|
|
|
THE
PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER
THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES
Icons
of Adventure Collection
|
|
U.K.
| 1962, 1964
Directors:
John Gilling, Don Sharp
Starring
Christopher Lee, Andrew Keir
Michael Ripper, Kerwin Mathews
Glenn Corbett, John Cairney
Color
|
Not Rated
BLOOD RIVER:
87 Min.
DEVIL-SHIP:
86 Min.
Format:
DVD (R1 - NTSC
|
2-disc set)
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Hold
your mouse pointer over an image for a
pop-up caption
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Review
by
Brian Lindsey
|
 |
|
6
|
|
 |
|
9 |
|
10
= Highest Rating |
|
|
•
Two films from the Icons
of Adventure Collection
• Movie Rating applies
to both films
• DVD Rating is for
entire 2-disc/4-film set |
Much to the delight of fans, Sony — which controls
the Columbia film catalog — recently released
a topnotch double-disc collection of non-horror
Hammer titles, all from the early 1960s, under
the banner Icons of Adventure. Of the quartet
of movies included in this set, three star genre
titan Christopher Lee; in two of these he portrays
the villainous skipper of a bloodthirsty pirate
crew. (Was there really any other kind?) It's
interesting to note that, in either one of these
pirate films, Lee is given more to do, and has
significantly more dialog, than all his turns
as Dracula for Hammer combined.
While
this review is chiefly concerned with the set's
pirate flicks, we hope to someday cover the remaining
titles in the Icons set, which are certainly
not without interest: 1960's The
Stranglers of Bombay (set in colonial India,
directed by Terence Fisher) and The
Terror of The Tongs (1961), in which Lee
played a Chinese crime lord four years prior to
appearing as Asian supervillain Fu Manchu in Harry
Alan Towers' series of pulp adventures.
It may seem odd to set a pirate
movie entirely on land, but such is the case with
1962's The Pirates of Blood
River. This was mainly for budgetary reasons,
but it should be noted that not all the exploits
of history's fabled buccaneers took place on the
Bounding Main. (One need only consider Capt. Henry
Morgan's 1670-71 assault on Panama, which involved
extensive marching and battles fought inland.)
Filming on water is notoriously difficult, as
well being expensive to fake, so Jimmy Sangster's
story — co-scripted by John Hunter and director
John Gilling — completely dispenses with any maritime
activities. Indeed, the pirate ship is seen only
via stock footage during the opening credits,
then later briefly glimpsed as a matte effect
in the background.
Sometime
in the late 1600s, apparently somewhere in the
proximity of South America, there exists a small
settlement of European refugees on a remote island.
(The film's time
frame and geography are intentionally rather vague.)
Protestant fundamentalists, the settlers left
Europe a century earlier to escape religious persecution
and have remained unmolested ever since. That
all changes when the village elders engage in
some persecution of their own... Handsome Jonathan
Standing (American actor Kerwin Mathews) is caught
red-handed in an affair with the buxom young wife
of a prominent citizen. The woman is accidentally
killed while fleeing arrest; in a panic she wades
into a river teeming with deadly piranha. (The
"Blood River" of the title, I suppose.
It's ridiculous nowadays to think that the film
ran into trouble with British censors over this
scene of mild, PG-level gore.) Jonathan is seized
and hauled before a tribunal of elders. One of
those sitting in judgment is his own father (Andrew
Keir), whose religious piety blinds him to common
sense and fairness.
With
most of the community sympathetic to Jonathan's
plight, the tribunal decides to be lenient — instead
of being put to death (for adultery!) he is sentenced
to 15 years hard labor in the island's penal camp.
After enduring the brutality of the camp guards
for a time, our hero makes a desperate bid to
escape. He has barely reached safety in the surrounding
swamp when he runs smack dab into a shore party
of menacing pirates. Their leader, Capt. LaRoche
(Lee, rakish in an all-black ensemble complete
with matching eyepatch and do-rag, affecting a
convincing French accent), plans to march across
the island in search of the main settlement. His
stated goal is to use the isle as a secret base
of operations. Jonathan
offers to guide LaRoche to the settlement on condition
he restrain his crew of scalawags from raping
and plundering. Keen to overthrow the oppressive
elders, Jonathan
pledges to grant LaRoche safe haven if he'll assist
in a bloodless coup. The captain shakes on the
deal.
Never, ever trust a
pirate, me matey. LaRoche believes there is a
hoard of gold stashed somewhere in the settlement.
He's not a sadist or needlessly cruel, but if
innocent people have to die in order for him to
get his hands on the treasure, then so be it...
Nothing personal, mind you, just business. Before
long Jonathan realizes the true intent of his
erstwhile benefactor. (LaRoche and crew just can't
help doing piratey things.) Teaming up with strapping
brother-in-law Henry (fellow Yank and Columbia
contract player Glenn Corbett), he leads the settlers
in resistance to the marauding freebooters. Huzzah!
Made
two years later, The Devil-Ship
Pirates has a somewhat similar plot —
a small, isolated community is terrorized by rapacious
buccaneers — but
differs in that
the narrative is given a definite historical/geographical
context and a few of the scenes actually take
place on the water. It is the summer of 1588.
Spain's vaunted Armada is decisively defeated
in the English Channel, crushing King Philip's
dream of conquering Britain. (We're shown a bit
of this during the opening credits. The miniatures
are excellent, so who cares if it's just footage
from some other film?) In the midst of the battle
one of the smaller Spanish ships, the Diablo,
defies orders and disengages from the fight, making
a dash for safety... Discretion being the better
part of valor and all that.
