B-grade pirate flick
I saw this film quite a few times growing up on independent TV stations. I didn't think it was anything too spectacular then, but hey, it was a pirate flick, and you can't go too wrong... right? Well, before the days of corporate run focus groups and test market screenings for films, the studio moguls, banking on what they believed would sell, would ride movie trends like the corporates do today. Back then Westerns and Pirate flicks were all the rage, and in 1961, hoping to revitalize a waning market, 20th Century Fox invested in this thing.
They must've done it on the cheap. Recycleing old studio props and sets, it looks like they cast bit part players in supporting roles. That and the cinematography is pretty bland, though not too far from b-movie standards at the time.
It's a market driven film. No standards or rules are being bent or pushed. There's a few social messages snuck in here and there, but nothing too shocking by contemporary American social standards.
There's nothing really innovative or impressive about this film, but it does offer two hours of pirate escapism. Take it for what it is.
They must've done it on the cheap. Recycleing old studio props and sets, it looks like they cast bit part players in supporting roles. That and the cinematography is pretty bland, though not too far from b-movie standards at the time.
It's a market driven film. No standards or rules are being bent or pushed. There's a few social messages snuck in here and there, but nothing too shocking by contemporary American social standards.
There's nothing really innovative or impressive about this film, but it does offer two hours of pirate escapism. Take it for what it is.
- Blueghost
- Feb 22, 2009