You won't be disappointed!

Boring

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

After capturing an English warship through sheer cunning and imagination "Captain Vallo" (Burt Lancaster) makes a deal with one of his prisoners named "Baron Jose Gruda" (Leslie Bradley) that he will capture a prominent rebel leader and hand him over for a price. Unfortunately, things don't go exactly as planned and Captain Vallo is forced to come up with new ideas as everything unravels. Now, rather than reveal any more of the story and risk ruining the film for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this is the type of movie that was probably ideal for the local drive-in or a Saturday matinée when it first played on the big screen. I say this because it is a light-hearted action movie with plenty of humor which was well-suited for a family night out and the kids probably loved it. However, I don't think it has aged well and I further believe that those who are looking for something a bit more serious will probably be a bit disappointed. Again, those who prefer films showcasing style over substance may enjoy this movie. Conversely, those who prefer more realism may need to look elsewhere. In any case, this wasn't a bad movie and I rate it as about average.

"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

This would have to be one of my favorite films of all times and for many reasons. The Crimson Pirate was filmed on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Napoli in Italy. My parents were both from this island and they remember the cast and crew during the summer of 1951 when it was made. My mum to this day remembered Burt Lancaster sitting outside a bar, drinking a coffee and thinking "Oh he is so handsome". Many locals were given parts as extras. I remember my first visit to Ischia in 1988. In a doorway opposite Castello Aragonese, sat an old man with a wooden leg dressed as a pirate. Who would sit there everyday having his photo taken with tourists as he made a name for himself as "the pirate" from the movie as an extra.Ischia has been used in other Hollywood films, notably "Avanti" starring Jack Lemon and Juiliet Mills, and "The Talented Mr Ripley" starring Jude Law, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Phillip Seymor Hoff.

Before Burt Lancaster got his first Academy Award nomination for From Here to Eternity, the film he would have been most identified with, what could have been his career role, would have been The Crimson Pirate. It's also the film that he probably got to use more of his background as a circus acrobat than in any other.Unlike some of the films of known movie pirates like Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., The Crimson Pirate is set in some pirate never never land in what we think is the 18th century by the style of dress, but we're not really sure. It could be the Caribbean, most likely it is. But I remarked to another reviewer that it looked a whole lot like the Mediterranean. And then I looked and saw that it had in fact been filmed on the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples with interiors done in the United Kingdom. I've seen very few actors enjoy themselves as much as Lancaster does playing Captain Vallo. At the same time Lancaster was desperately looking for serious roles so that he would be taken seriously as a thespian. When this was finishing Lancaster was signing up with Columbia for From Here To Eternity.But I'm not sure that Lancaster would have done The Crimson Pirate had it not had a hidden message about tyranny and forbidding freedom of expression which he felt the House Un-American Activities Committee was doing. The original script for The Crimson Pirate was blacklisted writer Waldo Salt, Roland Kibbee did revisions and later got screen credit. Salt himself forbid screen credits as he didn't want Lancaster to run afoul of the blacklist. All this is told in a recent biography of Lancaster.None of the rightwing lugnuts got it however as The Crimson Pirate was buried under layers of comedy and outrageous overacting. Lancaster is in the title role and in some complicated machinations about playing both rebels on some unknown Caribbean? island against some unknown European country authorities off against each other, he falls in love with rebel leader's daughter Eva Bartok. In the supporting cast the best parts are that of James Hayter as an eccentric inventor who's a century ahead of his time in some respects. His gadgets help save the day. The other really meaty supporting role is that for Torin Thatcher as the guy who inspires mutiny among the Crimson Pirate's crew for not hewing to pirate rules. Some people are fundamentalists that way.I can't fathom anyone not loving The Crimson Pirate.