Pirates of Blood River (1962)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

John Gilling

Writers:

Jimmy Sangster (from a story by)
John Hunter (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

August 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Ransacking a lost tropic island... for a fabulous idol of gold!

Plot:

In a village of Huguenot refugees, Jonathan Standish is exiled by his father to a nearby penal colony...

Cast

Kerwin Mathews	...	Jonathon Standing
Christopher Lee	...	Captain LaRoche
Andrew Keir	...	Jason Standing
Glenn Corbett	...	Henry
Marla Landi	...	Bess Standing
Michael Ripper	...	Mack, a pirate
Peter Arne	...	Hench, a pirate
Oliver Reed	...	Brocaire, a pirate
Jack Stewart	...	Godfrey Mason
Marie Devereux	...	Maggie Mason
Desmond Llewelyn	...	Tom Blackthorne
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Diane Aubrey	...	Margaret Blackthorne
Richard Bennett	...	Seymour
Lorraine Clewes	...	Martha Blackthorne
David Lodge	...	Smith
Michael Mulcaster	...	Martin
Keith Pyott	...	Silas
Denis Shaw	...	Silver
Dennis Waterman	...	Timothy Blackthorne
Jerold Wells	...	Penal Colony Master

Also Known As:

The Pirates of Blood River (Australia) (TV title)

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

UK:U | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Bray Studios, Down Place, Oakley Green, Berkshire, England, UK

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Trivia:

The penal colony where Jonathon Standing (Kerwin Mathews) was sent to was also the Callow Hill Location. The scene of his escape and his attempted killing by two men was shot in one of the swamps at Burnham Beeches. Other scenes of the pirates wading through the swamp and walking in wooded areas was a combination of Burnham Beeches and Black Park.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Matinee (1993)

An oddity -- a pirate movie set on land!

You won't find here any 18th-century ships in full sail photographed against a Caribbean seascape of azure blue skies. Instead, all of the action takes place on a mundane-looking island which offers little in the way of beaches or coves. (The geography of this made-in-England movie is disturbingly vague.) The result is somewhat drab and claustrophobic and makes one wish for the colorful sweep of "Anne of the Indies" or "The Crimson Pirate."

Partially making up for this weakness is an interesting cast which includes not only bound-for-better-things Christopher Lee and Oliver Reed but also a curiously-cast Glenn Corbett. Dennis Waterman pops up as a boy who's sent on horseback to warn of the pirates' attack.

Kerwin Matthews qualifies as an adequate hero. However, while the movie's poster shows him bound bare-chested to a ship's wheel, such a scene never appears in the print under discussion.