Colourful swash-buckler starring Tyrone Power as a reformed pirate captain chasing George Sanders' treacherous renegade pirate Leech and posh Lord's daughter Maureen O'Hara around the Caribbean. Power gets to bear his chest a lot as he dispenses tough love to the promised-to-another O'Hara, whose stubbornness he naturally wears down by the end. As he displayed handsomely in "The Mark Of Zorro", Power makes for a dashing leading man, but his character here lacks charm, to say the least. In fact when he first encounters O'Hara, he first of all boorishly forces himself on her and then when she quite rightly resists, lays her out with a slap to the face. Later still he kidnaps her from her home to stop her marrying his scoundrel of a rival, not exactly Prince Charming-type behaviour.
That said, there is a likeable frisson between them in their scenes together plus I also detected some censor-baiting moments, especially when he jumps into her bed to keep up appearances under the watchful eye of the mistrusting Leech. The plot is fairly rudimentary involving the usual mixture of treachery on the high-seas with some nicely-staged sea-battle scenes and a decent climactic sword-fight to the death (guess whose?) between Power and Sanders, the latter barely recognisable in a set of orange whiskers. Also on board (ouch!) for the fun is the larger-than-life Laird Cregar as the famous Captain Henry Morgan, Power's old boss and role-model.
The direction though seems a bit rushed to me with some loose ends still untied by the end, (for instance, there's no retribution for O'Hara's traitorous former boy-friend) and lacks the winning touches of humour which distinguished "Zorro", but on the whole, an exciting enough pirate feature, easy on both the eye and brain.
That said, there is a likeable frisson between them in their scenes together plus I also detected some censor-baiting moments, especially when he jumps into her bed to keep up appearances under the watchful eye of the mistrusting Leech. The plot is fairly rudimentary involving the usual mixture of treachery on the high-seas with some nicely-staged sea-battle scenes and a decent climactic sword-fight to the death (guess whose?) between Power and Sanders, the latter barely recognisable in a set of orange whiskers. Also on board (ouch!) for the fun is the larger-than-life Laird Cregar as the famous Captain Henry Morgan, Power's old boss and role-model.
The direction though seems a bit rushed to me with some loose ends still untied by the end, (for instance, there's no retribution for O'Hara's traitorous former boy-friend) and lacks the winning touches of humour which distinguished "Zorro", but on the whole, an exciting enough pirate feature, easy on both the eye and brain.