Customer Reviews

Crimson Pirate, the

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Warner Bros. Pictures presents "THE CRIMSON PIRATE" (1952) (105 min/Color) -- Starring Burt Lancaster, Nick Cravat, Eva Bartok, Torin Thatcher & Christopher Lee

Directed by Robert Siodmak

Burt Lancaster plays a pirate with a taste for intrigue and acrobatics who involves himself in the goings on of a revolution in the Caribbean in the late 1700s. A light hearted adventure involving prison breaks, an oddball Scientist, sailing ships, naval fights, and tons of swordplay. Cult film that offers loads of thrills and laughs to both children & adults alike.

Burt Lancaster plays the role with real gusto and exuberance doing all his own stunts, being paired on screen with his one time trapeze partner Nick Cravat as his mute sidekick. The support cast is filled with familiar faces from the period all giving good value in their respective roles.

Lancaster's sense of comedy was evident enough for critic Alton Cook to call him "one of our most amiable and strenuous comedians."

One of my favorite actors, Lancaster will be always remembered as the actor who has given the modern cinema more "pure enjoyment" than almost any other major film star.

In his autobiography, Christopher Lee claimed that Robert Siodmak changed the original screenplay: "The script started life as serious, nay solemn, but Robert Siodmak, the director, with all the sure touch of real tension behind him in The Killers and The Spiral Staircase, took stock of the material in forty-eight hours and turned it into a comedy".

Outstanding score by the talented composer William Alwyn who captures the complete adventures of the high seas.

BIOS:
1. Robert Siodmak (Director)
Date of Birth: 8 August 1900 - Dresden, Saxony, Germany
Date of Death: 10 March 1973 - Locarno, Ticino, Switzerland

2. Burt Lancaster [aka: Burton Stephen Lancaster]
Date of Birth: 2 November 1913 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 20 October 1994 - Century City, California

3. Nick Cravat [aka: Nick Cuccia]
Date of Birth: 11 January 1912 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 29 January 1994 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 5 Stars
Performance: 5 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 5 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 105 min on DVD ~ Warner Bros. Pictures ~ (July 1, 2003)

I like movies about Pirates and I had taped this movie a couple of years ago when it was shown commercial free on a TV station called PLEX but for some reason I never got around to watching it until last night and I must say that I was very impressed! The Crimson Pirate is now one of my favorite movies about Pirates and the action, fight scenes were amazing and I also loved the love story between Captain Vallo (AKA, The Crimson pirate) and Consuelo. Burt Lancaster and Nick Cravat who were both circus acrobats before getting into the movies were fantastic and the fact that they did all their own stunts was just amazing! I highly recommend this movie and I'm thinking of buying the DVD!

Watching Burt Lancaster movies in my youth made me a lover of cinema. I can watch "The Crimson Pirate" and "The Flame and the Arrow" over and over. It was interesting to see how many bits and pieces of "The Crimson Pirate" were incorporated in "Pirates of the Caribbean." This is not to take anything away from Bruckheimer and company as their final product was quite enjoyable. The fact that Lancaster and Cravat did their own stunts along with great costumes, scenery and music, this film does stand the test of time.

The term "when it was a game" often applies to baseball in the 1950's, namely the real deal. No steroids, real grass, no special effects. The same can be said of "The Crimson Pirate."

This film is just plain fun and entertaining- Burt Lancaster and Cravat do all therir own stunts! Any age group will enjoy.

Fans of Bloom and Deep's Pirates of the Caribbean, should check out pirate camp is done by the old pro Burt Lancaster. This is one riotously funny movie with Burt Lancaster and partner Nick Cravat (they were real partners in a circus act, childhood pals, before breaking into film!) and they get to strut them stuff in this really great film. Lancaster and Cravat play Pirates, in the true tradition, and while tweaking the local authorities nose and robing them blind, they come across Consuelo (Eva Bartok). She is the daughter of a local rebel who they are going to hang and she wants Lancaster to help free him. Tossing
James Hayter's absentminded Professor Prudence and Christopher Lee (an actual sword-fighter!! - watch Saruman in his younger days!!) you get all the perfect mix for slapstick humour at its best.

A long neglected classic and is fun for the whole family.

Simply stated: This is a classic adventure spoof. Wonderful timing both humorously and acrobatically,

If Pirates of the Caribbean had been made in 1952, it would have looked like this movie.

This movie is a swashbuckling, tongue in cheek romp through the 50's typical Caribbean locale. Lancaster portrays the charismatic pirate captain, taking on all odds, beating the pompous Spanish aristocracy in a fair fight, playing all sides off against each other for the benefit of the pirates (at least until Eva Bartok, captivates his interest). On a historical note: the movie does a decent job of depicting the pirate captain's relationship with the crew by making Lancaster convince them to follow his plan rather than just issue the orders (pirate captains of the Golden Age of Piracy were elected by the crew and continued to serve until the crew felt the need for a change).

The cast is excellent. Nick Cravat, plays a wonderful mute companion to Lancaster's voluble Captain Vallo; Torin Thatcher plays a wonderful double dealing pirate as Humble Bellows. Eva Bartok is a decent romantic interest (the movie isn't all mushy, just a little embracing and couple of kisses). Then there is Professor Prudence, James Hayter, type cast as the absent minded inventor (can you say hot air balloon, submarine and nitroglycerine [although I doubt he invented the cruise ship glimpsed in the background of one shipboard scene]). Overall, this is a wonderful representation of the genre. P-)

This is a great pirate spoof! It's great to see a film where actors really do their own stunts- This film is just plain fun for kids and adults. I hope they do a remake!

Yeesh! Burt Lancaster hams it up in this slapstick-heavy pirate movie, which features a ton of acrobatic schtick with him and his real-life childhood pal, Nick Cravat. The athletic stunts are impressive, but the script is not. It's intentionally silly and absurd -- this is a film that was made to amuse six-year-olds during the early Eisenhower era, and would probably still work its charms on the younger set today. But it has a campy, Mel Brooks-ish air to it: don't pick one this up if you're hoping for a straight-up swashbuckler action flick, ala "The Black Swan" etc. It'll just get on your nerves. The belabored (and numerous) comedy routines with Cravat, where he plays a Harpo Marx-ish mute pirate, are particularly excruciating. On the other hand, if you want a film that simply makes fun of the genre, this might be more up your alley...

(PS - film geek note: The scene in which Lancaster & his pals use the air bubble in an empty, upsidedown lifeboat to help them walk on the bottom of a bay is paid homage in an early scene in Johnny Depp's "Pirates Of The Caribbean," a film which does a much better job balancing comedy and action while spoofing this oft-maligned film genre...)

OK, the wait is over. Finally someone has decided to bring the classic swashbucklers to the DVD medium and it is about time. "The Crimson Pirate" is one of two Lancaster swashbucklers--the other is "The Flame and the Arrow"--and a wonderful mixture of comedy and acrobats. While not on a par with the older Flynn/Tyrone Power epics, "Pirate" stands above most of the pirate films of the late 1940s and 1950s. It is not to be missed by any fan of Burt Lancaster, especially those who wish to see how good he probably was as a circus performer. This is one to hold on to and, hopefully, will be the beginning of more of these grand entertainments on DVD!!