Le corsaire de la reine

Just as THE VIRGIN QUEEN (1955) dealt with Queen Elizabeth I's 'relationship' with Sir Walter Raleigh, this one involves her similar association with another well-known historical figure i.e. Sir Francis Drake. Unlike that film, however, which was done in lavish Hollywood terms, the title under review was a low-grade European venture, freely mixing the expected court intrigue and sea-faring stretches with elements of the swashbuckler genre, irrelevant romantic interludes and even instances of broad comedy (the discovery of potatoes, for instance, is attributed to a squaw's infatuation with Drake's right-hand man!). The brew proves uninspiring (despite interesting credentials, the best of which emerges to be Franco Mannino's rousing score) but undeniably entertaining in an unassuming way. Casting, too, is slightly above-average for this type of outing – with Rod Taylor (who had had an uncredited bit in the afore-mentioned THE VIRGIN QUEEN) a reasonably effective Drake, Keith Michell as his virile sidekick, Irene Worth as Elizabeth, Arturo (BLACK Sunday [1960]) Dominici as a Spanish ambassador, and there's even Terence Hill (still billed under his real name of Mario Girotti) as a conspirator and Michell's rival for the hands of one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting.

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.

Yikes, this is pretty poor.... I saw "The Birds" recently and thought that I would look into some other Rod Taylor films. This is a hoot - he plays the dashing Sir Francis Drake with Keith Michell and Irene Worth co-hamming it up magnificently in this Italian-made Elizabethan romp. Edy Vessel as the love interest for Michell is gloriously fake and the score repeats the same themes in an almost comical manner as the plucky privateers battle the Spaniards to pinch as much gold as they can whilst trying to thwart the plot to put Mary, Queen of Scots on the throne of England. You really ought to see this just to watch the bendy swords as it swashes and buckles along - there's even a song!

Geez, I read the review by emuir-1 and almost passed on this movie.

That would have been a bad mistake.

All the points made, that illustrated flaws in the movie, were based on ignorance.

First, there is a word 'demure' that apparently isn't in that reviewer's vocabulary along with a historical understanding of its meaning.

Ladies of that time period did not look directly at a gentleman's face for very long.

Politically correct? Nope. Reality? Yes.

And the joke about bad breath shows extreme ignorance. The tooth brush had yet to be invented. Shakespeare wrote of the 'sweet breath of youth' which refers to the fact that people who didn't have ANY oral hygiene regime had rotting teeth and EVERY adult had a mouth that smelled like a sewer. So she wouldn't have been faking - not wanting to be so close as to breathe in his breath. Lastly, I saw NO scenes where she is playing to the camera instead of acting her part – she just doesn't stare lovingly into his eyes while looking him square in the face.

While this might not go down in history as the best movie ever made I found all of the criticisms to be unjustified.

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".