Film Review: The Crimson Pirate (1952)
If you want to see an actor at the prime of his physical and artistic abilities, in a role he was born to play, you might look no further than Burt Lancaster as the protagonist of The Crimson Pirate, 1952 period adventure comedy directed by Robert Siodmak.
The plot is set in late 18th Century Caribbean where a pirate ship commanded Captain Vallo (played by Lancaster) through outrageous but ultimately effective form of trickery takes much larger military ship as a prize. One of the passengers is Baron Jose Gruda (played by Leslie Bradley), King’s envoy sent to quash rebellion at the island of Cobra, while pirates also discover large cargo of weapons and ammunition. Vallo decides to sell weapons to the rebels and their mysterious leader El Libre, while simultaneously striking the bargain with Gruda to betray rebels and deliver their mysterious and charismatic leader El Libre (played by Frederick Leister) to the authorities. Vallo’s scheme gets complicated when he meets and falls in love with El Libre’s beautiful daughter Consuelo (played by Eva Bartok) and, once having El Libre in his custody, decides to let him go. For some members of his crew, led by Humble Bellows (played by Torrin Thatcher), this goes against pirates’ code of honour, so they stage a mutiny, only to get betrayed by Gruda themselves. Vallo, however, has good fortune to meet brilliant and eccentric scientist Professor Prudence (played by James Hayter) whose revolutionary weapons and gadgets would help him to stage uprising against Gruda and set Consuelo and his crew free.
The Crimson Pirate is Lancaster’s film in a more than one sense of the word. It was produced by Norma Productions, studio founded by Lancaster and his agent Harold Hecht and appears tailor-made for Lancaster’s physique, charisma and athletic abilities. This becomes clear in the brief prologue when bare-chested Lancaster with a huge green on his face displays the skills he had learned as an acrobat and, while breaking the fourth wall, tell viewers exactly what kind of the film they are about to see. Although obviously inspired by Douglas Fairbanks’ silent classic The Black Pirate, the film was supposed to be something completely different. Original script by Waldo Salt was inspired by author’s Communist beliefs and the motive of the revolution of colonial peasants against aristocracy was used in a straight way, while the title itself was subtle dig at Red Scare and anti-Communist scaremongering led by the likes of Senator McCarthy, whom Lancaster and Hecht and left-wingers detested. However, when Robert Siodmak took directing, he quickly realised that the film would work better as a comedy. According to Christopher Lee, famous British actor who appears in one of his early roles as Baron Grouda’s lieutenant, the script by Roland Kibee was reworked in a matter of two days.
This intervention proved to be just what the doctor ordered. The Crimson Pirate had high budget, that went overboard during the production, and it could be seen in the use of actual sailing ships, bright colours, interesting period costumes, props and hundreds of extras, many of them engaged in complicated and breath-taking action scenes and the film even gives something of a fan service through brief scene of dancing girls. But it is comedy that works the best, especially in the scenes when Lancaster is paired by his old friend Nick Cravat, repeating the very same “buddy buddy” chemistry which had served them so well in their previous film The Flame and the Arrow. Cravat, whose character of Vallo’s lieutenant Ojo remains mute because of heavy Brooklyn accent, excels in physical comedy, and the dynamic duo is wonderful in elaborate but very funny slapstick scenes during which they take out large number of soldiers who behave like Keystone Kops. Atmosphere of general silliness is established until the end, which features surreal scenes of small island building and using anachronistically advanced weapons like balloons, mini-submarines, nitroglycerine, armoured vehicles and Gatling guns; and to make things even more irreverent, characters of Vallo, Cravat and Professor Prudence even briefly appear in drag. Lancaster and Cravat, who apparently had the time of their life during the production, were joined by solid cast, although Eva Bartok as romantic interest and Leslie Bradley as main villain aren’t as effective as Hayter in the role of eccentric scientist and Torrin Thatcher as morally challenged pirate who ultimately sees the error of his ways.
The Crimson Pirate proved to be the great success, having box office results that no other pirate film would have until Pirates of the Caribbean half a century later. It represents one of the best films in the career of Burt Lancaster, but also one of the best works of early 1950s Hollywood.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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