Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.

Captain Horatio Hornblower (known as Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. in the UK, "R.N." standing for "Royal Navy") is a 1951 British naval swashbuckling war film in Technicolor from Warner Bros., produced by Gerry Mitchell, directed by Raoul Walsh, that stars Gregory Peck, Virginia Mayo, Robert Beatty and Terence Morgan. The film is based on three of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels: The Happy Return (1937), A Ship of the Line (1938), and Flying Colours (1938). Forester is credited with the screen adaptation. Plot In 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars, Royal Navy Captain Horatio Hornblower is given command of the 38-gun frigate HMS Lydia and tasked with a secret mission to Central America: he is to provide arms and support to a local warlord, Don Julian Alvarado, who has organized a rebellion against the colonial authorities of Spain, an ally of Britain's enemy France. Alvarado turns out to be a bloodthirsty megalomaniac who calls himself "El Supremo" ("The Almighty"). Hornblower also learns that a much more powerful warship, the 60-gun Natividad, is en route to suppress the rebellion. When it anchors nearby, Hornblower and his crew board and capture it in a surprise night attack. He then reluctantly surrenders the ship to Alvarado over his own personal feelings of disgust towards the man, and they go their separate ways. A Spanish lugger then delivers news to Lydia that Spain has switched sides, and Hornblower must deal with Alvarado personally. Two passengers board the Lydia (over Hornblower's strenuous objections): Lady Barbara Wellesley and her maid, fleeing a yellow fever epidemic. As Lady Barbara is the (fictitious) sister of the Duke of Wellington (Historically, Wellesley, in 1807, was not yet the 1st Duke of Wellington as this title was only bestowed upon him in 1814), Hornblower cannot refuse her request for passage to England.