Pandora and the Flying Dutchman

Albert Lewin was in some ways Hollywood's answer to Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, as a purveyor of weird, exotic and often slightly barmy Technicolor fantasies. This bizarre British-made effort stars the ravishing Ava Gardner as a woman incapable of returning the love of her men, and James Mason as the sailor of legend, condemned to roam the seas for eternity until he meets a woman willing to give up her life for him. Set in Spain, its flights of romantic fantasy are heightened by the work of Powell and Pressburger's regular cinematographer, Jack Cardiff. It's an acquired taste, perhaps, but Lewin was a genuine maverick talent.