This film was made in nothing short of a humorous, if not farcical vein considering the subject matter. Just as he did in an earlier film, 1950's "The Flame and the Arrow", Burt Lancaster teams with his one time, circus trapeze partner, Nick Cravat, to engage in a host of athletically engaging and gravity defying stunts to thrill moviegoers. And just as in that earlier film, there's a romantic interest for Lancaster's character, though it takes the entire picture to play out to the Lady Consuelo's (Eva Bartok) satisfaction, as there are moments in which Captain Vallo (Lancaster) appears to double cross both his pirate crew and the unfortunate citizens taxed to the hilt by an island governor (Eliot Makeham) and the treacherous Baron Gruda (Leslie Bradley).
There's something oddly goofy about one of the Crimson Pirate's crew members, first mate Humble Bellows (Torin Thatcher). All throughout the picture he's seen wearing a belt or sash that for all intents and purposes, looks pretty much like the championship belt of the World Wrestling Federation. I couldn't help restraining a chuckle each time I saw it. For his own part, Bellows engages in a bit of pirate seaworthy behavior when he covertly challenges Vallo by leading a mutiny for which he expresses remorse over later. You just can't best Lancaster in his own picture.
For fans of pirate movies, this will seem like a half century preview of what the genre eventually came up with in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. It's done totally tongue in cheek with colorful costuming and swashbuckling adventure, and even if Captain Vallo is no Jack Sparrow, he still provides a whole lot of fun to this exuberant enterprise.
There's something oddly goofy about one of the Crimson Pirate's crew members, first mate Humble Bellows (Torin Thatcher). All throughout the picture he's seen wearing a belt or sash that for all intents and purposes, looks pretty much like the championship belt of the World Wrestling Federation. I couldn't help restraining a chuckle each time I saw it. For his own part, Bellows engages in a bit of pirate seaworthy behavior when he covertly challenges Vallo by leading a mutiny for which he expresses remorse over later. You just can't best Lancaster in his own picture.
For fans of pirate movies, this will seem like a half century preview of what the genre eventually came up with in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. It's done totally tongue in cheek with colorful costuming and swashbuckling adventure, and even if Captain Vallo is no Jack Sparrow, he still provides a whole lot of fun to this exuberant enterprise.