The Pirates of Blood River

THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER, a 1962 swashbuckler from Hammer Studios, is one of their lesser outings. You can put this down to Jimmy Sangster's lacklustre story and the lack of a decent budget, which substitutes British locations for the tropics and doesn't even include a pirate ship (apart from in an opening stock shot).

Of course, those of us who enjoy B-movie fare will no doubt enjoy the spectacle of some nondescript British woodland standing in for a more exotic locale - adding a single fern leaf into the shot and a couple of pot plants isn't doing much to fool the viewer! At least it helps take the viewer's mind off the plot, which after a decent first half hour soon descends into repetitive inanity.

Kerwin Matthews (THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD) stars as the youthful, romantic hero figure who's sent to a penal colony after falling foul of his puritan elders. He escapes just in time to help his villagers defend themselves from the clutches of a group of dastardly pirates looking for treasure.

One of the problems with the production is the lack of a sense of menace. The pirates just don't seem to be particularly villainous and the script resorts to them fighting between themselves to supply the action. It doesn't help any when all the best actors play the pirates either: Christopher Lee, Michael Ripper, Peter Arne and Oliver Reed are all having a ball, supplying endless energy, while the villagers (including Dennis Waterman as a kid and an extra-dour Andrew Keir) are a bore.

Still, it's as colourful as ever for a Hammer romp, and I'm predisposed towards this genre so that it held my attention from beginning to end. But with a little more imagination, it could have been a whole lot better and more like the above-average DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES that Hammer made a couple of years later.

Fleeing religious persecution, a group of Huguenots settle on the Isle of Devon and establish a village where they can live and worship in peace. Unfortunately, many years later the leadership of the village is taken over by greedy and self-serving men who begin to enforce a type of religious tyranny on the residents. In one particular case a man by the name of "Jonathon Standing" (Kewin Matthews) has fallen in love with a woman named "Maggie Mason" (Marie Devereux) who is the wife of one of the leaders. Although neither have actually committed adultery when they are found in each other's embrace the decision is made to punish both all the same. In fear Maggie tries to escape by swimming to the other side of a river but is attacked and killed by piranhas. Meanwhile Jonathon is caught and then tried for adultery with Maggie's husband as one of the jurors. Although he protests his innocence, he is sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in a penal colony. A couple of months later, he attempts to escape but is captured by a band of pirates and taken to their leader, "Captain LaRoche" (Christopher Lee) who decides to march to the village and loot it. Now, rather than detail any more of the film and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it, I will just say that this turned out to be a decent pirate movie despite the fact that almost all of the scenes happened on dry land. I especially liked the performance of Christopher Lee who I thought played the part quite superbly. In any case, I recommend this movie to all of those who think they might enjoy a film of this type and rate it as slightly above average.

Pirates of Blood River is directed by John Gilling and written by Jimmy Sangster. It stars Christopher Lee, Kerwin Matthews, Glenn Corbett, Michael Ripper, Andrew Keir, Oliver Reed, Marla Landi and Peter Arne. Music is by Gary Hughes and cinematography by Arthur Grant.

When Huguenot Jonathan Standish (Matthews) is found guilty of adultery, he is banished from the village and sent to serve hard labour at the penal colony. However, managing to escape, Jonathan is captured by pirates led by Captain LaRoche (Lee) and forced to lead the pirates back to his home village, where, LaRoche is convinced valuable treasure is hidden.

One of Hammer Film Productions pirate ventures, Pirates of Blood River is landlocked but still a whole bunch of piratical fun. Sangster's screenplay dangles interesting carrots that aren't fully unearthed, such as the religious fervour holding the Huguenot village in its grip, and questions of main character's pasts are left unanswered, but cast are very spirited and Gilling, in spite of being brought in late and being a pain in the ass, crafts a fast paced picture of excitement and tension. The small budget and absence of a ship and seafaring malarkey is barely noticed, though this place of plunder doesn't look much like a tropical island. There's good action, especially for the "big" battle at the finale, while it's good to see low cost effects, such as a piranha attack simulated by ripples on the water, actually be very effective for dramatic purpose. Blindfold duelling, too, always a bonus.

Plenty of beards, jolly roger speak, bodily abuse and guerrilla warfare, enough in fact to lift it above its obvious flaws. 7/10

John Gilling directed this pirate adventure that stars Kerwin Mathews as Jonathan Standing, an inhabitant of a 17th century Huegenot village where he was exiled by his father for adultery to a penal colony. While there, pirates led by Captain LaRoche(played by Christopher Lee) kidnap him and force him to lead them back to the village, because the pirates want a rumored buried treasure that their founding fathers left behind, and LaRoche will stop at nothing to find it, not even murder. Marginal Hammer studios film certainly has a colorful title that sums up the plot, and good production values and acting, but story is strangely unappealing and unmemorable, despite an interesting "landlocked pirates" premise.

Having already made two Robin Hood movies, Hammer then tried their hand at a couple of pirate movies shot in the woodland surrounding Bray Studios in Buckinghamshire (co.scripted by John Hunter, son of T. Hayes Hunter, director of the pre-Hammer horror 'The Ghoul' in 1933). Their provenance as Hammer productions was underscored by suitably bloodthirsty titles ('The Pirates of Blood River', 'The Devil-Ship Pirates') and by their usual plush production values achieved within their modest means (the budget didn't actually run to a ship, for example). This, the first, certainly lives up to its title since several people get devoured by piranhas trying to cross the title river, while a couple of others get impaled on spikes by a booby trap.

My favourite scene in a Hammer film is Rupert Davies in 'Dracula Has Risen from the Grave' expressing relief that his prospective son-in-law isn't a Methodist; and then going ballistic when he instead reveals that he's an atheist. Religious zealots also receive short shrift in this movie in the form of Andrew Keir, who shows 'mercy' to his own son by sentencing him for adultery to transportation rather than death, declares "God has answered our prayers" when he (wrongly) thinks he's fought the pirates off, and would then sooner sacrifice the entire village than reveal the location of his hidden stash of treasure (which I figured out before anyone else in the film did).

Pirate captain Christopher Lee - "As strong as a lion, as cunning as a mongoose, and as vicious as a snake" - sporting a stylish eye-patch, presides over a mean-looking bunch of cutthroats (one of whom - wearing one enormous earring - is black). But Marla Landi as the female lead is absent for most of the first half, and although two of the pirates fight a duel over her only really comes into her own when she changes into leather britches and a blouse for the film's final quarter. Even then, alas, she's present largely as a spectator during the finale.