Romance of the Seven Seas
Today's review: Against All Flags.
While I do enjoy the swashbuckling pirate movies Errol Flynn made, I hadn’t ever heard of Against All Flags until I stumbled across it one day. When the summary said that Flynn would be facing off against a female pirate, however, it was all the incentive I needed to give it a watch. And while it didn’t play out quite in the way I’d been hoping, I’d say it was still a very enjoyable experience.
After an effective ambiguous opening where we see Brian Hawke (Flynn) being punished by whipping on board a Royal Navy ship, we quickly are brought up to speed. It seems there’s an island that’s become a pirate hideout, and the Navy wants to bring it down in order to protect the trade routes. Hawke and two crewmen will head to the island pretending to be deserters, win the trust of the pirates, and then sabotage the island’s defenses so the Navy can make its move. Of course, step two of that plan is easier said than done, thanks in part to the suspicious and cruel Captain Brasiliano (Anthony Quinn). But Hawke and his men have an ally that’s surprising in more ways than one; “Spitfire” Stevens (Maureen O’Hara) the daughter of the pirates weaponmaker and now a Captain in her own right, having inherited the title from her father. She’s intrigued by Hawke from the moment she sees him, and Hawke’s smart enough to exploit the opportunity, though it’s pretty clear there’s some genuine feeling for her wrapped up in there as well. By the time you reach the climax of the movie, you’ve got at least four different battles going on-battles between ships, battles with swords, battles between romantic rivals, and of course, the battle of the sexes…
As I said, I did enjoy the movie, but I can’t help but feeling a bit disappointed that the plot wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I’d been under the impression that Hawke was specifically assigned to track down a notorious pirate, who would turn out to be Spitfire. They’d still fall in love, but there’d be more ship battles and swordfights between the two before the end. Instead, all of their fights are verbal or psychological, and we rarely get to see Spitfire doing anything particularly piratey. In fact, she changes from her more masculine (though still form-fitting) outfit into a pretty dress within a day after meeting Hawke in the hopes of getting his attention, something I would have expected to happen closer to the halfway point or end of the movie. To be fair, however, she does change back into and wear the masculine outfit for the majority of the movie, she’s tough, and she does engage in a swordfight, so she’s still a strong contender for my Best Female Characters list. I’m just saying that if it had played out the way I’d been expecting, she’d have taken the number one spot immediately.
My other slight disappointment is that there was surprisingly little of what I’d classify as “swashbuckling”. That is to say, there aren’t too many ship battles or swordfights. And while Quinn makes Brasiliano a decent enough villain, it’s more a “tell don’t show” kind of villainy. Sure, he seems to jump very quickly to murder to solve his problems and leers at Spitfire a lot, but he’s a pirate. That sort of thing is par for the course for them (at least in media). I guess I’m just used to Flynn pirate movies where Flynn’s character has a more concrete reason to hate the villain; it increases the stakes, if nothing else.
For all my complaints above, though, the movie is fun. Flynn still exudes that roguish charm that makes his movies so engaging. When we do get action scenes, they’re well executed. And the middle section of the movie has a lot of surprising twists and turns, not the least of which is the fact that the ship Hawke is working on winds up capturing the harem of the Indian sultan, which also includes the sultan’s daughter Patma (Alice Kelley). Of course, she immediately falls in love with Hawke after he rescues her from a fire, leading to rivalries between both Brasiliano and Hawke and between Spitfire and Patma. I also really like this middle section because it’s got a lot of amusing moments, from Patma constantly begging Hawke for kisses to Spitfire making her intentions towards Hawke very clear. There were things in there I wasn’t expecting, and while it’s still not quite as good as what I’d been initially picturing in my head, I still had a good time watching everything play out.
I would definitely give this movie a look, especially if you like Errol Flynn swashbucklers. It’s got a little something for everyone-action, romance, humor, decent visuals, and clean enough to be family friendly. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a hidden gem, but it’s definitely more sparkly than a lot of other movies out there.
