El pirata de su majestad

At the beginning our protagonist Malcolm Marsh (Keith Mitchell) is besieged and attacked by a group of conspirators, and in the duel he is helped by the pirate/captain Francis Drake (Rod Taylor). Soon after, both join forces and Malcolm is named Drake's lieutenant and sets off towards the Spanish possessions in order to steal their treasures. So Sir Francis Drake goes on an expedition to the New World and steals a lot of gold and destroying Spanish ships. After making a daring getaway, Francis does to England where he protects Queen Elizabeth I (Irene Worth) from a network of spies who are plotting to overthrow her, while involving Mary Tudor (Esmeralda Ruspoli) who is imprisoned .All this in order to crown Mary as queen of England and Scotland. Then the king of Spain Philip II (Umberto Raho) plans the invasion of England with the Great Armada commanded by the Duke Medina Sidonia and trying to go first to Calais. Although the film does not have a historical perspective, being based on several hokey facts, some characters from the History appear, such as: Francis Drake, Queen Elizabeth I, Sir Francis Walsingham: Isabel I's advisor, Philip II of Spain, and Duke Medina-Sidonia who replaced Alvaro de Bazán in command of the Armada.

This is an ordinary mid-budget film set at sea, with the typical setting of the time in which it takes place. It's Rod Taylor and Keith Michell against the imperialist Spanish army. Glamorous Italian/British co-production with glittering costumes, evocative sets, spectacular scenes, wonderful palaces, fine photography by cameraman Giulio Gianini and a powerful score by composer Franco Mannino. It contains plenty of courtly intrigues, betrayals, battles, ship attacks, and plot twists; as well as sword fights and a little bit of humor. The picture was mediocrely directed by Rudolph Maté, and Primo Zeglio.

And adding some biographical details about Drake: He was an English privateer, explorer, slave trader, politician and vice-admiral. He led numerous expeditions of the English Royal Navy against targets in Spanish territory, both in mainland Spain and in American Spain. He led the third expedition to circumnavigate the world, whose survivors imitated, half a century later, the Magellan-Elcano enterprise and the García Jofre de Loaísa Expedition of 1525-1536. He participated in the attack on Cadiz in 1587, in the defeat of the Spanish Armada and in the disaster of the English Invincible, for which Drake fell into disgrace.

At a time when England and Spain were militarily opposed, Drake was considered a pirate by the Spanish authorities, while in England he has been valued as a privateer and patriot, and in his day he was honored as a hero, being knighted by Queen Elizabeth I. In 1585, as a result of the constant attacks by English privateers on the Spanish fleet and the English support for the United Provinces of the Netherlands, which at that time was fighting Spain in the Eighty Years' War, hostilities broke out between England and Spain, which gave rise to the Anglo-Spanish War. Queen Elizabeth I commissioned Drake to command a squadron tasked with attacking Spanish territories in India.

At just 25 years old, he embarked with his second cousin John Hawkins on an expedition led by the latter that had the slave trade as its mission. They passed through Cape Verde, Guinea and San Jorge de la Mina, where they captured two hundred black people; they crossed the Atlantic and arrived at Dominica, Margarita and Borburata, where they sold these men.

With the intention of heading towards Cartagena de Indias, a storm diverted them to the Gulf of Mexico, and when trying to take the fortress of San Juan de Ulúa, they were attacked and defeated by a Spanish escort fleet. Previously, the English had agreed not to use their cannons against the Spanish, so the Spanish were able to dock at the current port of Veracruz. In turn, the Spanish had agreed not to attack the British once they entered, but it was all a ruse to surprise them and recover the fruit of English plunder. In the encounter, the English lost two ships from their fleet and were forced to retreat. They arrived at Plymouth, England, at the end of January 1569, after a painful return trip due to lack of supplies. Despite a formal truce between the crowns of Spain and England, during that time the armed incidents between both maritime powers became more violent and frequent.

At the Battle of Gravelines, a decisive engagement in the fight against the Spanish Armada, Sir Francis Drake served under the command of Lord Charles Howard. The battle, which raged for nine hours, took place off the coast of Gravelines, France. A change in wind direction forced the Spanish to retreat into the North Sea. Drake was known for his innovative battle tactics. Instead of approaching enemy ships to board them, he ordered his ships to sail in line and stay a safe distance from the Spanish ships. His gunboats would then fire a deadly broadside with the sole purpose of sinking them. During the battle against the Spanish Armada, Drake used a tactic known as "fire ships." On the night of August 7, he sent eight small ships filled with flammable materials toward the anchored Spanish fleet. The ships were set on fire, causing great confusion among the Spanish and forcing them to cut their anchors to avoid being set on fire. Despite being greatly outnumbered, Drake's tactics and strategies proved extremely effective. The English fleet managed to repel the Armada and force its retreat.

