her intention to build a great fleet to oppose the Spanish threat. Cast Errol Flynn as Geoffrey Thorpe Brenda Marshall as Doña María Claude Rains as Don José Álvarez de Córdoba Donald Crisp as Sir John Burleson Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth I of England Alan Hale as Carl Pitt Henry Daniell as Lord Wolfingham Una O'Connor as Miss Latham, Doña María's English duenna James Stephenson as Abbott Gilbert Roland as Captain López, Don José's sea captain William Lundigan as Danny Logan Julien Mitchell as Oliver Scott Montagu Love as King Philip II of Spain J. M. Kerrigan as Eli Matson David Bruce as Martin Burke Clifford Brooke as William Tuttle Clyde Cook as Walter Boggs Fritz Leiber Sr. as Inquisitor Ellis Irving as Monty Preston Francis McDonald as Samuel Kroner Pedro de Córdoba as Captain Mendoza Ian Keith as Peralta Jack La Rue as Lieutenant Ortega (as Jack LaRue) Halliwell Hobbes as Astronomer Alec Craig as Jodocus Hondius Victor Varconi as General Aguirre Robert Warwick as Captain Frobisher Guy Bellis as Captain Hawkins Harry Cording as Slavemaster Leyland Hodgson as Officer Leo White as Bit Role (uncredited) Edgar Buchanan as Ben Rollins (uncredited) Production The portions of the film set in the Americas are tinted sepia. The film was announced in June 1936 and would star Errol Flynn, then coming off his success with Captain Blood. Originally planned as an adaptation of Rafael Sabatini's 1915 novel The Sea Hawk, the film used an entirely different story inspired by the exploits of Sir Francis Drake, unlike the 1924 silent film adaptation, which was fairly faithful to Sabatini's plot (which, in turn, was very similar to the plot of Captain Blood). Adaptations of the novel were written by Richard Neville and Delmer Daves before Seton I Miller wrote a basically new story titled Beggars of the Sea based on Sir Francis Drake. Sabatini's name was still used in promotional materials however as it was felt it had commercial value. Howard Koch then reworked Miller's script while still keeping the basic structure and story. The speech the queen gives at the close of the film was meant to inspire the viewing British audience, which was already in the grip of the Second World War. Suggestions that it was the duty of all free men to defend liberty, and that the world did not belong to any one man (an obvious insinuation of