The Pirates of Capri

I first caught this movie (english version) on TV when I was about 12. I thought it was terrific! Now, much older and wiser, I've seen it again--terrific it isn't, but it's a nice grade-B costume flick, replete with revolution, a Zorro-like hero, a villainous Baron Scarpia of a police chief, and a dandy duel-to-death at the end. What still makes it fun is its Italian neo-realist visual style and lighting, and even a few touches of the Italian classics of the late '40's (shot of suffering child in raid on the island). It's fun as a no-brainer. I wonder what the Italian version was like? Was it shot in two versions or just dubbed?

I wasn't expecting much from this period romp but, following an uncertain beginning (actually, the solitary pirate sequence itself), once the scene shifted to the court intrigues, it settled down into being a likable - if highly derivative - Grade 'B' costumer. Ulmer endows the location-shot film with a reasonable amount of style (his trademark shadowy lighting and odd camera angles coming into play most prominently during the busy climax). The plot basically revamps the Zorro saga (with Louis Hayward doubling as aristocratic fop and masked bandit) - thus making it an ideal companion to THE MARK OF ZORRO (1940), which I rewatched via the Fox SE DVD the previous day - but, given the lead character's quest for vengeance and his involvement with a theatrical troupe, it appears that the film was equally inspired by Rafael Sabatini's "Scaramouche"! The film emerges patchy as a whole (with the script failing to be witty, its attempts at comedy relief are especially resistible), but the dramatic scenes - particularly where villain Massimo Serato is concerned - compel some attention, and the derring-do is surprisingly adroit.

This had been released on DVD by All Day Entertainment, as both a stand-alone edition and as part of a collection dedicated to Ulmer. I had been tempted time and again to purchase some of them but eventually settled on just the individual disc of BLUEBEARD (1944) - which was excellent; I did manage to rent THE STRANGE WOMAN (1946) eventually by way of a cheap DVD edition from another label - but that film left no particular impression on me. As for the rest, thankfully, all but one turned up recently on Italian TV in their original language with subtitles: apart from THE PIRATES OF CAPRI, I recently watched DAUGHTER OF DR. JEKYLL (1957) but still need to check out STRANGE ILLUSION (1945)...

Exciting court-intrigue, costume drama, propelled to almost greatness by Nino Rota's beautiful score. I was impressed with its tempo and enjoyed the action-filled scenes, and even when the scenes were loaded with dialogs, they were delivered with passion by the fine cast. It is one of those movies in which you do not know who directed what, and where you find Edgar G. Ulmer co-directing with another filmmaker, in this case Italian Giuseppe Maria Scotese (although each artist was given the sole director credit in the copies of their respective countries). It is interesting that both men had backgrounds in the art field, Ulmer being a production designer early in his career, and Scotese starting as a painter and exhibiting his works. The richly detailed sets and costumes, as well as the lush cinematography are more impressive being this a black and white production, and it helped very much filming in Italy, using real and imposing buildings of the past and a majestic ship. Although Louis Hayward was no longer the dashing young man of «Anthony Adverse» (1936) or «The Saint in New York» (1938), first screen outing of the Simon Templar, he was still the agile action man as Captain Sirocco, the swashbuckling alter ego of the effeminate and ironic Count Amalfi. To Hayward's fine characterizations, Massimo Serato effectively counterpoints as the villainous Baron Holstein, the chief of police who wants to seize power of the kingdom of Napoli, ruled by weak queen Marie Caroline, played by Binnie Barnes. Mariella Lotti is the love interest and Mikhail Rasumny provides the comic elements of the plot. Recommended.

Louis Hayward is at his foppish best in this somewhat derivative swashbuckler as the "Count de Amalfi" (alias "Scirocco") who plays the buffoon at the Neapolitan court of the well meaning, but feeble Queen "Maria Carolina" (Binnie Barnes) who is pretty much under the thumb of her minister "Baron Holstein" (Rudolph Serato) and his savage regime. This isn't just your usual "Zorro" style story, though - the "Scirocco" wants change - he is working with his fellow freedom fighters, but he wants as peaceful transition as possible and that's his challenge... The rest of this is all pretty set-piece, Hawyard is the star with little around him to eclipse his status. Plenty of sword fighting and intrigue does keep it going, though, and although you have certainly seen it all before (and better with Douglas Fairbanks or Errol Flynn), Hayward still makes a decent fist of it - it looks stylish enough, and I quite enjoyed it all.

PIRATES OF CAPRI (aka: Captain Sirocco) is an intelligently made action movie which is fun to watch, and which benefits from Louis Hayward's remarkable ability to play this kind of role to perfection. Forget Johnny Depp or Jerry Bruckheimer's nonsense; this is the real McCoy.

Good movies like this were commonplace 50 or 60 years ago, but this one benefits from being filmed at authentic-looking locations in Italy -- not Capri or Napoli they say, but the shots of Napoli couldn't be anywhere else, and those in the grottoes of Capri same thing. This was an Italian movie, carefully dubbed in English. Now in DVD.

Incidentally, Louis Hayward, like today's Charleze Theron, are/were both authentic African/Americans. Each was born in the Union of South Africa.