I Never saw the Italian version of "Seven Seas to Calais" but the English version aired on AMC and was delightful. I wish I could find it somewhere on DVD its definitely worth the purchase. Fairly Young Rod Taylor & Keith Mitchell are awesome in this one and completely in the vain of 'The Virgin Queen' & 'Sea Hawk' but with Captain Draco attacking the Spanish treasure fleet's sailors plundering the plunderers.

Not to mention If hearing someone mention the words 'princess potato' or yell out "Mr Marsh!" doesn't at least put smile on your face after seeing this film... I don't know what will.

I also have to mention this film inspired me to read up on Sir Francis Drake to which I am grateful.

I downloaded this movie to watch for free, mainly because of the main actor Rod Taylor. Beside the actor Terence Hill I really did not know of any of the other actors. If you are expecting a "Troy" like movie with 1,000's of CGI warships and 10's of 1,000's of soldiers/sailor you will be disappointed. This is made in the early 1960's! They did rather well with the actors they had, some real ships that they could use & decent use of model ships in the final battle.

Rod Taylor was clearly selected for the lead part because he was well known to most movie goers at this time. I have a number of his movies in my collection and he does not disappoint in any of them. This movie covered lightly the history of Sir Francis Drake. Played by Mr. Taylor. The supporting actors/actresses are mainly European and likely not as well known, but they provide a good enjoyable supporting cast. I really liked the role of Keith Michell, whom I did not know of as an actor. His role as 2nd in command to Drake had humor and action that was enjoyable. As a younger officer under Drake he found himself in a somewhat embarrassing position on one of their cruises. He also has a number of other scenes of action that are enjoyable.

I suggest you sit back and enjoy a movie made almost 60 years ago and that it is better than much of what is produced today.

Rod Taylor essays the role of Sir Francis Drake in Seven Seas To Calais, a tale of piracy and politics in the Elizabethan Age. Sometimes those two professions were blended quite a bit.

A good deal of this has been gone over in the two films that Flora Robson did playing Queen Elizabeth I, Fire Over England and The Sea Hawk. In this film we get Sir Francis Drake's round the world voyage picking up all kinds of loot for the British crown, stolen from the Spanish who would be using it to finance their great Armada to crush those Protestant upstarts over on that island kingdom. We also have the plot to assassinate Elizabeth and put her Catholic kinsmen Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne. That's woven into the film where Drake's aid Keith Michell woos lady in waiting Edy Vessel. But she doesn't like the fact that he's off having all kinds of adventures. While Michell's away, Vessel is courted by Sir Thomas Babington played by Terence Hill before he went into spaghetti westerns who gets her involved in the plot against Elizabeth. Babington was a real life figure whose capture and confession by that other real life figure Francis Walsingham turned up the whole plot that led to Mary Stuart's execution.

Action and intrigue are the hallmarks of Seven Seas To Calais. But I fear a lot of it is rehashed from those old classics which were done a lot better.

Sorry, I couldn't help but go right to the most painful scenes to watch in this non-epic 'swashbukler' with my review title.

Sir Francis (ably portrayed by Rod Taylor) and his band of Merry Men land in the Americas and encounter an equally merry tribe of Native Americans. Twittering, lighthearted music plays in the background as Sir Francis and his aides flirt and smoke the peace pipe with Caucasian actresses made up like Native American women. Yuck! How far removed was this scene from so many low-grade cardboard Westerns that Hollywood churned out in the 1950's and early 60's?

To be fair, the costumes are true to the period, and there is a fair amount of action throughout the movie. The court intrigue, however, gets old fast.

Rod Taylor was a terrific actor, and deserved better than this dribble. And he DID do much better one year later in 'The Birds', the apex (outside of 'The Time Machine'), imho, of his career. Still, I think of his decision around this time to turn down the role of James Bond, 007. "I wanted to tear my hair out every time a new Bond film was released", he was quoted as saying. Sigh. "Coulda shoulda woulda".