Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

zardoz-13 Burt Lancaster is at his athletic best in "The Killers" director Robert Siodmak's light-hearted 18th century, seafaring fantasy "The Crimson Pirate" co-starring Lancaster's former circus acrobat partner Nick Cravat. When you see these two swinging from the yardarm as well as perform other death-defying stunts involving trapeze artist skills, you can be sure that it is in fact Lancaster and Cravat. Before Lancaster broke into Hollywood, Cravat and he had been a big top pair. Scenarist Roland Kibbe, a frequent Lancaster collaborator over the years, wrote this rollicking but far-fetched pirate caper the bristles with loads of action. Mind you, this is not as serious as some of Errol Flynn's best swashbucklers, but it contains enough amusing shenanigans to keep you entertained throughout its 105-running time. Earlier, Kibbee penned Willis Goldbeck's Foreign Legion actioneer "Ten Tall Men" (1951), Robert Aldrich's western "Vera Cruz" (1954), Guy Hamilton's revolutionary war tale "The Devil's Disciple" (1959), the made-in-Spain western "Valdez Is Coming" (1971), and the mystery thriller "The Midnight Man" (1974), all top-lining Lancaster. In "The Crimson Pirate," Lancaster plays the grinning pirate Captain Vallo who doesn't always play strictly by pirate rules as his first mate Humble Bellows (Torin Thatcher) laments. Siodmak stages enough sea battles both with cannon and pirates boarding an enemy ship to keep things interesting. Siodmak and lenser Otto Heller lensed some of the action on location in Bay of Naples, Naples, Campania, Italy, as well as Ischia Island, Naples, Campania, Italy, so the picture boasts some captivating Technicolor scenery. Indeed, the story unfolds in the imaginary Caribbean islands of San Pero and Cobra. Christopher Lee fans will notice the future Dracula as the villain's right-hand man, but he doesn't utter a syllable of dialogue. Initially, Vallo makes bargain with his slimy chief adversary, Baron José Gruda (Leslie Bradley of "The Buccaneer"), after his crew and he capture the Baron's ship. The way that they overtake the Baron's ship is slick. The Baron sees a ship wallowing in the ocean with everybody strewn topside in full sight, looking like they have suffered the ravages of scurvy. Of course, it is a ruse concocted by the wily Vallo. When Gruda's sailors take the ship as booty to bring back with them, Vallo's defunct crew springs back to life and they take Gruda's ship. Now, Vallo plans to capture the leader of an uprising on an island under Spanish rule and then sell the rebel Sebastian known as "El Libre" (Frederick Leister of "Dear Octopus"). Again, Vallo's first-mate doesn't think self-respecting pirates would pull such a stunt. Vallo releases Gruda after they have made their deal and lets him take their old ship. Later, they plan to rendezvous, and Vallo will sell El Libre to Gruda. Unfortunately, things don't work out as smoothly as Vallo had envisaged. When they land on the island, Vallo gets his first look at Sebastian's beautiful daughter, Consuelo (Eva Bartok of "Norman Conquest"), and he is smitten, especially after she plants a kiss on his lips. Despite all his conniving deals, Vallo falls hopelessly in love with Consuelo, and he decides to help the revolutionaries. This act of treachery turns his own pirates, particularly Humble Bellows, who plots against him and cuts a deal with the unscrupulous Baron Gruda. Okay, despite these surprises and reversals, our heroes save the day. The one jarring scene occurs after Vallo puts Sebastian and Consuelo into a boat so they can escape. Gruda's soldiers ambush them during their escape and kill Sebastian with musket fire. Usually, in a colorful adventure like this, only the villains die, so this added a smidgen of realism. Anyway, Vallo and his buddy Ojo (Nick Cravat of "The Veils of Bagdad") turn the tables on the scheming Gruda who has subdued the rebels after Sebastian's demise and orders Consuelo to wed the governor of the island. The finale has Vallo and Ojo commandeering a balloon and hurling explosives as the garrison. No, little about "The Crimson Pirate" is remotely believable, but Lancaster's charisma and the non-stop action make it worth watching.

edwagreen Burt Lancaster is supported by a relatively unknown cast and has comic relief on the part of Nick Cravat, his very loyal companion.Burt certainly used his acrobatic skills that we would see four years later in "Trapeze." The way the ship is taken at the beginning of the film is quite comical.There is more treachery here that is beyond belief with pirates turning on one another, another being in cahoots with the evil baron who then turns around and goes against the pirates.The film takes part in the latter part of the 18th century with some people in rebellion against the English crown. They're fighting supposedly for their freedom.Naturally, there is romance with Lancaster falling for the leader's fiery daughter.What's wrong with the film-weak writing, a governor who literally mouths his words on screen, and battle scenes which become comic in nature. The sequence in the air balloon made me think I was back in the land of Oz.

