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IMDbPro

Pirates of Tortuga

  • 19611961
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 37m
IMDb RATING
5.3/10
343
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
11,683
47,173
Pirates of Tortuga (1961)
The skull and cross-bones flies again in this trailer
Play trailer2:21
1 Video
7 Photos
Adventure
An English captain and his crew are dispatched to the Spanish-controlled island of Tortuga, where famed privateer Henry Morgan has defected from his support of the English Empire and is runn... Read allAn English captain and his crew are dispatched to the Spanish-controlled island of Tortuga, where famed privateer Henry Morgan has defected from his support of the English Empire and is running a strictly piratical venture, stopping any and all vessels including English.An English captain and his crew are dispatched to the Spanish-controlled island of Tortuga, where famed privateer Henry Morgan has defected from his support of the English Empire and is running a strictly piratical venture, stopping any and all vessels including English.
IMDb RATING
5.3/10
343
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
11,683
47,173
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Director
      • Robert D. Webb
    • Writers
      • Jesse Lasky Jr.(screenplay)
      • Melvin Levy(screenplay)
      • Pat Silver(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Ken Scott
      • Letícia Román
      • Dave King
    Top credits
    • Director
      • Robert D. Webb
    • Writers
      • Jesse Lasky Jr.(screenplay)
      • Melvin Levy(screenplay)
      • Pat Silver(screenplay)
    • Stars
      • Ken Scott
      • Letícia Román
      • Dave King
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 14User reviews
    • 1Critic review

    Videos1

    Pirates of Tortuga
    Trailer 2:21
    Pirates of Tortuga

    Photos7

    Ken Scott in Pirates of Tortuga (1961)
    Letícia Román and Ken Scott in Pirates of Tortuga (1961)
    Letícia Román and Ken Scott in Pirates of Tortuga (1961)
    Pirates of Tortuga (1961)
    Pirates of Tortuga (1961)
    Ken Scott in Pirates of Tortuga (1961)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Ken Scott
    Ken Scott
    • Bart Paxton
    Letícia Román
    Letícia Román
    • Meg Graham
    Dave King
    Dave King
    • Pee Wee
    John Richardson
    John Richardson
    • Percy
    Rafer Johnson
    Rafer Johnson
    • John Gammel
    Robert Stephens
    Robert Stephens
    • Henry Morgan
    Rachel Stephens
    • Phoebe
    Stanley Adams
    Stanley Adams
    • Captain Montbars
    Edgar Barrier
    Edgar Barrier
    • Sir Thomas Mollyford
    James Forrest
    • Reggie
    Patrick Sexton
    • Randolph
    Arthur Gould-Porter
    • Bonnett
    Hortense Petra
    • Lola
    Malcolm Cassell
    • Kipper
    Robert Adler
    Robert Adler
    • Merchant
    • (uncredited)
    Sam Bagley
    • Citizen
    • (uncredited)
    Mark Bailey
    Mark Bailey
    • Naval Officer in Jamaica
    • (uncredited)
    Al Bain
    Al Bain
    • Sailor
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Robert D. Webb
    • Writers
      • Jesse Lasky Jr.(screenplay)
      • Melvin Levy(screenplay) (story)
      • Pat Silver(screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Relies primarily upon grainy mismatched stock footage from The Black Swan (1942) and Anne of the Indies (1951) enlarged and cropped to wide screen CinemaScope ratio.
    • Goofs
      At the start of the movie is a shot of Trafalgar Square with Admiralty Arch in the foreground and Nelson's Column in the middle. The movie is about pirates during the reign of Charles II (1660-1685). Trafalgar Square was named after the famous sea-battle in 1805 in which he died. The Arch was erected by order of king Edward VII and completed in 1912. Part of the text on it is visible: "(:ANNO:DECIMO:EDWARDI:SEPTIMI:REGIS: :VICTORIAE:REGINAE:CIVES:GRATISSIMI:MDCCCCX:)"
    • Connections
      Edited from Anne of the Indies (1951)

    User reviews14

    Review
    Review
    Top review
    6/10
    Doesn't fly, but it floats
    Sea captain Bart Paxton has a thankless task from the King of England. Henry Morgan, erstwhile ally of the crown, has set up a kingdom on Tortuga, whose buccaneers are robbing English ships at will and strangling the island of Jamaica. The Royal Navy can't attack Tortuga without igniting a new war with Spain, so the King is sending Paxton as a secret privateer to put an end to Morgan's depredations. And Meg, the young hellion who has stowed away on Paxton's ship, isn't making his job any easier.

    Unlike its predecessor The Black Swan or its contemporary Morgan the Pirate, Pirates of Tortuga casts Henry Morgan as a villain, the correct and natural role for that treacherous, rapacious, and brilliant man. The one difficulty is that the historical Captain Morgan died rich, contented, and even respectable, a most unsatisfying end for a movie villain. The movie deals with this problem straightforwardly, by constructing a sort of alternate history that shows what might have happened if Morgan had not chosen to answer King Charles's summons to England after his raid on Panama in 1671, with its very real attendant risk of imprisonment and execution, but instead had followed the course many of his fellow buccaneers did by raiding and looting indiscriminately. It would have been well within Morgan's power to set up the "buccaneer kingdom" on Tortuga that the movie shows.

    The plot is bare-bones, but serviceable: Paxton finds Morgan, Paxton poses as partner of Morgan to spy out Morgan's fortress, Meg flirts with the governor of Jamaica, but ultimately decides her heart truly lies with Paxton, Paxton defeats Morgan. But the denouement is a major disappointment: unimaginative, perfunctory, and implausible at once, and moreover, it fails to tie up Morgan's end of the story.

    Bart Paxton's part is well-written, a potentially dashing commander with real brains and imagination, but Ken Scott is unable to bring anything to the role but heroic blandness. Letitia Roman is certainly fetching as Meg, especially in her sailor's togs, and her bare-legged wriggling in Paxton's bed is a clear sign of the sexual revolution's tsunami roaring toward the beach of the Hayes Code. But looking beyond her physical charms, Meg's personality really has nothing to recommend her: she's not smart, brave, loyal, honest, or even charming.

    Robert Stephens' Henry Morgan is interesting, but ultimately ineffective. Stephens plays Morgan as a full-blown alcoholic, complete with the shakes. His Morgan is greedy (his eyes almost bug out when Paxton presents him with a chest full of guineas) and cruel, but credulous and unintelligent. He is fun to hate, as a good villain should be, but he lacks the frisson of menace that emanated from Rathbone's Levasseur or Newton's and Heston's Long John Silver.

    The supporting cast comes to the rescue, particularly Dave King as PeeWee and Stanley Adams as Montbars. King is appealing, dashing, and sometimes very funny, while Adams' Montbars is pure, unbridled appetite, fat and greedy and bullying, a perfect pirate.

    Visually, the movie is outstanding. The shots of the sailing ships are sublime, the colors are sumptuous, and the islands and cliffs are magnificent. The movie is fun to watch, and while it won't stay with you long, it avoids the gratuitous absurdity of many pirate movies.

    Rating: ** ½ out of ****.

    Recommendation: Worth a rental after it leaves the new release shelves.
    helpful•13
    3
    • Danimal-7
    • Aug 14, 2007

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • October 1961 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Piraten von Tortuga
    • Filming locations
      • 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Sam Katzman Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 37 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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