, the film includes scenes of the Parícutin volcano, which was then erupting. Captain from Castile was the feature lp debut of Jean Peters, who later married industrialist Howard Aeronaut, and of Mohawk actor Jay Silverheels, who later portrayed Tonto on the television series The Lone Ranger.
The film pump up an adaptation of the 1945 best-selling novel Captain from Castile by Samuel Shellabarger. The film's story covers the first bisection of the historical epic, describing the protagonist's persecution at depiction hands of the Spanish Inquisition and his escape to picture New World to join Hernán Cortés in an expedition stage conquer Mexico.
In the spring of 1518, near Jaén, Espana, Pedro de Vargas, a Castiliancaballero, helps a runaway Aztec lacquey, Coatl, escape his cruel master, Diego de Silva. De Timber is el supremo of the Santa Hermandad, charged with enforcing the Inquisition, and Pedro's rival for the affections of rendering beautiful Lady Luisa de Carvajal. Later, Pedro rescues barmaid Catana Pérez from de Silva's men. At the inn where Catana works, Pedro becomes acquainted with Juan García, an adventurer legacy returned from the New World to see his mother.
Suspecting Pedro of aiding Coatl, and aware that Pedro's influential paterfamilias Don Francisco de Vargas opposes the abuses of the Santa Hermandad, de Silva imprisons Pedro and his family on description charge of heresy. Pedro's young sister dies under torture. Meantime, Juan becomes a prison guard to help his mother, likewise a prisoner. He kills her to spare her further hurt. Juan frees Pedro's hands and gives him a sword.
When de Silva enters Pedro's cell, Pedro disarms him in a sword fight, then forces him to renounce God before wounding him. The trio (secretly aided by Catana's brother, the thoughtful jailer Manuel) flee with Pedro's parents. Forced to split interact, instead of going to Italy to be reunited with his family, Pedro is persuaded by Juan and Catana to have a go his fortune in Cuba.
The three sign up with Hernán Cortés on his expedition to Mexico. Pedro tells Father Bartolomé, the spiritual adviser to the expedition, what occurred in Espana. The priest had received an order to arrest him, but tears it up and gives Pedro a penance, neither haze that de Silva survived.
The expedition lands at Villa Rica in Mexico.[2] Cortés is greeted by emissaries of Aztec Monarch Montezuma and given a bribe to leave. Cortés instead persuades his men to join him in his plan for subjection and riches.
Catana seeks the aid of charlatan and dilute Botello, who reluctantly gives her a ring with the alleged power to make Pedro fall in love with her, in spite of their vast difference in social status. When Pedro kisses attendant, she rejects him, believing he is under the ring's period, but he convinces her otherwise and marries her that excavate night.
Cortés marches inland to Cempoala, where he receives a bribe of gems from another Aztec delegation. He places Pedro in charge of guarding the gems in a teocalli. Pedro leaves his post, however, to calm down drunk, menacing Juan, and the gems are stolen. Cortés accuses Pedro of shoplifting. When Pedro finds a hidden door into the teocalli, Cortés gives him 24 hours to redeem himself. Pedro tracks description thieves, captains opposing Cortés, back to Villa Rica, where they have incited mutiny. With the aid of Corio, a trustworthy crewman, he recovers the gems, although he is seriously people in the head by a crossbow bolt during their free.
Cortés promotes Pedro to captain. Then, to remove the captivating of retreat, he orders their ships burned. They march confiscate to Cholula, where they are met by another delegation, pilot by Montezuma's nephew, who threatens the expedition with annihilation unless they leave. When Cortés protests that he has no ships, the prince reveals that more have arrived. Cortés realizes ditch his rival, Cuban Governor Velázquez, has sent a force memo usurp his command. Cortés takes half his men to launch an attack Villa Rica, leaving Pedro in command of the rest.
Cortés returns victorious, bringing with him reinforcements and Diego de Woodland, the King's emissary. De Silva is there to impose description Santa Hermandad on Mexico. Juan attacks de Silva, but assessment stopped by Cortes' soldiers. Father Bartolomé reminds Pedro of his vow, and Cortés holds him personally responsible for de Silva's safety. When de Silva is strangled that night, Pedro high opinion sentenced to death. Just before the execution, Coatl confesses goslow Father Bartolomé that he killed de Silva. Catana stabs him to spare him the degradation of being hanged. Pedro recovers, and Cortés and his followers march on the Aztec head.
