Anne of the Indies (1951)

LaRochelle, a former pirate captain, is caught by the British. To get his ship back, he works as a spy against other pirates, first of all Blackbeard and Providence. He works on some ships,... See full summary »

Director:

Jacques Tourneur

Writers:

Philip Dunne (screenplay), Arthur Caesar (screenplay),

Stars:

Jean Peters, Louis Jourdan, Debra Paget

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jean Peters	...	Captain Anne Providence
Louis Jourdan	...	Captain Pierre François LaRochelle
Debra Paget	...	Molly LaRochelle
Herbert Marshall	...	Dr. Jameson
Thomas Gomez	...	Captain Edward Teach aka Blackbeard
James Robertson Justice	...	Red Dougal
Francis Pierlot	...	Herkimer
Sean McClory	...	Hackett
Holmes Herbert	...	English Sea Captain
Byron Nelson	...	Bear Handler
Douglas Bennett	...	Bear Wrestler
Mario Siletti	...	Slave Market Auctioneer
Robert R. Stephenson	...	Tavern Host (as Bob Stephenson)
Carleton Young	...	Pirate Mate

Storyline

LaRochelle, a former pirate captain, is caught by the British. To get his ship back, he works as a spy against other pirates, first of all Blackbeard and Providence. He works on some ships, crossing the Caribbean sea, with the intention of being enchained, when a pirate ship is in sight, to make them believe he's an enemy of the British. One day, his ship is conquered by Captain Providence. What nobody knew before, Providence is a (beautiful, of course) woman. She believes his story and so he joins her crew. But Blackbeard, her fatherly friend, doesn't believe him. Providence and LaRochelle fall in love, although he is married. When LaRochelle tries to deliver her to the British, she forebodes the trap, kidnaps his wife and escapes. As for revenge, she wants to sell his wife on a slave-market. LaRochell gets his ship and his crew back and follows her. ...

---

Plot Keywords:

ship | pirate | blackbeard | caribbean | pirate captain | 

---

Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Romance

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 October 1951 (USA)

Also Known As:

Die Piratenkönigin

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min 87 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

The direction of the rowing boat when Captain Blackbeard leaves the beach with his escort. (orientation changes too fast between shots hardly changing the position of the boat)

---

Quotes

Captain Pierre François LaRochelle: I've worn irons. I've been spreadeagled and flogged. I've been under the cutlass of Blackbeard himself. And called red-handed cutthroats my friends. And stood by and watched murders and worse. And that's not all.

---

Connections

Featured in L'orgia (1978)

---

Soundtracks

"Ann of the Indies"
Music by Joe Cooper
Lyrics by George Jessel and Samuel Lerner

User Reviews

Love, guilt and atonement on the caribbean

I like the film, it´s the best pirate-movie I watched hitherto (forget silly Errol-Flynn-stuff and Pirates of the Caribbean). This movie is wonderful melancholic. I compare it with "Johnny Guitar" at the sea-side (but 3 years earlier), two women fighting for a man, where mad love might lead one.

The character of the female (anti-) heroine, Anne Providence, is superb, acting without compromise like a child, lost alone on her search for a own female identity in a real man´s world. She´s a quite strange movie-hero, not a funny pirate, as most of her companions in this genre, not making jokes all the time, fighting for the poor and good and only killing the stupid spanish or british soldiers or - better - sly governors, but she´s murdering all the poor prisoners of war, after she captured a ship (look careful at this at the start of the movie), she´s primitive (she can´t even read), she is desperated and she get´s an alcoholic, she looses all her friends as consequence of her obstinacy and she´s wearing rags most of the film. This film shows a pirate "hero" a little (!) bit as he (or in this case "she", but there has been a female "Anne" buccaneer, Anne Boney) might have been in brutal reality.

The film is quite short and the story is told in a breathtaking manner. Certainly, a film from the 1950s has no exciting special effects for present time viewers (the ships swim very obvious in a bath tube), but this real drama about love (that kills), trust, betrayal, revenge, hatred and sacrifice drives one crazy. Maybe, Anne is even supposed to be Judas Iskarioth and Jesus from Nazareth in one person, being betrayed by her friend (the french LaRochelle) as Jesus; after being disappointed by the friend, delivering him to a death penalty (as Judas); than getting remorse about this (like Judas, who commits suicide according to the gospel of Matthew); and in the end sacrificing herself for the rescue of the beloved enemy (as Jesus). But, even if you are not interested in this philosophical questions of guilt and atonement, the film brings a lot of (cheap) action as sword fights and burning (plastic) ships for a very short one and a half hour.