Despite the title, this isn't a pirate movie but rather a Western - set in Mexican California of the early 19th century, it's about the brave Mexicans fighting off the forces of "the royalists". I had to look it up: presumably this was in the Mexican War of Independence, or shortly thereafter. So this has novelty of historical background.
But just so it's not too Mexican, the hero is an American - tough Rod Cameron who is running guns to the Mexicans. He rescues a beautiful noblewoman, Maria Montez, and falls in love with her en route to Santa Barbara - only to find out, wouldn't you know it, she's engaged to his best friend, Phillip Reed. For a while it seemed that Montez might be in cahoots with the royalists, which would have given this movie a bit of kick, but no, she's pure and innocent.
Reed is a really wet drip of an actor, smiling goofily; Montez is appalling, not engaged in any of the drama and pure amateur-hour. Rod Cameron is a tough two fisted hero but he doesn't have much chemistry with Montez, and I was missing Jon Hall.
The support cast is better, though - Gilbert Roland is a strong villain (despite a laughable monologue of confession at the end) and the always reliable Gale Sondegaard is on hand in her The Mark of Zorro type part as a flirtatious noblewoman.
Beautiful Universal Technicolour carries this for a while and the basic story is okay, but there's too much poor acting and handling. And worse, no pirates!
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