Les corsaires de Tortuga

This is a fairly ordinary boys' pirate adventure memorable only for the over the top performance from Leticia Roman as the reluctant stowaway aboard Ken Scott's galleon embarked for the Caribbean and a battle of wits with Captain Henry Morgan (Robert Stephens) who has returned to his buccaneering ways after briefly working for the King of England.

Roman acts as if she's just downed a pint of strong black coffee, and no doubt most self-respecting sailors would have thrown her overboard after having had their way with her. Somehow, though, not only does she make it intact all the way to Jamaica but she also manages to get Scott's insipid Captain Bart to fall in love with her.

Robert Stephens as a slightly unhinged Morgan given to smacking the rump of his ever so slightly raddled lady companion is the highlight of the film, although he doesn't receive the amount of screen time he deserves. Curious to see British comedian Dave King appearing as one of Scott's swashbuckling sidekicks too. Other than that there really isn't a lot to say about this flick.

It has been a long time since I've seen this film, over 20 yrs in fact, but there were bits of detail that made it stick in my mind this long. For instance, the character named PeeWee had a distinctive style of sword fighting: he had the rapier or saber in the right hand but he wore a black glove on his left. After some research, I found the glove was used to bat away the blade and acted as a main gouche. Those types of details kept me watching the screen and firmly seated it in my memory. It was a typical pirate movie with the usual stereotypical roles, but it was fun to watch and little bits of the unusual peeked out here and there. I wish I had a chance to watch it again.

Pirates Of Tortuga has Captain Ken Scott who is a privateer on a special mission from the Admiralty. He's been told that Henry Morgan the pirate king with whom they had a deal with when Great Britain was at war with Spain has gone rogue again and set himself in grand style living on Tortuga Island as a pirate king. His living of course is the commerce of the merchant fleet of the West Indies. He's been so good at it that Jamaica is close to starvation.

Scott's mission is relieve Jamaica first then get Morgan. Not so easy, but with his picked crew of buccaneers he's confident that they'll get the job done.

Going along for the ride is stowaway Leticia Roman, a cut purse from London who Scott feels sorry for. She's trouble at first, but proves her worth.

Olympic track star Rafer Johnson has a small part in Pirates Of Tortuga and Robert Stephens plays a dastardly Morgan.

Pirates Of Tortuga was done on the cheap with ample stock footage from such 20th Century Fox classics as the Black Swan and Anne Of The Indies.

Pleasant afternoon viewing for action/adventure fans.

Oh my. 20th Century Fox must have burned with shame and embarrassment at this wretched turkey being released under their aegis. I enjoy almost all old movies, and up until viewing Pirates of Tortuga had never seen a film that was ALL bad, without any redeeming qualities or entertainment value at all ... but this is the one. Pirates is so very inept in every respect that it can't even be enjoyed as one of those "so bad it's good" pictures. The direction is almost non-existent, with scenes that drag on as is a first rehearsal had been filmed, and filmed before it had even been blocked. This plodding footage is interspersed with stock shots and, in cases, entire scenes lifted from earlier (and MUCH better) movies, and the inserts are glaringly obvious, particularly in the first battle at sea (thirty or so background extras listlessly waving swords at each other as if half asleep, never varying their position, suddenly interrupted by a genuinely action-packed insert from The Black Swan!). The cast is headed by lacklustre Ken Scott, who had lent his wooden presence to other Fox productions (his supporting role in Stopover Tokyo helping to sink that particular dud). John Richardson looks fabulous, but has no technique, looks somewhat lost, and after this film went back to virtual extra status until his breakthrough a few years later in She and One Million Years BC. Worst of all, in fact the worst performance I have ever seen by a leading lady in a studio production, comes from Leticia Roman, a pretty but spectacularly untalented Italian girl playing a cockney and spouting lines like "lord love a duck" and "you ain't ever treated me like a lay-dee" in a voice that's a cross between Monica Vitti and Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. I am in danger here of making Pirates of Tortuga sound like something worth sitting through in order to have a giggle, but believe me it is NOT!

This film essentially begins with an English navy vessel just pulling into port with cargo they wish to sell. It's then that the captain of the ship, "Ken Scott" (Bart Paxton) is immediately summoned for a meeting with his navy superiors and is told that, after selling his merchandise, he is to set sail once again-this time for the island of Tortuga where a pirate by the name of "Captain Henry Morgan" (Robert Stephens) has established as his home base and is strangling all commerce that ventures into that area. To that effect, his plan is to masquerade as a pirate himself in order to infiltrate Henry Morgan's operation. What he doesn't know, however, is that a young woman by the name of "Meg" (Leticia Roman) has secretly snuck aboard his ship and--upon being detected--becomes a big distraction during the entire voyage there. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I was a bit disappointed with this movie because it lacked the grandeur and excitement often found in films of this type. Likewise, although the acting wasn't bad necessarily, I think the film would have certainly benefited from a better cast as well. In any case, while viewers looking for a grade-B pirate movie could probably do worse, I wasn't really impressed with it and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.