Cast:
Tyrone Power (Jamie Waring), Maureen O'Hara (Lady Margaret Denby), Laird Cregar (Sir Henry Morgan), Thomas Mitchell (Tom Blue), George Sanders (Captain Billy Leech), Anthony Quinn (Wogan), with George Zucco (Lord Denby), and Edward Ashley (Roger Ingram) Directed by Henry King (#1687 - O. Henry's Full House, #2223 - The Gunfighter)
Review:
It probably helps to cover a swashbuckler movie every now and then, even one that basically freewheels around its alleged "source material". Taking the title of the 1932 novel of the same name by Rafael Sabatini (you might remember that he previously had his novels adapted into films with Captain Blood [1922/1935], and Bardelys the Magnificent [1926]), the movie had a screenplay by Ben Hecht and Seton I. Miller. At the helm for direction was the solidly reliable Henry King, fresh in the middle of directing Remember the Day (1941) and The Song of Bernadette (1943). This was one of three films with O'Hara (who had joined Fox with How Green Was My Valley [1941] as among the leading cast, which included To the Shores of Tripoli and Ten Gentlemen from West Point. She had meant to co-star with Power with Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942) but dropped out due to illness. With this film, she noted her happiness in the film, once stating it was "everything you could want in a lavish pirate picture." The movie was a fairly decent hit at the time, and Leon Shamroy won an Academy Award for his cinematography (shot in color*) on the film.
You've got a 1600s setting with a few interesting effects and shots to go along with a fairly efficient 85-minute runtime that freewheels with history (the real Morgan, a privateer and plantation owner who was knighted in 1674, served on the Assembly of Jamaica and also was a Lieutenant Governor and occasional interim governor before he died in 1688, as one does when living to his fifties) for a fairly decent effort. I don't think it's exactly on the level of say, The Mark of Zorro (1940) when it comes to a slapdash Power film, but it's still a pretty amiable time, mainly because you see enough enthusiasm from its main cast. It's the "love, gold, and adventure!" movie to swallow up like it was cotton candy, filled with hokum in the "loving care" type - you either have that patience or don't. With the war effort booming in 1942, Power enlisted in the Marine Corps in August, with Crash Dive being the last one before he went through training/combat missions until he returned in 1946. He has the panache required to just step into the swashbuckling type (debate all you want who managed it better between him and, say, Errol Flynn*) with general ease of charm without looking like he wants to be somewhere else. The leading ladies can change, the staging might differ, but you can still see the commitment present in the swagger to just go through the motions and not make it sound tired. O'Hara doesn't exactly as much to really grab onto for the character besides the usual swooning type for adventures where one sees the adventurer face the odds and beat them and, well, you know what happens. But at least she is game for matching with Power with fiery grace and got onto better things. Cregar (a stage-turned-film actor that got his supporting roles in 1941 and was going to be a leading man before his untimely death in 1944) hams it up with captivating warmth that probably captures the film more than anybody, and that includes the credible attempts from adversaries in Sanders and Quinn. It's a sword-splitting movie that looks decent enough, has a few credible moments in swinging around without swinging completely for the fences that doesn't dawdle - what more could you ask for? For a 1940s movie, an average movie of its time is still as desirable as ever.
Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.
*Remember that folks could win for cinematography in black-and-white and in color for several years.
*At least people don't call Power a creep.
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