While I do enjoy the swashbuckling pirate movies Errol Flynn made, I hadn’t ever heard of Against All Flags until I stumbled across it one day. When the summary said that Flynn would be facing off against a female pirate, however, it was all the incentive I needed to give it a watch. And while it didn’t play out quite in the way I’d been hoping, I’d say it was still a very enjoyable experience.
After an effective ambiguous opening where we see Brian Hawke (Flynn) being punished by whipping on board a Royal Navy ship, we quickly are brought up to speed. It seems there’s an island that’s become a pirate hideout, and the Navy wants to bring it down in order to protect the trade routes. Hawke and two crewmen will head to the island pretending to be deserters, win the trust of the pirates, and then sabotage the island’s defenses so the Navy can make its move. Of course, step two of that plan is easier said than done, thanks in part to the suspicious and cruel Captain Brasiliano (Anthony Quinn). But Hawke and his men have an ally that’s surprising in more ways than one; “Spitfire” Stevens (Maureen O’Hara) the daughter of the pirates weaponmaker and now a Captain in her own right, having inherited the title from her father. She’s intrigued by Hawke from the moment she sees him, and Hawke’s smart enough to exploit the opportunity, though it’s pretty clear there’s some genuine feeling for her wrapped up in there as well. By the time you reach the climax of the movie, you’ve got at least four different battles going on-battles between ships, battles with swords, battles between romantic rivals, and of course, the battle of the sexes…
As I said, I did enjoy the movie, but I can’t help but feeling a bit disappointed that the plot wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I’d been under the impression that Hawke was specifically assigned to track down a notorious pirate, who would turn out to be Spitfire. They’d still fall in love, but there’d be more ship battles and swordfights between the two before the end. Instead, all of their fights are verbal or psychological, and we rarely get to see Spitfire doing anything particularly piratey. In fact, she changes from her more masculine (though still form-fitting) outfit into a pretty dress within a day after meeting Hawke in the hopes of getting his attention, something I would have expected to happen closer to the halfway point or end of the movie. To be fair, however, she does change back into and wear the masculine outfit for the majority of the movie, she’s tough, and she does engage in a swordfight, so she’s still a strong contender for my Best Female Characters list. I’m just saying that if it had played out the way I’d been expecting, she’d have taken the number one spot immediately.
My other slight disappointment is that there was surprisingly little of what I’d classify as “swashbuckling”. That is to say, there aren’t too many ship battles or swordfights. And while Quinn makes Brasiliano a decent enough villain, it’s more a “tell don’t show” kind of villainy. Sure, he seems to jump very quickly to murder to solve his problems and leers at Spitfire a lot, but he’s a pirate. That sort of thing is par for the course for them (at least in media). I guess I’m just used to Flynn pirate movies where Flynn’s character has a more concrete reason to hate the villain; it increases the stakes, if nothing else.
For all my complaints above, though, the movie is fun. Flynn still exudes that roguish charm that makes his movies so engaging. When we do get action scenes, they’re well executed. And the middle section of the movie has a lot of surprising twists and turns, not the least of which is the fact that the ship Hawke is working on winds up capturing the harem of the Indian sultan, which also includes the sultan’s daughter Patma (Alice Kelley). Of course, she immediately falls in love with Hawke after he rescues her from a fire, leading to rivalries between both Brasiliano and Hawke and between Spitfire and Patma. I also really like this middle section because it’s got a lot of amusing moments, from Patma constantly begging Hawke for kisses to Spitfire making her intentions towards Hawke very clear. There were things in there I wasn’t expecting, and while it’s still not quite as good as what I’d been initially picturing in my head, I still had a good time watching everything play out.
I would definitely give this movie a look, especially if you like Errol Flynn swashbucklers. It’s got a little something for everyone-action, romance, humor, decent visuals, and clean enough to be family friendly. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a hidden gem, but it’s definitely more sparkly than a lot of other movies out there.