Corsário dos Sete Mares

Just saw 7 seas movie. I did not hate it at all. the scenery is adequate and the color was alright. Some scenes were a little hard to swallow but the actors made the film believable. Was fun to see sexy John Payne is something else different from Twentieth Century Fox musicals. Mr.Payne can really show emotions when especially he is mad...watch his forehead and his eyes.Donna reed i simply adore...she has a face that you cant forget. Reminds me a lot of my all time favorite MISS PAULETTE GODDARD. The supporting cast is all recommended and the plot is simple but effective. Really worth a watch. You no what.....todays movies may be advanced and up to date.....id rather see JOHN Payne as a pirate anytime compared to Johnny Depp who has everything handed to him on a silver platter. Yester years actors really worked and sweated to give the best performance ever...and they didn't have much help like the actors of today have.

1953's "Raiders of the Seven Seas" is a colorful swashbuckler for handsome star John Payne, the second time he was paired with Lon Chaney on the open sea. Where 1949's modern day "Captain China" found the two in brutal opposition, here they are 16th century comrades in plunder once Payne's Barbarossa escapes the Moroccan Sultan's harem and frees the slaves of a passing Spanish ship bound for Tortuga. Once there, Barbarossa is instantly mesmerized by the Governor's beautiful daughter Alita (Donna Reed), taking her prisoner once he appropriates more freed slaves for his growing crew. Her arranged marriage to Captain Salcedo (Gerald Mohr) is compromised by his greed and arrogance, as well as his rivalry with Captain Goiti (Henry Brandon), whose successes earn him a promotion to general. Barbarossa may be a rogue but with John Payne in charge, it's impossible to find anyone to outshine his endearing attempts to woo the stubborn Alita to his side. Lon Chaney's friendly Peg Leg is essentially Barbarossa's first mate, and his shocking murder at Alita's expense leaves her stunned and no longer willing to trust her deceptive fiancee. The various twists and turns make the climax well worth waiting for, and it's one of those rare opportunities to see gorgeous Donna Reed on screen in living color. The script may at first seem formulaic, but with such likable leads it comes off as more than a passing diversion (Chaney would play another sympathetic role in one final seafaring adventure, 1954's "The Black Pirates," opposite Anthony Dexter).

Just watched this obscure pirate flick on Netflix Streaming. Since I've been devoting these summer months-in honor of the recent new "Dallas" series on TNT-to the original cast, regular and recurring, of the first series in order to review their work, on TV and film, in chronological order, this was next on the list with the second Miss Ellie-Donna Reed-in the heroine role opposite that of the hero-John Payne. Payne plays Barbarossa, a pirate who fights the villainous Spainards, one of whom was planned for an arraigned marriage with Ms. Reed. I'll stop there and just say that I found much of the action and dialogue much fast paced but also clear enough for me to understand what and why whatever happens is going on. Also, I liked Lon Chaney Jr.'s supporting performance as sidekick Peg Leg. So on that note, Raiders of the Seven Seas is worth a look if you're interested in these obscure old-time adventures.

My fourth trip to the Maltese sexton who's been an avid film buff/collector/projectionist all his life provided me with the opportunity to watch this solid seafaring adventure (albeit opening rather incongruously in a Moroccan Sheik's harem!) which, in the words of the award-winning lyricist friend who (as usual) set up the screening, was very popular locally in its day among schoolboys and is still fondly remembered today among people of his generation. Although perhaps not one to be mentioned in books on film history (much less criticism) – I don't think I've ever come across it in essays I've read specifically dealing with the swashbuckler genre – the title itself has a familiar ring to it and, actually, I do recall catching a glimpse of it in the early days of Cable TV.

Another reason for the film's relative neglect over the years is the fact that it was not a major studio effort (Global Productions but released theatrically through United Artists) and has second-league stars (John Payne and Donna Reed) as leads. Furthermore, the film-makers behind the low-budget studio-bound RAIDERS OF THE SEVEN SEAS may not have had the required dough to erect the necessary sets but at least proved savvy enough to shoot it in Technicolor – by pioneering color cinematographer W. Howard Greene, no less – for added vividness (even though the print I saw screened theatrically boasted the tell-tale signs of aging via a constant reddish hue for most of the film's first half). Having said that, this negative aspect is ironically suited to the material at hand since Payne stars as legendary Pirate Barbarossa (Red Beard) with his hirsute attributes appropriately colored in that fashion (even when posing as a beggar in his nemesis' household, which begs the question of why he wasn't suspected at all); wondering why Payne seemed to drop off the cinematic radar in the late 1950s, I learned from his IMDb biography that he had suffered facial scars in a terrible car accident in 1962! For the record, I have obtained (and have further access to) several John Payne movies of late – although, regrettably, not his other Technicolor pirate yarn CARIBBEAN (1952).

Anyhow, to get back to the film proper: no self-respecting pirate goes without a genial sidekick by his side and Lon Chaney Jnr. (as the one-legged old sea dog Peg-Leg) fits the bill here and in turn has a resourceful kid to take care of. Perhaps thankfully, however, we are spared the would-be comic relief characteristics that usually pervade both these personalities in similar fare and, in truth, it must be said that RAIDERS OF THE SEVEN SEAS has an admirably somber tone throughout that is atypical for pirate adventure pictures. Indeed, having Peg-Leg murdered by a duplicitous member of their gang (Anthony Caruso) and the awaiting folk – including, so we are told, women and children – mercilessly wiped out at their hide-out by the villainous Spaniards (Gerard Mohr and Henry Brandon) gives the whole an unexpectedly Shakespearean tragedy feel a' la "Henry V"!

It also goes without saying that Reed is, at first, understandably miffed that Payne has abducted her from her pampered surroundings to his island hideaway and that she bribes Caruso to set her free but, what is also unusual here is that Payne's predictable love for Reed actually seems to cloud his judgment and make him see red {sic} with jealousy whenever she's around Caruso and, if that wasn't enough evidence of his true feelings for her, he gives up the gold ransom he had been paid for her freedom! Director Sidney Salkow – who was an old hand at this type of thing, including a Sterling Hayden/Rhonda Fleming swashbuckler called THE GOLDEN HAWK (1952) which, happily, also proudly forms part of the above-mentioned projectionist's collection – doubled as a co-writer/producer here but, at least from this one preliminary viewing, it's rather unfortunate that, for all its incidental pleasures and uncommon ingredients, RAIDERS OF THE SEVEN SEAS lacks the requisite number of memorable sequences or characters (perhaps even strong musical backing would have sufficed) which might have made it a much-better known film of its type – rather than being relegated to the hazy recollections of an age-old theatrical visit in their childhood days of an appreciative few.

Raiders Of The Seven Seas is a fair movie ( certainly not Errol Flynn). It Not John Payne's best ( which were all of the noir variety: The Crooked Way, Kansas City Confidential and.99 River st ( plus Silver Lode that although it was a western was very much a noir type)). Nor was it a musical which he did plenty of and I avoided. It is a movie you will forget you ever seen, because you will not love it or hate it.