Ava Gardner plays the title character Pandora in the 1951 film Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman is a 1951 romantic fantasy film directed by Albert Lewin. Ava Gardner plays Pandora Reynolds, an American woman living on the Spanish coast. James Mason plays Hendrik van der Zee, the mysterious sailor connected with the legend of the Flying Dutchman.
The film uses the Pandora name without adapting Hesiod’s ancient account directly. Its story combines romantic melodrama, supernatural legend, and artistic symbolism. The Flying Dutchman tradition concerns a mariner condemned to sail indefinitely, and the film links that legend to Pandora’s relationship with van der Zee.
The production is also remembered for its visual design and for Gardner’s star performance. Because the title contains “Pandora,” it is sometimes grouped with modern uses of the Pandora’s box idea, but the movie’s plot centers on the Flying Dutchman legend rather than on the Greek jar.