La bahia del contrabando

When the wreckers start operating in his local community, it falls to "Squire Trevenyan" (Peter Cushing) to try to stop this ruthless and brutal crime. Thing is, though, when his son "Christopher" (John Fraser) returns home one night with details of who is doing what to whom, his father is suddenly nervous, compromised - but why? Is it just because the lad has a crush on "Louise" (Michèle Mercier) or because he is afraid of her brute of a father "Black John" (Bernard Lee). Anyway, time to send for the Redcoats! It's a standard adventure film this with little jeopardy or anything new as it sails, predictably, towards it's conclusion. Some of the foliage looks a bit out of place - not sure we have palm trees here in the UK, but Cushing still has a little of the charisma needed and Lee makes for a good rumbustious brigand. Though I don't think i will ever recall it, I like the genre and I quite enjoyed this light-weight and busky costume drama.

With swashbucklers currently all the rage on British TV the native cinema was sure to follow.

John Gilling anticipated the sort of hokum he'd soon make for Hammer Films with this rollicking nonsense set in Cornwall; which had the advantage over the Hollywood model of having the use of authentic British locations.

To that end he staged a turf war with highwaymen v. Smugglers in the style of cavaliers v. Roundheads; the former led by William Franklyn - looking very smooth in a tricorn hat - whose bit on the side was a busty barmaid played by Liz Fraser. (Peter Cushing as a thin-lipped local magistrate with a penchant for flogging and transportation inevitably - SLIGHT SPOILER COMING - proves to be in league with the pirates.)

Writer/producer/director John Gilling's story is set in 17th-century Cornwall when fishermen were hit by heavy taxes and turned to smuggling in order to supplement their income. Here, the village squire Trevenyan (Peter Cushing) puts together an army in order to wipe out smuggling from his community. However, the town is terrorised by a group of cut-throats lead by Black John (Bernard Lee) who force ships to land at Smugglers Bay and then ruthlessly murders their crews for the sake of their cargo. Unfortunately, Black John has a hold over Trevenyan and as a result, poor fisherman Francois Lejeune (George Coulouris) is charged for the shipwrecking as well as the smuggling he has done and is to be deported to a foreign colony. The squire's son Christopher (John Fraser) is in love with Lejeune's daughter Louise (Michele Mercier) and teams up with local highwayman known simply as the Captain (William Franklyn) in order to run Black John out of town and to prevent Lejeune's deportation.

All in all, FURY AT SMUGGLERS' BAY, is well enough done and entertaining enough while its on. I mean who could resist a film with such interesting credits. Bernard Lee as Black John who was soon to become famous as "M" in the Bond series, Peter Cushing as Squire Trevenyan and William Franklyn as the Captain. In addition, there's one of Britain's best known cameramen Harry Waxman behind the camera and John Gilling (an interesting British director who made such classics as THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES and THE VOICE OF MERRILL) is on hand to direct. Yet somehow after one's seen the film, the next morning there's nothing to remember.

There's something foreboding, yet striking, of the image of cliffs, heavy tides, foaming water, ships on vehement waves, and winding roads; you get that in abundance in this tale of skullduggery in a Cornwall village. You also get swordfights and highwaymen robbing coaches. Shootouts. You get the picture.

The story -The squire of a small Cornish community has always turned a blind eye to smuggling, until wreckers turn up in the area to lure ships onto the rocks and steal their cargo. Knowing some villagers are handling stolen goods, he comes down hard on wreckers and smugglers alike, enlisting the military to deal with the problem - but the villagers rebel, and turn to an infamous highwayman to defend them.

Like Peter Cushing said in his biography, this film is like a western, with plenty of shootouts, and riding. It's a rumbustious yarn, which is a bit ponderous at times, but the locations, the action and the acting - especially by Peter Cushing and Bernard Lee - enliven things. The heroes - John Fraser and William Franklyn - put in the physical work adeptly with sword and gun. Michele Mercier and Liz Fraser offer eye candy. A pleasant enough viewing on a Sunday afternoon.

The title tells all in this second-rate but enjoyable adventure on a popular subject; star Peter Cushing gives it his all, as ever, and he's matched by a larger-than-life performance by Bernard Lee as the chief villain. Still, Cushing's previous collaboration with writer/director Gilling – THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS (1959) – had proved a lot more substantial (despite being shot in black-and-white).

Anyway, the remaining cast includes veteran George Coulouris, playing a French merchant convicted by squire Cushing as a wrecker, while John Fraser (in the role of the latter's son) and Michele Mercier (as the Frenchman's daughter) comprise the requisite love interest. Other notable characters to figure in the plot are a mysterious highwayman known only as "The Captain" and a young boy who goes by the name of Juma (also the name of the actor!), both of whom start off by being in cahoots with Lee and his gang but gradually change loyalties to emerge heroic by the film's conclusion. The widescreen print I watched (culled from the Region 2 DVD) displays some color fading but is otherwise pretty decent.

In the end, when compared to the similar but superior CAPTAIN CLEGG (1962; with Peter Cushing in the title role) – which being a Hammer production is, unsurprisingly, a more horror-oriented venture – this is unassuming family fare; two more films in the same vein I'd love to catch up with (both, incidentally, Hammer titles co-starring Christopher Lee) but which have never turned up in my neck of the woods are PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER (1962; also directed by Gilling) and THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES (1964)...