Saturday, February 22, 2020

Movie review - "The Pirates of Tortuga" (1961) **

Sam Katzman worked mostly at Monogram, Columbia and MGM - this was part of a brief sojourn at 20th Century Fox. It's not a bad story and has decent production values - shot on the Fox backlot, decent extras, costumes, sets, etc if not a lot of sea action. It is let down by the casting.

Ken Scott is a bland hero, a privateer tasked with attacking Sir Henry Morgan (Robert Stephens, good in a better role but we don't see enough of them). Letica Roman has a decent subplot as  tavern girl who stows away with Scott, throws herself at him, he's not keen until she goes off and pretends to be a lady who a rich noble falls in love with. Her plot is actually a lot of fun and probably she should have been the lead - Roman isn't much of an actor though. Were there no better stars under contract to Fox at the time?

Maybe John Richardson, later Hammer leading man, who plays a pirate who pants over Roman - so does singer Dave King, who is another pirate. Athlete Rafer Johnson  is a pirate so it has some multiculturalism (not that much though - Johnson is not allowed to be one of the pirates keen on Roman).

There is some action and colour and undemanding pirate film fans will get something out of it. I just wish the casting had been stronger.


No comments: