Die Piraten von Capri

The Pirates of Capri is a cheaply made B movie shot on location in Italy. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer who, a few years earlier had made Detour, the quintessential B movie, it is probably better than you might expect, although hampered by a treatment too short on action.

Louis Hayward plays Captain Sirocco, the Zorro-like champion of the downtrodden peasants and defender of the Queen Carolina (Binnie Barnes), the sister of Marie Antoinette, who is kept ignorant of her people's treatment by the evil Baron von Holstein (Rudolph Serato) and who is so fearful of suffering the same fate as her sister that just the mere mention of the word 'people' sends her into something of a tizzy.

Like Zorro, Captain Sirocco leads a double life. Not only is he the fearless do-gooder intent on bringing down the evil Baron, he is also the outrageously foppish Count di Amalfi, a member of the Queen's court who delights in baiting the Baron. Serato makes a fine villain with his sculpted beard and mistrusting gaze, but Hayward's effete portrayal, while no doubt exactly what was required of him, quickly grows tiresome.

Ulmer's direction is interesting throughout, and Anchise Brizzi's cinematography is exceptional for such a low budget feature.

Like all Ulmer's films, it gives the impression of a somewhat haphazard shooting all the way, the characters being rather superficial and not all of them convincing enough (the chief of police is totally out of place, acting only with artifice,) while the cinematography is overwhelmingly well carried out and the most professional element of the film. To this comes Nino Rota's slightly Pucciniesque music giving everything an extra lustre, and it is all filmed on location in the most romantic surroundings of Naples and Capri, with almost only Italian actors except Hayward and Bonnie Barnes, the queen. The story is the revolution of Naples around 1800 when the old royal house was disposed of, Louis Hayward leading the rebellion as the Queen's favourite but acting also as a masked leader of the rebels, he gives a good show all the way, and there are some comical instances as well. Naturally you wait through the entire film for the final settlement between the tyrannous police chief and Hayward, and of course it takes appropriate place in the finale. The whole set-up and action is like a classical Italian opera by Verdi or Puccini, and Nino Rota's music closely relates to that tradition. It is a great swashbuckler entertainment in the tradition of Fairbanks and Errol Flynn, who couldn't have done it better.

I wasn't expecting much from this period romp but, following an uncertain beginning (actually, the solitary pirate sequence itself), once the scene shifted to the court intrigues, it settled down into being a likable - if highly derivative - Grade 'B' costumer. Ulmer endows the location-shot film with a reasonable amount of style (his trademark shadowy lighting and odd camera angles coming into play most prominently during the busy climax). The plot basically revamps the Zorro saga (with Louis Hayward doubling as aristocratic fop and masked bandit) - thus making it an ideal companion to THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940), which I rewatched via the Fox SE DVD the previous day - but, given the lead character's quest for vengeance and his involvement with a theatrical troupe, it appears that the film was equally inspired by Rafael Sabatini's "Scaramouche"! The film emerges patchy as a whole (with the script failing to be witty, its attempts at comedy relief are especially resistible), but the dramatic scenes - particularly where villain Massimo Serato is concerned - compel some attention, and the derring-do is surprisingly adroit.

This had been released on DVD by All Day Entertainment, as both a stand-alone edition and as part of a collection dedicated to Ulmer. I had been tempted time and again to purchase some of them but eventually settled on just the individual disc of BLUEBEARD (1944) - which was excellent; I did manage to rent THE STRANGE WOMAN (1946) eventually by way of a cheap DVD edition from another label - but that film left no particular impression on me. As for the rest, thankfully, all but one turned up recently on Italian TV in their original language with subtitles: apart from THE PIRATES OF CAPRI, I recently watched DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL (1957) but still need to check out STRANGE ILLUSION (1945)...

Exciting court-intrigue, costume drama, propelled to almost greatness by Nino Rota's beautiful score. I was impressed with its tempo and enjoyed the action-filled scenes, and even when the scenes were loaded with dialogs, they were delivered with passion by the fine cast. It is one of those movies in which you do not know who directed what, and where you find Edgar G. Ulmer co-directing with another filmmaker, in this case Italian Giuseppe Maria Scotese (although each artist was given the sole director credit in the copies of their respective countries). It is interesting that both men had backgrounds in the art field, Ulmer being a production designer early in his career, and Scotese starting as a painter and exhibiting his works. The richly detailed sets and costumes, as well as the lush cinematography are more impressive being this a black and white production, and it helped very much filming in Italy, using real and imposing buildings of the past and a majestic ship. Although Louis Hayward was no longer the dashing young man of «Anthony Adverse» (1936) or «The Saint in New York» (1938), first screen outing of the Simon Templar, he was still the agile action man as Captain Sirocco, the swashbuckling alter ego of the effeminate and ironic Count Amalfi. To Hayward's fine characterizations, Massimo Serato effectively counterpoints as the villainous Baron Holstein, the chief of police who wants to seize power of the kingdom of Napoli, ruled by weak queen Marie Caroline, played by Binnie Barnes. Mariella Lotti is the love interest and Mikhail Rasumny provides the comic elements of the plot. Recommended.

I first caught this movie (english version) on TV when I was about 12. I thought it was terrific! Now, much older and wiser, I've seen it again--terrific it isn't, but it's a nice grade-B costume flick, replete with revolution, a Zorro-like hero, a villainous Baron Scarpia of a police chief, and a dandy duel-to-death at the end. What still makes it fun is its Italian neo-realist visual style and lighting, and even a few touches of the Italian classics of the late '40's (shot of suffering child in raid on the island). It's fun as a no-brainer. I wonder what the Italian version was like? Was it shot in two versions or just dubbed?