The Diablo is
a pirate galleon, her crew sailing with the Armada
as naval mercenaries. In command is the ruthless
Capt. Robeles (Lee), who decides the time is right
— what with the fleet beaten and his own vessel
heavily damaged — to resign the king's commission.
Before making for the West Indies, however, the
Diablo will have to undergo extensive repairs.
Taking advantage of a dense fog, Robeles oversees
a bold gambit to secretly beach her on a sparsely-populated
stretch of the Cornish coast. Since his crew is
depleted by battle casualties, the captain plans
to press-gang English locals (especially craftsmen)
into doing most of the work. Time is of the essence.
The tides will allow only four days for the job;
Robeles worries that any militia forces in the
vicinity could react even sooner.
The plan comes off even better
than the pirates could've hoped when they're able
to trick the residents of an isolated village
into believing that the Armada actually won the
battle and England has surrendered to Spain. Pretending
to be the vanguard of Spanish occupation forces,
they force the villagers to assist in repairing
the Diablo with the cooperation of a craven
local squire (Ernest Clark). But not everyone
falls for the ruse, especially handicapped war
veteran Harry (John Cairney). He convinces a handful
of others that the Spaniards' claim of victory
just doesn't hold water. As true English patriots
they must resist the invader any way possible...
Thoroughly old-fashioned (they'd
seem out of date in look and style within five
years of their release), both pirate films not
only make a rousing double feature but provide
a fascinating side-by-side comparison, sharing
as they do writer (Sangster also penned Devil-Ship)
and many of the same actors, not to mention production
personnel. In essence, though, they're simply
good fun, suitable for the whole family. Devil-Ship
is the better written and directed of the two;
Blood River has significantly
more action. Both are colorful, briskly paced
and handsomely mounted, the 'Scope cinematography
and meticulous production design lending a grandeur
belied by their relatively small budgets. Fans
will enjoy seeing many of the familiar Hammer
players along with appearances by the likes of
Desmond Llewelyn ("Q" in the 007 series)
and a young Oliver Reed (as a brawling pirate).
Mathews (The
7th Voyage of Sinbad) is especially good in
Blood Rivers' thankless
hero role; both he and Corbett — whose flat California
accent sticks out like a sore thumb — throw themselves
wholeheartedly into the action scenes.
Hammer vets Christopher Lee,
Michael Ripper and Andrew Keir essentially play
the same character in both movies, as captain,
pirate crewman and villager respectively. As expected,
Keir (Quatermass
and the Pit) gives first-rate supporting performances,
with his part in Blood River
being more integral to the story. Ripper's roles
are virtually identical — the only difference
being that in Devil-Ship
he's supposed to be a Spaniard named Pepe, which
is a bit of a stretch given his thick Cockney
accent. (He's such an exuberant performer, however,
that he somehow pulls it off.) Lee, of course,
dominates the proceedings and gets to show off
his fencing prowess. His pirate commanders fulfill
the same function of major villain yet he plays
them each quite differently. The Frenchman LaRoche
is often sardonic, almost laid back; he's fatalistic
in outlook but adverse to needless violence. Robeles,
in contrast, is merely an evil bastard, a harsh
taskmaster and quick-thinking man of action with
utter disdain for the concepts of duty and honor.
To achieve his ends he'll kill without the slightest
hesitation or compunction. (Lee doesn't attempt
a Spanish accent for his Devil-Ship
role.)
|
|
|
|
I have a minor quibble with the pointlessness
of some of the extras included with the Icons
of Adventure set, but certainly not with the
A/V quality of the films themselves... In a word,
gorgeous!
Disc 1 contains the pirate films while Stranglers
of Bombay and Terror
of The Tongs reside on Disc 2. Happily,
the DVDs are not "flippers"; the movies
can be played without ever having to eject and
turn over the disc. All films in the set are presented
in their original aspect ratios (2.35:1 in the
case of the pirate pics), 16x9 enhanced. Other
than a few hairs in the gate during the opening
credits of Blood River
— a condition of
the original print —
these transfers are practically flawless. (A slight
distortion sometimes seen at the right and left
edges of the frame are due to the inferior-quality
lenses used by Hammer for its widescreen Cinemascope-style
process, dubbed "Megascope".) Colors
are lush and vibrant, at times astonishingly vivid;
Stranglers' black
and white photography is
crisp. Strong, clean audio tracks, in the
original mono, grace each title. (With the exception
of Stranglers, the
films also come with French language tracks. Subtitles
are available for all in English, French and Spanish.)
The
set's extras constitute
a mixed bag. The cartoon Merry Mutineers
(1936) and Chapter One of the 1953 serial The
Great Adventures of Captain Kidd at least
have a tenuous "pirate" connection to
the features, but the inclusion of the comedy
short Hot Paprika (1935) is a total puzzler.
I could've cared less about any of them. Actually
related to the films at hand are their original
threatrical trailers (all anamorphic) and four
separate audio commentaries. For the pirate pics
moderator Marcus Hearns chats with Jimmy Sangster
and art director Don Mingaye. Now quite elderly,
the two gents have forgotten almost as much as
they can recall. While these tracks have merit
and will doubtless prove valuable to "Hammerheads",
I feel that interview featurettes would've been
a more effective use of everyone's time —
participants and audience. 6/26/08
|
HOME
| REVIEWS
| TOP
|
