Double Crossbones (1951)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Charles Barton

Writers:

Oscar Brodney (screenplay)
Oscar Brodney (story)

Release Date:

22 January 1951 (Sweden)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

After being falsely accused of dishonesty, a young man decides to become a pirate. |

Plot Keywords:

Pirate | Henry Morgan

Cast

Donald O'Connor	...	Davey Crandall
Helena Carter	...	Lady Sylvia Copeland
Will Geer	...	Tom Botts
John Emery	...	Gov. Gerald Elden
Stanley Logan	...	Lord Montrose
Kathryn Givney	...	Lady Montrose
Hayden Rorke	...	Malcolm Giles
Morgan Farley	...	Caleb Nicholas
Robert Barrat	...	Henry Morgan
Alan Napier	...	Capt. Kidd
Glenn Strange	...	Capt. Ben Avery
Louis Bacigalupi	...	Blackbeard
Hope Emerson	...	Mistress Ann Bonney
Charles McGraw	...	Capt. Ben Wickett
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gavin Muir
Harry Wilson

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Soundtrack:

Song of Adventure

DOUBLE CROSSBONES (Charles T. Barton, 1951) **

Swashbuckling comedy, not as bad as I had anticipated but clearly no more than a footnote within the annals of this colorful action genre (here in its heyday). Donald O'Connor is an amiable and undeniably energetic lead (obviously, he gets to sing and dance too) – playing a shop-keeper's assistant who wants to make good for love of heroine Helena Carter. She, however, is coveted by her much older guardian…who also happens to be the (actually treacherous) Governor of the colony in which events are set.

Immediately falling foul of pirate Charles McGraw, O'Connor eventually finds himself serving under him – after he, his pal and their employer are accused (by none other than the Governor himself) of accepting and selling stolen goods. The villain, in fact, is in cahoots with a society of legendary pirates comprising Sir Henry Morgan, Blackbeard, Ann Bonney (Anne Of The Indies – whose story, incidentally, was being told contemporaneously in a much more satisfying film by that title), Captain Kidd, etc.; apparently, this Governor's so mean that even they are no more than his mere underlings!

Anyway, O'Connor eventually captures a ship practically single-handed (and sets free the convicts within, among them James Arness, on their way to Debtors' Prison), which wins him the moniker "Bloodthirsty Dave" and – naturally – a place in the pirate brotherhood. Recognizing the Governor's right-hand man as the courier of his message to them, the hero realizes the statesman's dual nature and determines to meet Carter in order to stop her impending marriage (she had earlier shunned O'Connor for his own buccaneering activity!).

This he does by impersonating a foppish aristocrat at a ball (whose presence causes a snobbish lady to enquire "Who is that weird creature?"), though his ruse is discovered soon after and lands him once again in jail. Needless to say, everything comes out right by the end: the villain receives his come-uppance after engaging in a fencing duel with O'Connor on a ship's mast, hero and heroine marry, and the pirates – given a royal pardon – turn respectable…or do they?