In 1805 a force of U.S. Marines is sent to North Africa to put a stop to a collection of seagoing bandits known as the Barbary Pirates, who were preying on American and other nations' merchant vessels. John Payne is the officer in charge of the expeditionary force, Maureen O'Hara a French countess and Howard Da Silva a Greek mercenary hired to help the Marines find and destroy the pirates. This is an enjoyable little actioner, a little ragged around the edges, but its vigorous action scenes and good performances more than make up for it. Payne has always been an underrated actor, and it took several dark, gritty little thrillers with director Phil Karlson in the mid-'50s to show people what he was capable of. O'Hara, aka the Queen of Technicolor, was married to director Will Price at the time, which explains why he got to direct this. He only directed two other films, neither of them particularly good--in fact, one of them, "Rock, Rock, Rock" from 1957, was downright awful--and his direction here is workmanlike (action scenes are almost always shot by second-unit directors). It's still an enjoyable little actioner, though; the Technicolor photography is good, and unlike many films of its type it doesn't come to a dead stop between action scenes (well, for the most part). If it ever comes out on video or DVD, check it out. You could do a lot worse.
