India-born Kabir Bedi was groomed into a latter-day Steve Reeves when he entered the Italian film industry in the mid-70s. In fact, he not only played the roles of Sandokan in a TV mini-series and on the screen (something Reeves had done on film) but he also featured in the all-star remake of THE THIEF OF BAGHDAD (1978; Reeves had done so in 1960). Incidentally, Reeves also starred in MORGAN THE PIRATE (1961) and that legendary figure does play an important role in the plot of the film under review!
The swashbuckler/pirate film genre was pretty much passé by this point in time but this is a fairly lively and successful throwback to those matinée adventures so prevalent in Hollywood between the 1920s and early 1950s. Kabir Bedi is a handsome and sympathetic leading man, while Mel Ferrer is as villainous here as he had been in one of the touchstones of the genre, SCARAMOUCHE (1952). A bevy of attractive ladies (Carole Andre', Sonja Jeannine and Dagmar Lassander) and a typically infectious score from Gianni and Maurizio De Angelis (billed under their own names rather than their usual alias of Oliver Onions!) round up the film's assets.
Incredibly enough, this was an unprecedented box office phenomenon over here in Malta at the time of its release but I'm too young to remember it. Having seen it again now, it practically beggars belief but, as I said, it is an enjoyable, audience-pleasing romp. What is remarkable about it, however, is the fact that director Sollima injects an overly solemn ambiance at times (not to mention some fantasy sequences of Bedi tormented by the vision of the ghosts of his murdered brothers) which lends it a ponderousness quite atypical of such sea-faring stuff. Maybe it was intended as the last word on the subject or something: Mel Ferrer even goes unpunished in the end and The Black Pirate himself retreats into obscurity with his true love, leaving the field entirely to his consummate successor Morgan.
The swashbuckler/pirate film genre was pretty much passé by this point in time but this is a fairly lively and successful throwback to those matinée adventures so prevalent in Hollywood between the 1920s and early 1950s. Kabir Bedi is a handsome and sympathetic leading man, while Mel Ferrer is as villainous here as he had been in one of the touchstones of the genre, SCARAMOUCHE (1952). A bevy of attractive ladies (Carole Andre', Sonja Jeannine and Dagmar Lassander) and a typically infectious score from Gianni and Maurizio De Angelis (billed under their own names rather than their usual alias of Oliver Onions!) round up the film's assets.
Incredibly enough, this was an unprecedented box office phenomenon over here in Malta at the time of its release but I'm too young to remember it. Having seen it again now, it practically beggars belief but, as I said, it is an enjoyable, audience-pleasing romp. What is remarkable about it, however, is the fact that director Sollima injects an overly solemn ambiance at times (not to mention some fantasy sequences of Bedi tormented by the vision of the ghosts of his murdered brothers) which lends it a ponderousness quite atypical of such sea-faring stuff. Maybe it was intended as the last word on the subject or something: Mel Ferrer even goes unpunished in the end and The Black Pirate himself retreats into obscurity with his true love, leaving the field entirely to his consummate successor Morgan.