This little ditty is one good little pirate tale.....saw this movie in the early 50s in Detroit and it made the rounds through the 50s and early 60s as a second feature on double bills at the theaters and drive ins....must have seen it about 4 times or so then....John Payne who made his mark in "Miracle on 34th Street" is cast as a hunter named Dick Lindsay in some remote caribbean locale who is hunting ducks when he suddenly comes upon two pirates and a slave who will be digging a hole to bury some pirate loot. Payne is suddenly attacked and taken prisoner on a local pirate captain's boat and sent to the brig....not known to him is the pirate captain (Cedric Hardwicke) is plotting to send an impersonator to another pirate's locale to infiltrate the island and tell Hardwick all of the island's weak points for a future raid.....Francis L. Sullivan, a character actor of the 40s and 50s is the rival pirate captain and slave owner named Andrew McCalister. Payne accepts the job to spy on Sulivan's empire for promise of a large amount of money and freedom.....upon arriving at the island Payne finds the local slaves are badly abused by Sullivan and a foreman/taskmaster named Shively (Willard Parker).... Of course a lovely lady is on the island to tempt Payne, the scorching Arlene Dahl (her and Rhonda Fleming, red headed look alikes)...unbeknowing to Dahl is that she is really the daughter of the rival pirate captain Hardwick....the tale is that Hardwick and Sullivan had a parting of the ways and Sullivan (Andrew McCallister) stole Hardwicke's money, power and position and forced him to be a pirate, all the while taking his infant daughter (Dahl) as his own supposed daughter. Payne appears to be up for this role, usually one that would suit Earl Flynn...in fact this film has a lot of resemblances to Flynn's classic - "Captain Blood"...... On the island Payne must become a bastard part of the McCallister family and plot to overthrow the McCallister empire at the same time. A very good knife fighting duel between Payne and Shively near the end and Payne puts him away....Payne's identify is discovered by the shrewd Andrew McCallister and in the end the pirate captain Barclay (Hardwicke) overtakes the island and puts McCallister, his arch enemy away...in the process Hardwicke is killed and implores Payne at his side never to tell Dahl that she is his real daughter. Arlene Dahl was a staple in these early 50s drama adventures, ala Patricia Medina and also starred with her future husband a year later in the pirate tale "Sangaree" Fernando Lamas....Franicis L. Sullivan played a heavy in "Sangaree" also. All in all this is a very enjoyable pirate/adventure drama.....although Flynn, Fernando Lamas, or maybe Tyrone Power could have handled the role better.
