Fury at Smugglers' Bay (1961)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

John Gilling

Writer:

John Gilling (writer)

Release Date:

December 1963 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure

Plot Keywords:

Pirate | Sergeant | Beautiful Woman | Independent Film

Cast

Peter Cushing	...	Squire Trevenyan
Bernard Lee	...	Black John
Michèle Mercier	...	Louise Lejeune
John Fraser	...	Christopher Trevenyan
William Franklyn	...	The Captain
George Coulouris	...	François Lejeune
Liz Fraser	...	Betty
June Thorburn	...	Jenny Trevenyan
Katherine Kath	...	Maman
Maitland Moss	...	Tom, the butler
Tommy Duggan	...	Red Friars (as Thomas Duggan)
Christopher Carlos	...	The Tiger, a pirate
Miles Malleson	...	Duke of Avon
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Alan Browning	...	2nd Highwayman
Ken Buckle	...	The Fox
Patrick Desmond	...	Watchman
Valentine Dyall	...	Narrator (unconfirmed)
Humphrey Heathgate	...	Roger Treherne
Juma	...	Juma, the boy
James Liggat	...	The Sergeant
Alfred Pim	...	Jasper
Bob Simmons	...	Carlos, a pirate

Runtime:

UK:92 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:16 | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Abereiddy, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK

Company:

John Gilling Enterprises

Trivia:

Due to an oversight by the National Screen Service, none of the eight stills that were issued in the UK as part of this film's Front-of-House set contained an image of the film's star, Peter Cushing.

"A film with extremely interesting credits that's entertaining while its on, but forgettable afterwards."

Writer/producer/director John Gilling's story is set in 17th-century Cornwall when fishermen were hit by heavy taxes and turned to smuggling in order to supplement their income. Here, the village squire Trevenyan (Peter Cushing) puts together an army in order to wipe out smuggling from his community. However, the town is terrorised by a group of cut-throats lead by Black John (Bernard Lee) who force ships to land at Smugglers Bay and then ruthlessly murders their crews for the sake of their cargo. Unfortunately, Black John has a hold over Trevenyan and as a result, poor fisherman Francois Lejeune (George Coulouris) is charged for the shipwrecking as well as the smuggling he has done and is to be deported to a foreign colony. The squire's son Christopher (John Fraser) is in love with Lejeune's daughter Louise (Michele Mercier) and teams up with local highwayman known simply as the Captain (William Franklyn) in order to run Black John out of town and to prevent Lejeune's deportation.

All in all, FURY AT SMUGGLERS' BAY, is well enough done and entertaining enough while its on. I mean who could resist a film with such interesting credits. Bernard Lee as Black John who was soon to become famous as "M" in the Bond series, Peter Cushing as Squire Trevenyan and William Franklyn as the Captain. In addition, there's one of Britain's best known cameramen Harry Waxman behind the camera and John Gilling (an interesting British director who made such classics as THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES and THE VOICE OF MERRILL) is on hand to direct. Yet somehow after one's seen the film, the next morning there's nothing to remember.