PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN on DVD and Blu-ray

"The measure of love is what one is willing to give up for it" archeologist Geoffrey Fielding (Harold Warrender) ponderously recalls. So goes the crux of Albert Lewin's lush technicolour fantasy from 1951, now available on DVD and Blu-ray for the first time after years in obscurity. Set in the Spanish port of Esperanza, and shot by legendary cinematographer Jack Cardiff, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman is a stunning curiosity - beautiful, elegiac and fabulously romantic.

James Mason stars as Hendrik, the titular Dutchman condemned to sail the seas for eternity, returning to land for 6 months every 7 years to seek a woman who will love him enough to give up her own life for him, and so break the curse. Ava Gardner is Pandora, a beautiful but manipulative young woman, idolised by all men but unable to fall in love with any of them. Despite finally being engaged to marry motoring enthusiast, cad and would-be record breaker Stephen Cameron (Nigel Patrick), Pandora one night swims out to an elegant and mysterious yacht, buoyed by the myth of The Flying Dutchman and the possibility he may be aboard.

Gardner is genuinely radiant throughout and Mason is a dapper yet profoundly troubled presence. Saturated with memorable images, it's quite unlike anything else from the period, indeed from any period. Fielding's archeological finds litter the beach like relics washed up from a Dali painting, whilst Cameron's magnificent motor car carves a dashing silvery passage through the landscape. Cardiff's cinematography is typically rich, with Gardner's lipstick every bit as vivid as the splashes of furious colour in Black Narcissus - fitting, as the whole endeavour has more than a whiff of Powell and Pressburger about it.

It's not a perfect by any stretch. A flashback of the Dutchman's history is clunky, and it suffers from verbosity, overlong at 126 minutes. But whilst it's indulgent, it's also hugely imaginative. And forgiving these flaws is easy in light of the feeling that you've genuinely rediscovered a gem.

 Produced outside the Hollywood Studio system, the film languished unavailable for many years. This release has been the subject of a 35mm restoration from a nitrate separation positive by George Eastman House. Pandora And The Flying Dutchman is out on dual format DVD and Blu-ray from 9th August 2010 through Park Circus.