We will probably never see its like again. This film is a splendid specimen of the genre. An all-time favorite I can't see enough of, and, well, let's do give a thought to those Aztecs.
Captain from Castile is a fine rendering of that class of fiction from the first half of the 20th Century described best as book club novels. Written to a literate and culturally attuned market, they combined dramatic history with compelling characters enmeshed in swashbuckling dilemmas. The novelists never wrote down to their readers and always kept a literary trick up their sleeve for the tight spots. Kenneth Roberts, F. Van Wyck Mason and Frank G. Slaughter were of that class, and Frank Shellabarger's Captain from Castile is a worthy exemplar of their craft.
The storyline, to reiterate briefly, centers on the young Spanish nobleman, Don Pedro de Vargas (Tyrone Power), who offends an official of the Inquisition and is forced, as are his parents, to flee from its net. His parents escape to Italy, and he embarks to the new world for adventure as much as to recoup the family fortunes. Leading the way for him is a seasoned soldier of fortune played by Lee J. Cobb, and following de Vargas is the Spanish equivalent of a pretty barmaid played by Jean Peters. Landing in Spanish Cuba they sign on with Hernan Cortez's expedition to conquer and colonize Mexico. There is little need to expatiate on the plot details, which provide plenty of entertainment to embellish the historical account, and so far as both go the film is instructive and entertaining. (There was no need to draw on fantasy in cinema of that day.)
What may trouble younger viewers is whether Captain from Castile treats native Aztecs, Olmecs, and like tribes with sufficient respect, given the certainty that their way of life was doomed by the Spanish invader. On whole, the film treats indigenous peoples with dignity and understanding, although some may quibble about that. Key to the film's overall ethnic take is the last rather triumphalist scene. As Cortez's steel clad legions march past the lightly armored native defenders, Jean Peters, now Don Pedro's wife, wraps a bright red native shawl around herself and her newborn to march behind the army, in appearance a nascent Mexicana, neither Spanish nor Indian - Mexican. In this sense, I found the film sympathetic and in its way inspiring, no matter how the more fastidious may differ about that.
I have to add my approval for the scenery. With much of it set around the Aztec pyramids, it is dominated by a distant active volcano, which injects a unique quality and makes the film worth at least a second look just for that backdrop.