James Hitchcock "The Crimson Pirate" is a swashbuckling adventure film which has much in common with "The Flame and the Arrow" from two years earlier. Both have a historical setting and star Burt Lancaster as the leader of a group of freedom fighters. Both films allow Lancaster to show off his skills as an acrobat (before becoming an actor he worked in a circus) and also co- star his close friend and former circus partner Nick Cravat. In both films Cravat's character is mute, although he himself was perfectly able to speak; apparently the reason was that he had a strong Brooklyn accent which the producers felt was inappropriate in a historical drama. Someone should have told the producers that any American accent- not just a Brooklyn one- would have been anachronistic in 12th century Italy, and there is no reason why a New Yorker should not have served on an 18th century pirate ship. The film is set in the Caribbean some time the 18th century. (Don't ask exactly when; this is not a film which places a high value on historical accuracy). Lancaster plays the pirate chief Captain Vallo, known as "The Crimson Pirate". He and his crew become involved with a rebellion on the fictional island of Cobra against the tyrannical rule of the King of Spain and his special envoy Baron Gruda who has been ordered to crush the rebels. Vallo also becomes romantically involved with Consuelo, the beautiful daughter of the leader of the rebels. The plot, in fact, is rather more complicated than that brief summary might suggest; Vallo starts off as a cynical double-dealer, playing Gruda and the rebels off against one another in the hope of maximising his profits, but eventually throws his lot in with the rebel cause, motivated partly by idealism and partly by love for Consuelo. There is also a sub-plot about Vallo's treacherous first mate, Humble Bellows, who is plotting to depose him as pirate captain. (For some reason Bellows always speaks a pseudo-archaic dialect, referring to everyone as "thee" and "thou", although he often gets it wrong; "thee be" instead of "thou art"). The film, however, doesn't really do plot any more than it does historical realism. The story is little more than an excuse for some spectacular (at least by the standards of the early fifties) action sequences and plenty of acrobatic derring-do from Lancaster and Cravat, who plays Vallo's lieutenant Ojo. Vallo, his men and the rebels are eventually enabled to defeat the government forces because a brilliant scientist puts at their disposal not only a hydrogen balloon (possible within the time-frame of the movie, given that the first such balloons appeared in the 1780s) but also, anachronistically, inventions such as nitroglycerine (discovered 1847), a flamethrower (first used in World War I) and a tank (ditto). I was surprised to discover that the film was directed by Robert Siodmak, as I had always associated him with more serious fare such as "The Killers" (which also starred Lancaster) and "The Spiral Staircase". He was clearly a versatile director, but on the basis of this film swashbuckling adventure does not seem to have been his strong suit. "The Flame and the Arrow" may have its weaknesses, but at least it has something approaching a coherent plot and does not descend into silliness in the way that "The Crimson Pirate" tends to, frequently abandoning both coherence and credibility, generally in order to introduce some more circus stunts from Vallo and Ojo. The denouement is something of a cheat; the heroes in a historic adventure film ought to defeat the villains by being stronger, braver or more resourceful, not by suddenly having modern weapons placed at their disposal. In the early part of his career, Burt Lancaster was sometimes dismissed as "Mr Muscles and Teeth", although this seems unfair as even in his early days he was capable of producing fine performances in serious films like "The Killers" or "From here to Eternity". "The Crimson Pirate", however, is very much one of his "muscles and teeth" films, making demands upon his athletic abilities but far fewer on his acting ones, except perhaps the ability to grin occasionally. 5/10

barbb1953 I watched this movie after hearing that the "walking underwater" scene in "Black Pearl" was in reference to it. The comments that Bloom and Depp make during that sequence, about genius and madness, may have been meant to apply, as well. "Crimson Pirate" is uneven, with high and very low points. Well, it's bad enough that it makes "Black Pearl" look like classic fiction; and yet there is a Pythonesque quality to it I think comes from the team of Lancaster and Cravat. I hadn't realized Lancaster was a true acrobat, and the performances he and his partner give here are sublime. The big fight scenes, particularly the last one, are extremely well choreographed, too. I would easily have given this a 10 on that basis, and there are some other good performances (especially among the pirates), but overall not everybody seems to have gotten the word it had become a comedy, and a few of the actors also seem rather wooden: hence the 6/10.I do think the luxury sea liner in the background on those shots was intended -- any Film-Making 101 student could easily have changed the setup to avoid it, particularly at this point in the movie, where there are so many near-vertical shots. Given Lancaster's instruction at the beginning of the film to only believe half of what you see (and he was exaggerating even then), it had to be part of the joke. Maybe it's considered a goof or anachronism because that type of humor wasn't very common in mainstream movies in the 50s.One thing to remember as you watch Lancaster's hair: they didn't have mousse back then, or blow dryers. Wow! Also bring sunglasses, because the reflection from his teeth when he grins can be blinding (BG).All in all, it's not "The Black Pearl," but it's overall fun to watch and the acrobatics and some of the fight choreographies are must-see scenes.