Il corsaro

This is a Spanish-Italian film, but many other nations are involved as well. The protagonist, Geoffrey Brooks, a corsair, actually fights all nations on his long adventurous course to freedom, he takes ships from both French and Portuguese, each time acquiring a better ship and letting the used one go down, and in all these many fights and battles with different established national marines, there are amazingly few off the corsairs who go down while all the French, Portuguese and others are pierced and thrown over board in masses. There are a few pretty ladies also involved in the story, Geoffrey Brooks loves two of them and is also sometimes betrayed, so the whole story is like a prehistoric James Bond intrigue at sea with no revolvers but plenty of swords, blunderbusses and cannons ripping ships apart, while the protagonist every now and then steals a kiss or a bed with one one of the ladies. The adventure is flamboyant with an impressing finale, the pirates using a religious festival to conquer an unassailable castle, but consistently superficial - the hero has no depth and only thinks of gold, although he ultimately allows himself to be convinced that freedom is better than money.

In 1970,this kind of pirate movie was already out of date.Only the long discussion about the re-population of the island by thieves ,renegades and prostitutes saved from the gibbet indicates time has passed: the bawdy language which insists on the "stallion "use of the men would have had problems with censorship ten years before,for which is essentially a movie aimed at the teenager/children's market.

Although made by Tony Mulligan aka Antonio Mollica ,only the lead is American:Robert Woods ,who resembles George Hilton,another specialist of the genre at the time.

After a "cultural " introduction in which we are told that "buccaneers " could end up serving a country and thus become corsairs ,blah blah ,blah" ,most of the "screenplay" consists of duels-exclusively fought by the hero ,with a little help from others,now and then -,battles on the ships or on dry land...which becomes monotonous in the long run .

Besides the movie hesitates between tongue-in-chick humor (the priest counting his money,supposedly for the poor,the blue jokes in the hold)and "deeply moving" scenes (the death of Jeffrey's henchman);it loses on all counts.

This is the attractive tale of a buccaneer who takes over a ship of corsairs and wreak havoc on the high seas. Stars an English buccaneer , a philander adventurer named Jeffrey Brook : Robert Woods who is imprisoned and sent to the colony of Canada. Aboard the ship along with other prisoners : Tania Alvarado , Cris Huerta , as thieves , crooks and prostitutes , Brook organizes a mutiny , fighting against the nasty captain : Angel Del Pozo in a thrilling fencing , as he takes the ship and is acclaimed the new captain. From now on , he battles on the high seas against the Spanish and Portuguese ships . In the island of Luson , he joins rebels : Armando Calvo to overthrow the new Portuguese governor : Miguel Del Castillo who eliminated the previous rulers.

This is an enjoyable entertainment juvenile romp, displaying noisy action , swordplay , fistplay and drops of humor with tongue in cheek. This release has some nice moments here and there and even nice battle-ship scenes with a lot of extras struggling and swashbuckling . Stars the always likeable Robert Woods who shows his athletic skills . He starred several Spaghetti Westerns , outstanding the following ones : Black Jack, Seven Guns for the Mc Gregor , My Name is Pecos , El Puro , Machine Gun Killlers . Being a Spanish/Italian co-production there appears several familiar faces of the Sixties and Seventies that usually worked in Spaghetti , Peplum , Giallo or thrillers , such as : the fatty Cris Huerta , Armando Calvo , Angel del Pozo , Miguel Del Castillo , Luis Induni , among others

Including an evocative and thrilling musical score by prolific Angelo Francesco Lavagnino . As well as atmospheric cinematography by Emilio Foriscot , being shot on location in Catalonian coast , Spain . The motion picture was regularly directed by Antonio Mollica , though is entertaining and amusing enough . Mollina was a mediocre writer/producer/director assistant and filmmaker who only directed three low budget films : two spaghetti western titled Twenty paces to death , Django born to kill or Nato per Uccidere and this Il Corsaro 1970 . Rating : 5/10 , average . Only for Robert Woods fans and Italian/Spanish co-productions or Euro-trash enthusiasts.