Christopher Lee plays a villainous Spanish Pirate in Hammer's swashbuckling adventure film. Sony US R1 DVD.
The Film
As well as keeping the mature audiences scared with X-rated horror films, Hammer were always after the wider audiences
with U-rated adventure pictures - during the 1960s, summer holidays
didn't involve heading overseas, and the summer family audience was big
money. In 1962 Hammer captured market this with their pirate films Captain Clegg and Pirates of Blood River,
but tights budgets kept the adventures land based. Looking to better
themselves, Hammer boosted the budget, and constructed a complete ship for their 1964
summer blockbuster The Devil-Ship Pirates.
1588
and the Spanish Armarda is being beaten in the English channel, in the
midst, a tiny Spanish pirate ship fighting for their country is badly
damaged and Captain Robeles (Christopher Lee) orders that
they withdraw from the battle. Unable to return to Spain, they put
to shore on the southern coast of England and manage to convince the
residents of a remote village that the Spanish have won the war. The
village nobleman Sir
Basil Smeeton is more than happy to allow the Spanish into the village,
and orders the reluctant townspeople to lodge some of the Spanish
sailors in their own houses, but the locals refuse to give up so
easily...
Hammer's
swashbuckling script has plenty of swords fights and a good mix of
characters with different viewpoints to add some internal conflict, as
well as the usual external conflict. The deaths of a few major
characters are quite unexpected, although the film's U rating mean that
a public square hanging is completely off camera and looses all its
impact. Sadly the script is not quite clever enough to answer all the
questions it raises. We see the Spanish soldiers speaking easily with
the villagers, more realistically there should have been very strong
language barriers with maybe only Don Manuel able to communicate with
the villagers (adding an interesting new element), we see some of the
pirates flirting with the English girls - with reference to the
punishment doled out on 'collaborators' after the Second World War, it
might have been interesting to see how the rest of the village
considered these women. As it is, the script is a pretty simple affair
with enough action to keep the fans happy and superb climax.
On of the biggest advantages The Devil-Ship Pirates
has, is the full-size ship built for its construction. The Diablo cost
£17,000 to make and was floated in a flooded gravel pit. However,
the shoot was not without incident and an overloading resulted
in the entire ship capsizing, fortunately without serious injury,
but with expensive loss of cameras and equipment. The use of a full
sized ship allows long shots and exteriors (as shown below) that would
not be possible with a model, and the budget stretched to good looking
sets and costumes. Don Sharp's camera-work is solid as usual, with some
interesting camera angles to add some variation to the shoot, although
his framing is sometimes poor. The soundtrack is a standard Hammer orchestral affair.
A
strong cast is present here. Christopher Lee, returning from a spell in
Europe, plays the very villanous Captain Robeles without a spark of
compassion but avoids him becoming gratuatously evil. Andrew Keir gets
his
usual role as a peaceful man forced to defend himself, and fans of Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) should find a sense of deja-vu
as he again defends Suzan Farmer from Christopher Lee. Barry Warren
gives a very strong performace as the troubled Spanish nobelman.
Michael Ripper
gets a larger role than normal with several lines of dialogue and
watch out a number of familiar faces including Philip Latham (Klove
from Dracula: Prince of Darkness) as a villager.
This
big Hammer adventure was the last of their pirate films, the good cast
make the most of a rather average script and are aided by some
impressive special effects and a good looking production. Recommended
to those looking for an entertaining film, but not if you are expecting
anything thought provoking, relatively safe for the whole family to
watch.
Don Sharp - Three time Hammer director who also shot the first two Christopher Lee Fu Manchu movies.
Any gore?
None.
Any sex?
None.
Who is it for?
Has a general appeal, certainly for fans of Hammer and Christopher Lee.
The DVD
Visuals
Original Aspect Ratio - 2.35:1 widescreen. Anamorphically enhanced. Colour. A very strong print with a lot of colour and detail.
Audio
English language mono sound - no problems. French dub track.
Subtitles
English and French
Extras
This disc includes:
Audio
commentary with Hammer expert Marcus Hearn, script writer Jimmy
Sangster and art director Don Mingaye. Lots of interesting details about this film and Hammer in general.
Original theatrical trailer.
Other extra features are also included in the boxset.
All text in this review written by Timothy Young - original review 26th March 2006 - updated to Sony R1 disc 21 June 2008.
Text from this review not to be used without authorization.
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