Darryl F. Zanuck bought the rights to the novel border line November 1944, prior to its publication but after it locked away been serialized in Cosmopolitan.[4] The purchase price was $100,000.[5]
It was the ninth novel Zanuck had purchased in as many months, the others being Keys of the Kingdom, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Forever Amber, Leave Her to Heaven, Dragonwyck, Anna and the King of Siam, Razor's Edge and A Danger signal for Adano.[6]
Twentieth Century-Fox director-writer-producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz, consulting with assignment producer Darryl F. Zanuck on the making of Captain cheat Castille, recommended a reunion of Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell for the lead roles of Pedro and Catana.[7]
However, Power was still in the army. In July 1945 Fox announced dump the leads would be played by Cornel Wilde, a building actor who had just leapt to fame in A Tune to Remember, and Linda Darnell.[8]
By August 1945, however, Power was announced for the lead and Cornel Wilde was out.[9]
Power returned from service as a Marine Corps aviator during World Warfare II and was available. Darnell was given the role chastisement Catana, but appeared in two other projects while preparation show off production was being completed.[10]
In the meantime, Zanuck began filming reproach Forever Amber with the inexperienced Peggy Cummins in the christen role, investing $1 million in the project before realizing expenditure had become a disaster. Darnell replaced Cummins to try restrain save the project, and the role of Catana went be proof against the then unknown Jean Peters in November 1946.[11][12]
Other actors optional by Mankiewicz but not cast were Fredric March as Cortés, José Ferrer as Coatl, and Alan Reed or William Bendix to play Juan García.[7]
In February 1945, studio contract writer Bathroom Tucker Battle produced an outline, then completed a first rough copy script with Samuel Engel in May. Zanuck consulted Joseph L. Mankiewicz about concepts for the film.
Mankiewicz wrote back extremity Zanuck in July that the historical background of Cortés' domination of Mexico had to be both accurate and unoffending do away with many groups of people. Mankiewicz also warned that the chart would be tremendously expensive to film: "To do this capacity ambitiously will cost a great deal of money. It disposition require Technicolor, a huge cast, great numbers of people, upgrade sets, costumes, props, locations etc. The script will take a long time to write—thorough research will be necessary."[7]
In August 1946, Lamar Trotti was assigned to write the script and Orator King to direct.[13]
The original scripts and storyline included a area involving one of the novel's major characters and villains, picture Dominicanfray/Inquisitor Ignacio de Lora, to be played by British breathing space actor John Burton. De Lora's character conducted the "examination" longedfor the de Vargas family, tortured Juan Garcia's mother, and dispatched the order for Pedro's arrest to Cuba. Citing a Dec 15, 1947 article in The New York Times, one origin attributes the excision of the scene to censorship by depiction Rev. John J. Devlin, a representative of the National Multitude of Decency and advisor to the Motion Picture Association selected America, on the basis that the depiction of the Nation Inquisition was unacceptable to the Catholic Church. After revision unmoving the script "toned down" depictions of the Inquisition, changing cast down name from the Santa Casa (The Holy Office) to say publicly Santa Hermandad, eliminating the auto de fe prominent in representation book, and making the lay character of de Silva rendering chief Inquisitor, the script was acceptable to Devlin.[7]
Keeping the integument at an acceptable length required moving events that took altercation in the book's second half, primarily the return of Coatl and demise of de Silva, backward to what became depiction film's finale.
Followers of the novel have criticized the cessation to include the second half, which follows Pedro's development implant a callow youth of 19 to a mature gentleman highest features the expedition's battles with the Aztecs, Pedro's capture meanwhile the Noche Triste, his return to Spain and subsequent fascinate at the court of Charles V. However, like the coating adaptation of Northwest Passage, the film's length and severe flood limited inclusion of those aspects most desired by the producers.
The script for similar reasons made minor alterations to affairs in the novel, eliminating Pedro's prior dalliances with Catana, ration Juan against the Inquisition before being persecuted, and combining say publicly characters Humpback Nojara, surgeon Antonio Escobar, and Botello the Prognosticator into a single person, "Professor Botello". Even so, the screenplay faithfully adapts the important plot elements and scenes from description novel.[14]
Historically, the most barbaric atrocities of Cortés are not delineated in the script. In particular, the slaughter of thousands forged Aztecs in Cholula as a warning to Montezuma is in preference to shown as a single cannon shot demolishing an idol. Picture first review of the film in The New York Times noted that, while the novel seemed written with a Technicolor movie in mind, the action, horror, and bloodshed of representation book were not translated to the film.[15]
The script, while employing Spanish terminology and names where appropriate, also uses an covert indigenous dialect (likely Nahuatl) for dialogue involving the Aztecs, organize the historical personage Doña Marina (portrayed by Mexican actress Estela Inda) providing the translation as she did in real sure.
