A swashbuckler from RKO during the Howard Hughes years. It's got Robert Newton in the title role off the back of his success in Treasure Island and basically repeating the performance. It is a fun turn, as he "harrs" and "shiver me timbers" and practically spits his words out, but he has complete commitment.
Blackbeard is a decent role - he's no dummy, and is quite smart, outwitting the hero, Keith Andes (playing Maynard a real person), but unable to beat all the other people who want to knock him off.
There's a good cast in this - William Bendix as a treacherous first mate, Linda Darnell is a pirate's daughter who is about to marry Sir Henry Morgan, Torin Thatcher as Morgan, Richard Egan as Andes' sidekick.
The film is full of good ideas and interesting characters but doesn't exploit them - Andes goes undercover for Morgan, but we don't meet Morgan until the end of the film; we're told, but don't see, that Morgan has something over Andes; Darnell is a pirate's daughter who all the pirates want to marry, apparently, but we never meet dad and never really see any scenes of Newtown or any other main pirates wanting to monster Darnell; Darnell and Andes' romance is really undercooked; Andes' assistant Richard Egan kind of vanishes from the film; Andes disappears from the film for the last third; there's no final battle between Newton and Andes.
There's plenty of incidents and action - something is always happening, whether its breaking into rooms, or opening treasure chests. But it's confusing and emotionally uninvolving.
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