Il dominatore dei 7 mari

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.

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.

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.

They appear to have shot two movies: One about Rod Taylor dashingly taking on Spaniards in the New World. The swordplay is passable, I suppose. But there's something about the way people perform their ''stunts'' or move about that is so laughably inept you wander whether a 94-year-old Douglas Fairbanks or recently deceased Errol Flynn couldn't have been remummified to do some scenes. Drake's sidekick has less athletic agility than Zero Mostel. And then there is the other movie they glued on to the adventure. One about palace intrigue and a love interest left behind. Who cares. And who cares. The producers, to their credit, spent enough money that we get scenes of real men on real ships on real water, on what I assume is the European coastline somewhere. So it has a visual appeal. On paper it probably seemed to Rod Taylor like it would be a fun way to spend the summer of '62. If they'd only concentrated on his adventures and hired a better choreographer, they might have had something here.

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!