Frenchman's Creek (DVD)

Set in 17th century London, Joan Fontaine stars in the swashbuckling adventure Frenchman's Creek. As a beautiful, learned Lady of means, Dona St. Columb (Fontaine) had it all -- wealth, nobility, children and a loveless marriage. After years of being royally subjected to mistreatment, she retreats with her most prized possessions -- her two children -- to a secluded manor overlooking Britain's Atlantic shoreline. Once there, she is enthralled with the tall tales of a scoundrel of a pirate, who has been plundering nearby coastal villages. Full of adventure and fueled by years of neglect, she sets forth to seek him out, and it is not long before she finds him to be quite an irresistible gentleman. She is soon swept into his arms, and out onto a high-seas adventure where she chances death to protect her children from a vengeful father, who is out to reclaim what he had never known and to destroy something he had never shown -- love. Earning Academy Awards for both Art Direction and Set Design, movie lovers will delight in this lavish Technicolor example of golden age Hollywood escapism.

• adventure
• drama
• romance