In the 1951 British film Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, James Mason played the Flying Dutchman.
The film was written and directed by Albert Lewin and stars Ava Gardner as Pandora Reynolds alongside Mason as Hendrik van der Zee, the supernatural sailor identified with the Flying Dutchman legend. The story combines romantic melodrama with a doomed maritime myth rather than adapting Hesiod’s account of Pandora’s container.
Mason was already an established British actor by the time of the film and later became known for roles in major international productions. Gardner’s performance and the movie’s Technicolor photography are central parts of its identity.
The title can mislead viewers into expecting a straightforward Greek-myth adaptation. Instead, the film uses “Pandora” as the heroine’s name and joins it to the European legend of the ghostly ship and its cursed captain.