Re: Track the Films You Watch (2008)
08/02/08:
WHITE SLAVE SHIP (Silvio Amadio, 1961) 
This is another
peplum I wasn’t previously aware of but should have, since it’s also reviewed in Maltin’s Film Guide; however, whereas I agreed with the latter’s
rating for THE ISLAND PRINCESS (1954), I thought this one undeserving of a measly
!
Essentially an average but quite lively swashbuckler, its plot deals with an 18th century sea voyage from England to America – with a shipload of both male and female prisoners destined to be sold as slaves; along the way, a mutiny takes place – the film’s original title, L’AMMUTINAMENTO, translates to just that – but the prisoners find as much discord among their own ranks as to the treatment of the crew and passengers, the course they should take, etc. The protagonists are two former Hollywood hopefuls – Italian Pier Angeli (here billed under her full name of Annamaria Pierangeli) and Englishman Edmund Purdom; however, the two characters – she’s the prize girl of an imprisoned pimp (who lands in jail with the express purpose of winning herself a place on the ship and liberate him!), while he’s a doctor who treated a wounded rebel and was accused of being an accomplice in the conspiracy against the King – barely interact throughout. In fact, his obligatory romantic interest is supplied by Michele Girardon (whom I’ve just rewatched in Luis Bunuel’s DEATH IN THE GARDEN [1956]): again, she’s given a fairly good role as an aristocratic girl (whom Purdom initially despises and insults for showing him pity, which leads him to be publicly flogged); incidentally, the pimp himself shows an interest in the girl (much to Angeli’s chagrin) and the two men eventually contend over her in a fistfight (which Purdom obviously wins). The hero also shares an ambiguous relationship with the ship’s captain (Ivan Desny); when the leader of the mutineers demonstrates himself to be incapable of steering the ship, Purdom has to plead with the imprisoned Desny to take over.
The second half does tend somewhat towards histrionics: a baby is born on board; Angeli is continually shunned by the pimp (whom she later has no qualms about killing); Girardon’s kid brother is after Purdom – at one point springing at him with a poker – for ‘defiling’ her; another aristocratic female passenger commits suicide after the leader of the mutineers has made her his concubine, etc. Events come to a head at the climax, when the former male prisoners decide to throw the women overboard indiscriminately in shark-infested waters because the food rations have been severely diminished after a storm – but Purdom, the captain and what remains of the crew defend them, and the two sides engage in open combat; a vessel sailing close by witnesses the scene and subsequently picks up the survivors – asked to identify his companions, Captain Desny refers to the few remaining prisoners merely as fellow passengers. By the way, there were a few unintentionally funny moments throughout: when the captain asks Purdom what has become of his pet parrot, the latter deadpans “Roasted with potatoes on the side”!; the doctor later does a double-take when he finds Desny has been forced to assume the duties of butler on his own ship!; the leader of the mutineers, then, only decides to personally steer the ship because the ex-prisoner currently at the wheel seems not to even be aware what it’s for!
For the record, this is the fourth film from director Amadio that I’ve watched – the others were all equally obscure i.e. the
peplum WAR GODS OF BABYLON (1962), the erotic drama ISLAND OF THE SWEDES (1969) and the romantic thriller DISPERATAMENTE L’ESTATE SCORSA (1970).
08/03/08:
THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER (John Gilling, 1962)
I’d been wanting to check this one out ever since coming across a poster of it, as a double-bill with MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961), amongst a whole bunch of old newspaper cuttings of local releases from the 1950s and 1960s which my father used to collect and glue in scrapbook form in his teenage years!
It’s never been shown on TV in my neck of the woods, so I had to wait until now to watch the film – and it didn’t disappoint: a familiar but undeniably vivid, indeed vigorous, action-packed adventure with no ounce of fat during its 87-minute length…yet containing the expected Hammer touches of nastiness, particularly with its notorious piranha sequences (which is the reason why the river of the title is so named!). Casting is terrific all round: Kerwin Mathews (at his best in such surroundings) is a believable hero; Christopher Lee looks great with an eye-patch and even affects a more-or-less authentic French accent; his pirate
entourage, then, includes the likes of Peter Arne, Oliver Reed and Michael Ripper (though his quaint pirate lingo begins to grate after a while); among the locals are Glenn Corbett, FIRST MAN INTO SPACE (1959)’s Marla Landi (as Mathews’ sister and over whom Arne and Reed engage in a duel blindfolded!), and Andrew Keir (as the hero’s stern father but who ultimately sacrifices himself for the good of the community). Incidentally, considering the piracy theme, one of the oddest aspects about this particular film is that the action takes place entirely on land!
When we first see Lee and company, they ‘save’ the life of Mathews – who’s just escaped from a penal colony (to which his own father had sentenced him after being caught red-handed in an adulterous
liaison and whose partner ended up food for the killerfish!). They decide to accompany him to his people’s settlement – fugitive Huguenots who have established themselves in England – because Lee believes them to be in possession of a fortune (even if Mathews himself tells the pirates there’s no such thing). Soon, the buccaneers take over the village and start to exterminate the citizens (in twos) for the length of time that the location of the treasure isn’t divulged!; eventually, Mathews is told it does exist and that, as community leader, his father is the only one who might be aware of the actual ‘site’ – so he pleads with him to give up the gold for the sake of the people…but the old man is still cross with his son and refuses! The sly Lee, observing the scene from afar, concludes that the plunder may be hidden behind the statue of the community’s founder – which he orders his men to pull down, only to reveal nothing; however, Mathews insists and decides to scrape off the paint on the statue, which turns out to be made of solid gold!
After this, the pirates are ready to leave but they take both Mathews and Keir for insurance – especially since a small group of townsfolk, led by Corbett, have fled their control and are organizing raids against them and laying booby-traps in their path! Finally, the two bands meet head-on by the river (where the pirates have built a raft to transport both the loot and their own ever diminishing number); incidentally, the buccaneers themselves rise against their leader – an opposition led by former lackey Ripper, whom Lee had earlier slighted. In any case, as is typical of such films, the prime members of each group are made to face off – so that we get Arne fighting Corbett and Lee dueling with Mathews…and, as always, however inexperienced, good triumphs over evil (though, in the meantime, as I said earlier, the burly Keir throws himself into the river to demolish the raft – before both he and the pirates onboard once more attract the attention of the piranhas).
From what I’ve read since this film’s DVD release as part of Columbia/Hammer’s “Icons Of Adventure” set, it seems to be the one getting the least consideration; I beg to differ and find it perhaps the most purely enjoyable of the lot – if, for nothing else, due to the stalwart cast but also the sure-fire elements of hidden loot and underwater menace. Finally, it’s worth noting that co-writer/director Gilling (here working from a Jimmy Sangster story which he would himself rehash into another Hammer/Lee/Ripper adventure outing, THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES [1964], conveniently also included on the Columbia set and which I actually watched soon after!) made quite a few films in similar vein: THE BANDIT OF ZHOBE (1959) with Victor Mature; FURY AT SMUGGLERS’ BAY (1961), a non-Hammer effort with Peter Cushing; and, for the famed horror company, THE SCARLET BLADE (1963) and THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR (1965) – both with Oliver Reed. For the record, out of all of these, only the Cushing title is available on DVD and a Region 2 exclusive at that!
08/03/08:
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.
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