La fille des boucaniers

Buccaneer's Girl stars Yvonne DeCarlo as a stowaway entertainer and Philip Friend as the pirate who nabs her in a 76 lighthearted minute romp. It's a bit too lighthearted however and after Buccaneer's Girl is over you're scratching your head, wondering what you saw.

Friend it seems is having one long practical joke on Robert Douglas. As a pirate he only robs ships that are sailing with merchant Douglas's cargoes. Friend in is other Clark Kent guise as a privateer commissioned by Douglas to clean out those pirates robbing him takes his profits and puts them to a Seaman's Fund which goes to build merchant ships for all of Douglas's rivals. We're never given a reason why all this started, but the two of them are in heat over French Cajun princess Andrea King. That is until DeCarlo comes into Friend's life and discovers his dual identity.

During the course of the film, Yvonne sings a few songs and gets into a nice chick fight with Andrea King. Not as good as what Marlene Dietrich and Una Merkel had in Destry Rides Again, but it has its moments.

Still it's a below par film all around except when Elsa Lanchester playing the part of a combination finishing school mistress and madam is on screen. Those moments are too few in Buccaneer's Girl.

Robin Hood-like pirate Baptiste takes only the ships of rich but wicked trader Narbonne. Fun loving Debbie, a passenger from his latest prize, stows away on the pirate ship and falls for the pirate; later, having become a New Orleans entertainer, she meets his alter ego, who's engaged to the governor's daughter.

This is a lighthearted Pirate tale with the usual scuttling ships, cutlass clashing and cannons firing, but that is scaled back a bit with the beautiful Yvonne DeCarlo ( as the title suggests) being the main character, getting involved with pirates and singing. It's pleasant time pass, the plot moves along briskly, Philip Friend as the Robin Hood-like character is charming, his chemistry with DeCarlo is great. Jay C flippen, Elsa Lanchester, seasoned villain Robert Douglas and Henry Daniell also add class to the proceedings.

As Maureen O'Hara, Rhonda Fleming, or Arlene Dahl, Yvonne de Carlo was the replacement solution after Maria Montez's departure from Universal studios by the late forties. Those actresses were hired for adventure films taking place in exotic settings, jungle, deserts, aboard ships in South seas, fighting against evil natives, seeking treasures. The lost perfume of many audiences childhood, full of fantasy, charm, action and romance. Here Frederic De Cordova the director shows his talent in terms of theatrical scenes, because he came from stage business. So, westerns, crime films or even adventures yarns were not his specialtity, and despite that, he was rather efficient if you watch closely the ones he made; he, the comedy, light hearted dramas he also made. For adventure exotic films, he was certainly not Edward Ludwig, Sidney Salkow or Lewis Foster, the greatest adventure films of the fifties, but you also can appreciate his YANKEE BUCANEER, made one year later, with Jeff Chandler; again a pirates film. This one BUCANEER'S GIRL deserves the watch, no problem. It is fast paced, colourful, action oriented. Enjoy.

Buccaneer's Girl is directed by Frederick De Cordova and jointly written by Samuel Golding, Joseph Hoffman, Joe May and Harold Shumate. It stars Yvonne De Carlo, Philip Friend, Robert Douglas, Elsa Lanchester and Henry Daniell. Music is scored by Walter Scharf and Technicolor cinematography is by Russell Metty.

Avast yee lubbers on the Universal lot as the radiant De Carlo plays a spitfire gal finding her man amongst much jollification on the piratical high seas.

Budget is cut close to the cloth, editing is C grade and the ending is so quick in coming you have to rewind just to check you didn't press the skip function on the remote control by mistake! While it's true, also, to say that the song and dance numbers inserted into the mix are badly choreographed and borderline embarrassing. This is one of those films where the trailer gives no real indication of just how jolly and cheap it is, a film that if I had paid at the cinema to see back on its release I would have been most annoyed. But many years later, with a pristine DVD transfer to sample along with a bottle of ice cold Chardonay? It's a pretty fun way to spend an hour and twenty minutes. On proviso, that is, you happen to be a fan of Technicolor swashbucklers made in knockabout fashion.

Russell Metty's colour photography is gorgeous, so much so it deserves a better movie, while costuming (Yvonne Wood) is of a high standard, particularly for the ladies. The cast, a mixed set of performers for sure, make the light weight material work, with the likes of Lanchester, Daniell & Douglas seriously knowing what is required. Friend cuts a handsome figure with his immaculate ruff's and pencil moustache, and in supporting slots Jay C. Flippen and Norman Lloyd leave favourable impressions. Scharf scores it with standard skull and crossbones flavours, which in turn sits easily with the frothy nature of the beast, and the fight sequences, resplendent with cheapo weapon props, are far from the worst in the genre.

With interesting twists and a good old sense of fun about it, there's enough here for the undemanding pirate fan to enjoy. Just don't expect the drama suggested by the trailer is all! 6/10

Very much a vehicle for Yvonne de Carlo, this - and though not terrible, it is still a fairly unremarkable seafaring adventure with far too much singing... Philip Friend is a man with a double life - a sort of maritime "Zorro" who leads a respectable enough life by day but is arch pirate "Baptiste" by night. De Carlo is "Deborah" a Louisiana crooner who falls for him and, despite his existing liaison with "Arlene Villon" (Andrea King) sets out to get her man. There are a couple of fun interventions from Elsa Lanchester and Henry Daniell, but the film really belongs to the ever evil Robert Douglas as ruthless rival "Narbonne" who learns of our secret and sets out to ruin "Baptiste". It's got plenty of cannon-fire, pirate attacks and duels - but is still a poor relation of many of these feisty gal meets sea rogue stories. If you like the genre - and I do - then it passes 80 minutes in colourful, if unoriginal, style.