The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Don Sharp

Writer:

Jimmy Sangster (writer)

Release Date:

May 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Thriller

Plot:

A pirate ship, fighting in 1588 on the side of the Spanish Armada, suffers damage and must put into a village on the British coast for repairs...

Plot Keywords:

Pirate | Shirtless Male Bondage | Flogging | Whipping | Independent Film

Cast

Christopher Lee	...	Captain Robeles
Barry Warren	...	Don Manuel Rodriguez de Savilla
John Cairney	...	Harry
Suzan Farmer	...	Angela Smeeton
Michael Ripper	...	Pepe, a pirate
Duncan Lamont	...	The Bosun
Ernest Clark	...	Sir Basil Smeeton
Natasha Pyne	...	Jane, Harry's sister
Philip Latham	...	Miller
Harry Locke	...	Bragg
Charles Houston	...	Pirate
Andrew Keir	...	Tom, Harry's father
Leonard Fenton	...	Pirate
Jack Rodney	...	Mandrake
Michael Newport	...	'Smiler', a boy

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | UK:U | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Hammer Film Productions

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The naval battle depicted in the opening credits sequence, purported to be a battle involving the Spanish Armada in 1588, and which is obviously stock footage from some other film, includes wooden naval vessels and, more glaringly, naval attire from a much later period, late-18th Century at least.

The Devil-Ship Pirates (Don Sharp, 1964) ***

As I said in my review for THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER (1962), this is a virtual retread of the script for that film (just as THE TERROR OF THE TONGS [1961] had reworked the central premise of THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY [1960] – all four titles, incidentally, comprise Columbia's recent "Icons Of Adventure" DVD set)…or, perhaps, it was closer to what Jimmy Sangster had originally envisaged before John Gilling got to work on it!

In any case, the two pirate films don't have just the plot in common – but many of the names associated with BLOOD RIVER resume their duties on DEVIL-SHIP, including composer Gary Hughes as well as several Hammer stalwarts (production designer Bernard Robinson, editor James Needs, not to mention co-stars Christopher Lee, Andrew Keir and Michael Ripper, all of whose characters are practically identical!). This doesn't mean that the film is a cheap rip-off of the earlier effort: it can stand well enough on its own merits, and there are even those who prefer DEVIL-SHIP to BLOOD RIVER; as ever, the company managed to give the whole a semblance of expensive production values when it was typically done on a low-budget.

The rest of the cast is generally effective, if not quite as satisfactory as that of BLOOD RIVER – even so, characterization is more fleshed-out this time around: John Cairney does alright by the hero (who, unusually, is a cripple); Suzan Farmer is a lovely heroine (though she gets little to do – but, then, neither did Marla Landi – and in her case, it's Lee who leers at the girl rather than his underlings); Duncan Lamont is imposing as Lee's right-hand man, but his role never really amounts to much; Keir and Ripper were both better served by each's first stab at their respective roles (Ripper, in particular, is here merely to supply the obligatory comic relief). However, we do get a couple of interesting 'new' characters: Farmer's aristocratic father (Ernest Clark) is a sycophant, while Barry Warren – a Spaniard officer detailed with an outfit of pirates-tuned-soldiers is an outsider amidst their ranks and, on several occasions, lends a helping hand to the locals in order to defeat them! By the way, the narrative deals with the aftermath of the Spanish Armada's defeat by the British in the late 16th century; a stray vessel, the "Diablo" (hence the film's title), decides to rest furtively on British soil to effect the necessary repairs – however, when they're discovered, the Captain (Lee, of course) decides to risk passing themselves off as conquerors and, in no time at all, has the run of the village!

The groveling Clark is all-too-willing in this respect (to the point of inviting Lee into his own house…but, on objecting to the latter's unsavory attentions towards his daughter, is summarily executed!), while Keir offers opposition – and pays the price for this affront with his life. His son, Cairney, naturally seeks revenge – which he attains, with Warren's help, by sabotaging the ship (Lee having ordered the artisans among the locals to carry out the required maintenance). Incidentally, unlike THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER, this does feature reasonable large-scale action with a sea-battle at the very start and a literally explosive climax. The ultimate assessment, then, is that THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES is a pretty good adventure flick…though, when it comes to director Sharp's Hammer output, I still feel he did his best work on the far more typical THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE (1963) – which, if you ask me, is a genuine minor classic of Gothic Horror.