Prismark10 Paul Henreid plays Van Horn a Dutch sailor shipwrecked off the coast of a Spanish settlement. The despicable governor of the colony (Walter Slezak) holds the crew and plans to sell them into slavery but sentences Van Horn to death but the crew escape.Five years later, Van Horn is now a mysterious pirate sailing the ship, The Barracuda. He captures privileged Contessa Francisca Alvarado (Maureen O'Hara) who is on her way to marry governor even though she has never met him. He forces her into marriage with him. Over time both fall for each other as Van Horn is a gentle law abiding soul.I saw a restored version of this movie as it looks glorious in colour, Henreid does not cut is as a pirate, O'Hara is beautiful and Slezak put in a scene stealing turn. There is a side plot with another female pirate tussling with Van Horn and Contessa but the story is too mundane.

moonspinner55 Dutch navigator settles an old score against a despicable Spanish ruler and kidnaps his betrothed, a Mexican Contessa, en route to the wedding; he marries her aboard ship, but soon finds himself double-crossed by a former flame. Technicolor pirate production from RKO which is best when keeping its tone light and playful, worse while putting its characters on a soapbox and having them pontificate ponderously. With his mischievous grin, tousled locks and robust appearance, this is probably the sexiest Paul Henreid has ever been on the screen; flame-haired Maureen O'Hara looks sensational too, though her close-ups are obviously carefully posed and lighted for this effect. Still, interest wanes after the first-half, with rote swashbuckling action and a lack of attention paid to the supporting players. ** from ****

Neil Doyle What was RKO thinking? First, they lavish a Technicolor budget on a pirate film starring MAUREEN O'HARA (the Queen of Technicolor also known as The Pirate Queen), and then they cast Austrian PAUL HENRIED as a Dutch pirate.Having lost all credibility in the casting, it's all down hill from that point on. BINNIE BARNES is no help as Anne Bonney, a feisty woman pirate--but WALTER SLEZAK does his usual scene-stealing business as O'Hara's unlikely husband and does give the film some semblance of authority whenever he appears.Maureen is lovely but it's just another pirate queen role that she handles with her usual finesse. Henried goes through all the motions of being a romantic swashbuckler, but it's no use. Somewhere out there one suspects either Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn or Cornel Wilde were too busy to read the script.It's strictly Saturday afternoon entertainment--bubble gum for the mind, but enjoyable if you like Technicolor and Maureen O'Hara.

tedg I'm following pirate movies now. Its because of The second Depp pirate movie and its success — Success even by the Ted-o-meter in the way the environments are exploited. So I've been digging out movies featuring sailing ships and most of those are pirate movies.This one follows the pattern set by "Black Pirate." I'm not sure if there is a strong precedent before that.The setup is simple: you have a beautiful princess, strongwilled but privileged and arrogant (but a worthy soul). You have a pirate who forces himself on her, is rejected by our womanly prize, but she finally is "won." Sure, he is a murdering thief, but he was forced into it, you see, so his brutishness is a sort of honorable characteristic.(Oh, she's a redhead.) Everything else is secondary to this spine, the idea of a man taking a woman and her eventually appreciating him, even though initially she finds herself in a violent, exploitive marriage.A whole industry has been built around this notion, the idea of manliness, action and possession. So it must tap something in women. The appeal to men is easy to suss.I saw this on a double feature with classic Bettie Page bondage films. A perfect fit, a tight knot.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.