Fury at Smugglers' Bay

There's something foreboding, yet striking, of the image of cliffs, heavy tides, foaming water, ships on vehement waves, and winding roads; you get that in abundance in this tale of skullduggery in a Cornwall village. You also get swordfights and highwaymen robbing coaches. Shootouts. You get the picture.

The story -The squire of a small Cornish community has always turned a blind eye to smuggling, until wreckers turn up in the area to lure ships onto the rocks and steal their cargo. Knowing some villagers are handling stolen goods, he comes down hard on wreckers and smugglers alike, enlisting the military to deal with the problem - but the villagers rebel, and turn to an infamous highwayman to defend them.

Like Peter Cushing said in his biography, this film is like a western, with plenty of shootouts, and riding. It's a rumbustious yarn, which is a bit ponderous at times, but the locations, the action and the acting - especially by Peter Cushing and Bernard Lee - enliven things. The heroes - John Fraser and William Franklyn - put in the physical work adeptly with sword and gun. Michele Mercier and Liz Fraser offer eye candy. A pleasant enough viewing on a Sunday afternoon.

This tale of shipwreckers in rural Cornwall was inspired by the real history of the area. The brutal tradition of shipwrecking has been covered in a number of films and is truly worthwhile subject for dramatization. One would have thought that with a director like John Gilling and a star like Peter Cushing that a well done tragic story would result.

Peter Cushing plays Squire Trevenyan. The Squire is the sole judge and jury for the area and is periodically backed up by soldiers. His efforts succeed in nabbing a group of smugglers/wreckers, but only provokes more violence. Soon, his beloved son is the target of a kidnapping plot aimed at obtaining freedom for the captured criminals.

This is truly a well crafted film. It seems to have the makings of an excellent film: strong cast, excellent shooting locations, good cinematography, and strong production values. Unfortunately, the story just didn't grab me. The result was tepid. In fact, "dull" is closer to the mark. Nevertheless, die hard fans of Peter Cushing, John Gilling, or the genre should probably still give it a chance. Perhaps others will see something in it that I missed. I really wanted to like this film, I really did.

The title tells all in this second-rate but enjoyable adventure on a popular subject; star Peter Cushing gives it his all, as ever, and he's matched by a larger-than-life performance by Bernard Lee as the chief villain. Still, Cushing's previous collaboration with writer/director Gilling – THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS (1959) – had proved a lot more substantial (despite being shot in black-and-white).

Anyway, the remaining cast includes veteran George Coulouris, playing a French merchant convicted by squire Cushing as a wrecker, while John Fraser (in the role of the latter's son) and Michele Mercier (as the Frenchman's daughter) comprise the requisite love interest. Other notable characters to figure in the plot are a mysterious highwayman known only as "The Captain" and a young boy who goes by the name of Juma (also the name of the actor!), both of whom start off by being in cahoots with Lee and his gang but gradually change loyalties to emerge heroic by the film's conclusion. The widescreen print I watched (culled from the Region 2 DVD) displays some color fading but is otherwise pretty decent.

In the end, when compared to the similar but superior CAPTAIN CLEGG (1962; with Peter Cushing in the title role) – which being a Hammer production is, unsurprisingly, a more horror-oriented venture – this is unassuming family fare; two more films in the same vein I'd love to catch up with (both, incidentally, Hammer titles co-starring Christopher Lee) but which have never turned up in my neck of the woods are PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER (1962; also directed by Gilling) and THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES (1964)...

This entertaining adventure drama about smuggling in late 18th century is somehow betrayed by its low budget, more evident in the ship wrecking scenes, under furious storms. It tells the story of a British coastal town laden with taxes, where almost everybody has turn to smuggling to make ends meet. The action never stops with good rhythm and precise dialogue, and the enjoyment is evident in the actors' faces. All the cast is very effective, with Peter Cushing as a magistrate with a secret that haunts him, Bernard Lee as the villain before playing M to Sean Connery's James Bond, John Fraser as a dashing young swordsman and William Franklyn as a highwayman that becomes a hero. With pretty Michèle Mercier as the love interest, June Thorburn as Cushing's daughter and Liz Fraser in one of her best early roles as waitress-spy, this is one of John Gilling's best contributions to period drama.

1960's "Fury at Smugglers' Bay" was among eight consecutive non horror roles essayed by Peter Cushing in the early 60s, but despite his top billing gets upstaged rather easily by several combative co-stars. Squire Trevenyan (Cushing) rules over a small seaside community in 1789 Cornwall (filmed near Fishguard Wales), seeking to discourage his son's romance with the pretty daughter of law abiding smuggler Francois Lejeune (George Coulouris), while ineffectually dealing with the treacherous Black John (Bernard Lee) and his band of pirate wreckers, luring passing ships to destruction before looting the goods for evil profit. Added to the mix is a rogue highwayman known only as 'The Captain' (William Franklyn), who seems to be in cahoots with Black John, but does what he can to help the persecuted Lejeune. Bernard Lee, recently a heroic pilot opposite Cushing in "Cone of Silence," relishes being cast against type, while the always welcome presence of Hollywood veteran George Coulouris demonstrates how the citizens tried to fight back against the King's malign taxation. Michele Mercier is well known to horror fans for her starring efforts in two Italian titles, 1963's "Black Sabbath" and 1970's "Web of the Spider," with Hammer veteran Miles Malleson granted only one short scene as the Duke of Avon. Peter Cushing enjoyed making this exciting 'British Western,' but his character's strained relationships with both of his children keeps the puzzled audience at a distance, whereas his next Hammer, "Night Creatures" aka "Captain Clegg" would offer him a far more challenging, and thus rewarding, swashbuckling adventure, played with more gusto and a twinkle in the eye. In the future, he would again work with both Bernard Lee ("Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell") and William Franklyn ("The Satanic Rites of Dracula"). This was the movie that Christopher Lee viewed one Saturday afternoon, after which he phoned his old friend Peter: "you rode the horse very well dear fellow, and the expression on your face when you died was exactly the same as it was when you were told what your salary was going to be!"