Very enjoyable swashbuckler which has a great idea – a bunch of defeated Spaniards wash up on the coast of England during the Spanish Armada…and try to fool an isolated town into thinking that Spain has won the war! Writer Jimmy Sangster admits he was inspired by The Desperate Hours, and the result is a tense, entertaining film. (Although to be honest you feel they could have used that great central idea a bit more.) There’s lots of decent subplots – divisions among the Spaniards (there’s a genuine royalist officer but most of the rest of the sailors are former pirates) and the English (the mayor is a Quisling; the hero is a crippled soldier), plus plenty of action. Although most of said action takes place on land, there is still a pirate ship which gets burned at the end. A good cast, too, including Christopher Lee as the main Spaniard, Andrew Keir and Barry Warren, with energetic direction from Don Sharp.
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