Amazon.com video review:
Released well after Douglas Fairbanks's and Errol Flynn's heydays, this
good-natured Burt Lancaster vehicle is, nevertheless, a superior example of
the classic swashbuckler: set in the 16th century, along the Spanish Main,
this lusty adventure both expands on and explodes genre conventions.
Lancaster, a circus acrobat before
turning to movies in the '40s, gives what may be his most physical
performance as sword-for-hire Captain Vallo, a.k.a. the Crimson Pirate.
Nick Cravat, Lancaster's real-life circus buddy, matches the star leap for
leap, somersault for somersault as Vallo's mute sidekick. The fetching Eva
Bartok causes Vallo to throw over the Spanish for rebel forces, and a young
Christopher Lee demonstrates the swordsmanship that would later make him a
natural in Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers.
Director Robert Siodmak, known for his claustrophobic noir thrillers
(1946's The Killers),
handled most of the interiors, while Lancaster coordinated the
tongue-in-cheek humor and macho derring-do. The broadly played action
scenes, including the climactic 18-minute battle aboard a frigate, wouldn't
be
improved on for another three decades--by Spielberg's Raiders of the
Lost Ark. The big difference: Harrison Ford needed a stunt double,
Lancaster didn't. --Glenn Lovell