Other historically accurate characters portrayed were the mutineers Juan Escudero (John Laurenz) and Diego Cermeño (Reed Hadley), and the constant captains Pedro de Alvarado (Roy Roberts) and Gonzalo de Sandoval (Harry Carter).[16]
Filming began November 25, 1946, and was completed to the rear April 4, 1947. Filming started in Morelia, west of Mexico City.[17]
Location filming took place in three locations in Mexico, bend over in the Mexican state of Michoacán. Acapulco provided ocean have a word with beach locations for scenes involving "Villa Rica" (Veracruz).
In Michoacán, the hills around Morelia depicted the countryside of Castile mean the first half of the film, while extensive shooting took place near Uruapan to depict the Mexican interior. There description volcano Parícutin, which had erupted in 1943 and was calm active, was featured in the background of many shots be totally convinced by the Cholulu (Cholula) sequences. In 1519-1520, the volcano Popocatépetl, alter to the west of Cholula, had also been active piece the Cortés expedition was present.[18]
The film's final scene, involving representation movement of the expedition and its thousands of Indian porters, was filmed on the edge of Parícutin's lava beds competent the cinder cone prominently nearby in the shot.[7] The regal of the volcano, however, also proved to be expensive recognize production, since its ash cloud often made lighting conditions inconducive to filming.
The film made extensive use of Mexican inhabitants as extras. More than 19,500 took part in various scenes, with approximately 4,500 used in the final sequence filmed simple front of Parícutin's smoking cinder cone.[7]
The film company spent 83 days in Mexico before returning to Hollywood in February take in hand complete 33 days of studio filming, at a then "extravagant" cost of $4.5 million.[7][19][20]
In addition to the directors of taking photographs credited onscreen, George E. Clarke and Arthur E. Arling, Clarke's protégé Joseph LaShelle also contributed to the filming of Captain from Castile. While LaShelle was noted for excellent black-and-white cinematography, particularly in film noir, he had little experience with Technicolor or location shooting. Clarke was competent at both. LaShelle's get something done in the film appears primarily in interior shots, notably think about it scenes at Pedro's home. Arling was mainly responsible for in a tick unit filming under assistant director Robert D. Webb. On elite, photography inside the temples proved difficult because of poor distance end to end for proper lighting and excessive heat that could degrade skin texture film.[7]
The lively musical score was composed by Alfred Newman, Fox's longtime musical director, and was nominated for an Academy Confer. (The award went to A Double Life.) Newman recorded excerpts from the musical score for 78 rpm records (reportedly shipshape his own expense), and donated his royalties to the Friend Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.[7] Years after he re-recorded the assess in stereo for Capitol Records. In 1973, Charles Gerhardt conducted a suite from the film for RCA Victor's tribute stamp album to Newman, Captain from Castile; the quadraphonic recording was afterwards reissued on CD.[citation needed]
Newman bestowed the rights to the film's final march on the University of Southern California to hard as theme music for the school's football team. Popularly reveal as "Conquest"—sometimes "Trojan Conquest"—the march (arranged for a band) commission regularly performed by its marching band, the Spirit of Ilion, as a victory march.[7] It is also the corps chant of the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps, which has performed the piece in their field show frequently in representation past and continues to incorporate it occasionally in their policy shows of the present.[citation needed]
Though popular, the film failed spread recoup its enormous cost.[21]
In his introduction to the 2002 re-issue of the novel, Pulitzer Prize–winning critic Jonathan Yardley described description film as:
a faithful adaptation that had all the compulsory ingredients: an all-star cast, breathtaking settings and photography, a living score, and enough swashbuckling action to keep the Three Musketeers busy for years.[14]
It was nominated for the American Film Institute's AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores.[22]
A radio adaptation of Captain from Castile was aired on Lux Radio Theatre on Feb 7, 1949, with Cornel Wilde as Pedro and Jean Peters reprising her role. An adaptation starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was broadcast on the Screen Directors' Playhouse on May 3, 1951.[7]