A sweeping, majestic spectacle, neatly divided into a double feature: Spanish inquisition and the expedition of Cortez into Mexico. CAPTAIN FROM CASTILE was a major star vehicle for Power, and he's supported in style by Peters (in her film debut; she was discovered as a 20-year-old Ohio
State coed), Cobb, Sutton, and especially Romero, as Cortez.
Although the script sometimes stretches credibility, King's panorama is distracting enough to sweep away your suspicions. CASTILE was a return to the old and glorious pageantry of yesteryear Hollywood, a huge $4.5 million production with one of the most memorable and stirring scores ever composed
by Newman. The film was a pet project for Zanuck, who bought Princeton professor Samuel Shellabarger's unpublished novel for $100,000 when it was serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine.
Henry King, Fox's top action director, loved to scout locations in his small private plane. He had flown over Morales, a province of southern Mexico, as early as 1933 and selected this remote and rugged area as the site for this project. The trek deep into Mexico was similar to Cortez's own march,
except that this one involved eight railroad cars packed with dozens of actors and technicians, including a dry cleaning unit for the expensive costumes and a refrigerated car in which the Technicolor film was kept.
Power, a pilot himself, flew 50 cast members down in a large chartered plane. A smoldering volcano near the location constantly threatened to erupt, delaying the shooting schedule which stretched on for almost four months while the budget doubled and Zanuck fumed. The film lost money but it
remains as one of Fox's great epics. leave a comment
