Captain from Castile (1947)

Director: Henry King
Starring: Tyrone Power, Jean Peters, Cesar Romero

Synopsis:
A young caballero on the run from the Inquisition sets out for the New World, where he joins the Cortes expedition to the mainland.

Impressions:
Tyrone Power made a good impression on me in King of the Khyber Rifles and he makes a strong showing here as well. He takes the role of leading man well and there's a nice power trio that forms with Lee Cobb and Jean Peters. Cesar Romero is quite magnetic at Cortes and John Sutton impresses as the slimy villain De Silva. The filmmakers go to great pains to depict the Cortes expedition using historical locations and there's a lot of nice attention to detail. My only knock against the film is that the third act is a bit sloppy and it feels like there was three-hour movie planned but only a two-hour movie filmed. However, perhaps showing the carnage of Tenochtitlan would've been a little too much. This is a good movie, all told, and if you'd like to see an account of the conquest of Mexico, you should give this one a try.

Rating:
Watch It