Pirate Captain, "I bear
many scars from the English"
Doctor, "This one will
mar your beauty"
Pirate Captain, "Save
that for the wenches".
Ah, the pirate life. The breeze from the
sea. The comradery. The wenches on shore. The freedom. The plundering. In
this case the captain is a lady. Well, perhaps no lady in the conventional
sense. Bloodthirsty and cruel. Surprising for a 1951 film. After capturing
a ship, she makes their crew walk the plank, one after the other. You keep
expecting a moment of mercy, but it doesn't come. Only one weakness in her
amour of savagery. Handsome Frenchmen.
On the surface, female pirates in movies
may seem absurd. Hell, women are supposed to be bad luck on ships, but in
truth there were female pirates in history. Two of the most famous were Anne
Bonny and Mary Reed who served in the crew of the pirate John Rackham in
the 1720s. Tintin fans may recognize the name from Rackham's Treasure. There
was also the Irish Grace O'Malley who a century earlier led a fleet of pirate
ships. But the biggest was Zheng Yi Sao in the early 1800s who commander
the Red Flag Fleet which had over 1,000 ships. So perhaps this movie Anne
is not so unbelievable.
The Frenchman LaRochelle (Louis Jourdan)
is captured in chains off of a British frigate and one look at him and she
decides not to send him into the watery blue. She has an itch for this Frenchman
with his wonderful manners. Soon - after whipping him - they are lovers and
off in search for Morgan's treasure. A solid cast with Herbert Marshall as
the drunken doctor, Debra Paget as a rival for the love of LeRochelle, Thomas
Gomez nearly unrecognizable behind the beard of Blackbeard and James Robertson
Justice as her second in command. Anne is played by Jean Peters who's most
famous role perhaps was as the wife of Howard Hughes from 1957 to 1971. His
crazy years. Not a lot of action for a pirate film. More of a romantic drama
with a touch of betrayal. It is directed by Jacques Tourneur in beautiful
Technicolor.
