Pine-Thomas went for 3D in this one - an odd choice you'd think for what is basically a costume melodrama, but the colour and costumes are the best thing about this. It's a treat to look at and the film isn't that bad.
The story is a bit odd - the sort of story you'd only make if it was based on a best seller. All the elements are there for a decent film but the script writers haven't been able to knock it together to make a cohesive whole.
You've got plague, love triangles, forbidden love, free medical clinics, court room antics, duels, pirates, mobs with tiki torches, ram raids on ships, death... but it's all a mess.
For instance, there's a plague running loose but we never see its effects or someone get it til the end. We never see Lamas do much work at his free clinic, he seems more interested in going to meetings. The head baddy (John Sutton) is shot by his wife (Patricia Medina) off screen - we don't see it happen. We hear about these pirate attacks but don't see any.
Fernando Lamas is a handsome devil but its hard to understand what he's saying. Arlene Dahl looks great in technicolor and starts off fantastically in a scene pretending to be a maid and flirts/digs for information from Lamas who has just been for a swim and these two clearly want to bone each other and it's really hot... but they never recapture that chemistry.
Head baddy John Sutton is a whimp who Lamas beats in a duel and dies off screen. They set up this pirate Charles Korvin who is then revealed to be nice. Willard Parker strolls in playing some random role and is part of the climax. You keep waiting for Tom Drake, as Lamas' adopted brother, to get upset his wife Patricia Medina is in love with Lamas... but it never happens. Medina says she hates Arlene Dahl but her actions against her are, again, all described rather than seen. There's a final duel between Lamas and Korvin only they make it the duel is between Korvin and Parker with Lamas as the second only there's no point to the duel because Korvin is innocent and we've just met him and this all happens towards the end and...
Oh and slavery is "covered" by having Lamas' adopted father free them at the beginning.
It's frustrating because I wanted to enjoy this. Maybe the film should've been about this pirate who is falsely accused of spreading plague. Or something...
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