Anne of the Indies (1951)

In order to recover his ship impounded by the British, former pirate captain LaRochelle agrees to spy on the notorious Caribbean Sea pirates Blackbeard and Anne Providence.

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. ...

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Plot Keywords:

ship | character name as title | anne of he indies character | four word title | jamaican rum | 

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Taglines:

The storming, slashing, sweeping saga of history's fabulous pirate queen !

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Romance

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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.)

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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.

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits prologue: Less than two hundred and fifty years ago, the last of the great pirates wrote their names in blood and fire across the pages of maritime history.

This is the story of a buccaneer Captain whose name for one short year struck terror in the hearts of seafarers and merchants from the ports of the Carribbean to the great trading houses of London....

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Connections

Featured in L'orgia (1978)

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Soundtracks

Ann of the Indies
(uncredited)
Music by Joe Cooper
Lyrics by George Jessel and Samuel Lerner

User Reviews

A decent pirate adventure drama

Directed by Jacques Tourneur (Cat People, Out of the Past, Night of the Demon) and written by Phillip Dunne (How Green was My Valley) Anne of the Indies is a quite interesting adventure pirate movie. Its main character of captain Anne Providence is based on a real woman-pirate Anne Boney who actually lived and sailed through 18th century's Atlantic.

The film begins with the sea battle where Anne's (Jean Peters) pirate ship attacks a trade ship that was on its way to Europe from the South America. As a result a treasure of great value is captured along with a handsome French officer Pierre La Rochelle (Louis Jourdan), who is taken prisoner. Anne ends up falling in love with him and apparently her feelings are reciprocated but it's only till she sets him free when she discovers that he has a beautiful young wife Molly (Debra Paget) with whom he pretty much in love with. Anne begins planning revenge on both of them but in an unexpected twist of fate ends up making a great sacrifice in order to save them instead. The pirate movie cliché figure of `Black Beard' also makes his appearance here, this time played by Thomas Gomez.

Though Anne of the Indies probably appears to be no more nor less than a revisiting of pirate movie clichés, it still has its classical moments in beautiful visuals and sea battle sequences filmed in Technicolor as well as in some aspects of the story and most of all in personal touches in directing of all of it by Jacques Tourneur. 7/10

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 October 1951 (USA)

Also Known As:

Anne of the Indies

Filming Locations:

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

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min 87 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1