Buccaneer's Girl

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.

When this swashbuckling DVD set was announced, I was rather annoyed about the inclusion of three obscure efforts with the popular and vintage AGAINST ALL FLAGS (1952) starring Errol Flynn; well, having watched all three now, this proved to be perhaps the most resistible of them. For the record, my copy jumps from the Universal logo (preceding all their DVD releases) to the beginning of the film omitting the credits entirely, then it pixellated terribly around the 64-minute mark, so that I had to skip to the next chapter (thus missing a couple of minutes) in order to keep watching the thing through to its conclusion!

The plot has a New Orleans setting with a pirate named Baptiste (Philip Friend, an unknown actor to me but an okay lead under the circumstances) who hides under the guise of an aristocrat in order to keep up the fight with chief villain Robert Douglas (aided in his nefarious deeds by two other notable character actors – Norman Lloyd and Henry Daniell). Guttersnipe Yvonne de Carlo – I recall watching her other swashbuckler with director de Cordova, THE DESERT HAWK (1950), as a child – and upper-class Andrea King vie for the dashing Friend's attentions (at one point, the two let their hair down and engage in a catfight over him during a ball!), while Jay C. Flippen appears as the hero's right-hand man. Incidentally, having seen this immediately after DOUBLE CROSSBONES (1951), it was amusing to realize that some of the sea-battle footage from BUCCANEER'S GIRL was replicated wholesale into the Donald O'Connor vehicle!

The film itself would be tolerable enough if it weren't for two huge flaws: for one thing, the action-less climax has to be the lamest ever devised for this type of fare; much more queasy, unfortunately, are de Carlo's trio of songs (under the tutelage of typically eccentric Elsa Lanchester) – with the last of them occurring just minutes before the end titles! – and for which the creator of the embarrassingly corny choreography ought to have been made to walk the plank himself.

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.

Handsomely mounted Yvonne De Carlo potboiler from Universal-International, which perfectly showcases a bygone era of bloodthirsty pirates and snooty aristocrats. Phillip Friend secures and flourishes in the dual roles of Captain Kingston and the cutthroat Baptiste. He has just the right amount of swagger and glint in his eye to pull it off. I like how Kingston supports the "Seaman's Fund" with his stolen booty. He is very much like a 19th century version of Robin Hood. But it's all quite unbelievable, really. Can he keep his identity a secret from the elites? Well, Miss De Carlo knows his true identity, and it's "Baptiste/Kingston's job to convince her of his own sincerity and goodwill. As for De Carlo's "Debbie McCoy," she sings three songs (and dances), gets into five scrapes, and exhibits a high degree of skill for escaping dire predicaments. She radiates a keen comedic flair for the broad material. While watching this movie, I developed a feeling that she reminded me of someone else. But I couldn't place the thought until she is caught napping in a shopkeeper's vegetable closet. She chews on a carrot, roles her eyes, and strolls confidently away from the prickly situation involving the storekeeper, his jealous wife, and a constable. And the actress she reminded me of: Lucille Ball. She's that talented here.

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