Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this is as much a slapstick comedy as an action-adventure picture. Don't expect even something as serious-minded as the Disney Pirates of the Caribbean series. It's a quite lighthearted, innocent Technicolor romp of the old school. Violence is mostly slapstick, but it's still a movie with pirates in it, so you'll find stabbings and explosions, cannon fire, a flame thrower, and the heroine's elderly father is whipped and tortured (mostly off-screen). Two characters toss around TNT as a joke.
Families can talk about the appeal of pirate movies. This one is pretty far out, even by modern standards. Can you think of any realistic ones? You could use this to turn kids on to the classic Burt Lancaster dramas, or compare the fantasy pirates of the movies to the privateers and freebooters in real life.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Charles Cassady, Jr.
Though he became associated with ultra-serious roles in a long and varied filmography, star Burt Lancaster had an early career as a circus acrobat, one he put to good use in THE CRIMSON PIRATE, a flighty, swashbuckling romp in which he swings like Tarzan from mast to mast and rallies a bunch of villagers to invent the tank and the machine gun and the submarine several centuries early. It's pure popcorn escapism that still holds up well.
Lancaster famously talks directly to the audience at the beginning: "In a pirate ship in pirate waters in a pirate world, ask no questions. Believe only what you see. No! Believe half of what you see!"
He plays Captain Vallo, a dashing ocean pirate who captures a Spanish ship sent to quell a colonial uprising in the Caribbean. Vallo decides to profit off both sides, not only selling the weapons on board to the rebels, but selling the rebels out to the governor's imperial forces. Vallo changes his mind, though, when he falls in love with the rebel leader's daughter, Consuelo (Eva Bartok).
Because he's violated "the pirate code" by putting personal feelings ahead of plunder, Vallo is overthrown by his own crew, and the Spanish authorities plan to marry Consuelo off to the elderly governor to cement their power. But one of Vallo's remaining allies among the islanders, a Ben Franklin-type inventor-revolutionary, helps come up with homebrew high-explosives, a giant balloon, mobile cannons, and other gadgets to fight back against the Spanish and recapture Vallo's pirate ship.
Playing out like a live-action cartoon, it's charming folderol, with practically no sense of danger, but lots of good humor, bright-colored costumes (crimson, of course), impressive vessels, great stunts, and some clever lines -- or lack of them, in the case of Vallo's mute sidekick Ojo, portrayed by Nick Cravat, a friend of Lancaster's and fellow circus performer. He utters not a word, yet makes himself perfectly understood through miming and prop-comedy. Imagine a Harpo Marx as an action-hero. Interestingly, the filmmakers even things out by also allocating the main villain his own nonverbal henchman, played by longtime screen menace Christopher Lee.
For more old-school pirate hijinks, check out Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. in The Black Pirate, a silent-era classic whose acrobatic and underwater stunts are still thrilling today -- maybe even more so if kids are reminded of the complete lack of computer-generated special effects. Other classics for pirate movie fans include the 1950 Treasure Island, and The Pirate with Judy Garland and Gene Kelly.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentAlmost none, except for kissing and generalized talk about pirates "molesting" their female prisoners. A sight gag involves the heroes dressing in drag. |
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ViolenceMostly slapstick violence, much in the vein of a Three Stooges fracas (complete with appropriate sound effects). There are stabbings and explosions, cannon fire, a flame thrower, and the heroine's elderly father is whipped and tortured (mostly off-screen). |
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Social BehaviorEven though Vallo is an outlaw who (initially) plans to betray a bunch of good guys to make himself and his crew richer, he changes his mind and ends up a Robin Hood-type do-gooder. Still, you don't want kids imitating scenes in which he and his cohort toss TNT back and forth as a joke. Though the setting is supposedly in Spanish Caribbean waters, almost all the actors are white (the only outstandingly "ethnic" type is a proud Irishman). |
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Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoSocial drinking and talk of fondness for liquor. One of the heroes smokes cigars. |
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