Il tesoro dei corsari

The reason the DVD releases of this film are in black and white is because nobody can get their hands on a color print of this public domain film, a modest sea story at best.

Distributed for television thru Allied Artists, DVD's (or VHS) on the market at this time for this title are all coming from the same 16MM television print. Films distributed for television prior to 1963 were often distributed in b/w prints, because the bulk of viewers did not have color sets anyway. Striking b/w prints for television was also cheaper, as it often involved quite a few prints to cover all stations running a film on a syndicated basis.

Manfish is based on two entwined Edgar Allan Poe stories: 'The Gold Bug' and 'The Tell-Tale Heart'. It's an eerie seaworthy treasure seeking adventure film with a quite a few thrills that kept me glued to the screen.

Captain Brannigan (John Bromfield) of the ship named Manfish - is a man who becomes obsessed with finding treasures of gold. While Swede (Lon Chaney Jr.) is a man with a heart-of-gold and loves his only home "The Manfish". The two sets sail on an adventure that leads them into a world of treachery, murder and gold - lots of gold.

The movie is not actually classified as a horror film but it is a film that some of the fans of horror might enjoy - especially if they like Lon Chaney, Jr.

8/10

"A trio of treasure hunters is searching the West Indies for a hidden fortune. The lure of gold makes for a rise in tension as the men come closer to the treasure's location. The deep-sea divers hope to track down the gold, but find that greed and hatred leads to murder," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis. "Manfish" is the name of their boat, not a monster. The skeleton who gives muscular Captain John Bromfield (as Brannigan) his half of the treasure map is very good. Old salt Victor Jory (as Professor) provides the other half of the map. First mate Lon Chaney Jr. (as Swede) plays dumb, and sexy Tessa Prendergast (as Alita) guards the rum (not very well, obviously). Serious editing and continuity problems mar the picture, which otherwise might have amounted to something.

*** Manfish (2/56) W. Lee Wilder ~ John Bromfield, Victor Jory, Lon Chaney Jr.

John Bromfield is the busted skipper of the ship, with Lon Chaney Jr. His dull but amiable crew. . He finds a map to a pirate treasure, but can't make heads nor tails of it. Beachcomber Victor Jory can, and offers to split. But neither he nor Bromfield figure on splitting with a partner, and dead men tell no tales.

It's another B movie directed by W. Lee Wilder, whom brother Billy called "A dull son of a b***h. Fortunately he has a good underwater cameraman in Scotty Welbourne, who shoots Jamaica footage well, and his wife, Tessa Prendergast, even better. Jory acts up a storm, and that keeps the second half of this movie going.

Although its title would lead one to expect a poor man's CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954), the uninitiated could not be blamed for refuting this film's claim as Horror; however, they only have to look at the source of the script – two tales by Edgar Allan Poe, namely "The Gold Bug" and "The Tell-Tale Heart"; it is a decidedly clever blending of, frankly, highly disparate narratives and one that – on paper, at least – works better than it ought to! The fact that the end result is not so great, then, reflects more on the film-makers' talent (or lack thereof) in putting the various elements together; one wonders just what the director's more famous brother, Billy, would have crafted out of it! The first storyline, dealing with the hunt for pirate treasure, is adequately delineated – accentuated by ample underwater footage that, rather squeamishly, involves the capture of large sea turtles (years before CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST {1980}!); the second – relegated to the last 10 minutes or so – picks up after the two main characters have a definite falling-out and one is haunted by the 'noisy' ripples in the water directly above the spot where the other lays buried! Would-be ladies' man John Bromfield makes for a thoroughly unsympathetic lead, while Victor Jory – growing progressively more intense – is suitably sinister as the loot-mad Professor; Lon Chaney Jr. as "Swede" competently recreates his famous Lennie persona from OF MICE AND MEN (1939), which he could practically do in his sleep by then, and he does come off as grating eventually – but he manages a hilarious moment when he forces his contemptuous captain to wipe a gob of spit with his own foot off the floor of the titular rickety vessel, which the burly and fading genre star venerates as if it were a woman! Though the Caribbean locale allows for adequate locale colour, this is over-emphasized throughout via a number of resistible exotic tunes – which, along with Bromfield's equally unappetizing romantic dallying – definitely proves the film's low point! By the way, though the end credits clearly state this to have been shot in the DeLuxe colour process, apparently all surviving copies are in black-and-white!