O Príncipe dos Piratas

Despite the title, this isn't really a pirate movie, though there are a few sequences set at sea in 16th-century sailing ships. Instead, most of the action takes place in a small kingdom in the Netherlands where the evil king is trying to squash a revolt led by his virtuous younger brother. The budget isn't big enough to give this story the "sweep" which it needs and both its direction and screenplay lack "flair," but the results still have a likable quality and the running time comes in at a brisk 80 minutes.

The usually-reliable Barbara Rush seems lost in this production but Carla Balenda, as a haughty Spanish princess, manages to make a modest impression. Every time she looks at John Derek she seems to be mentally stripping him down to the 16-century equivalent of a jockstrap. As for Derek, he looks appropriately dashing but despite his status as little more than a hunk of beefcake, he keeps all his clothes on throughout the movie.

Don C. Harvey gets to do a bare-chest scene when he's whipped in the king's dungeon, but the lashes are applied rather lackadaisically and there's no attempt to augment their sound. This flogging ranks 93rd in the book, "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies." Not sure this is a goof, but following his "escape" from that dungeon, Harvey's shown lying on his back in bed, recuperating. On his back? But wouldn't his back be torn to ribbons by that whipping?