The Devil-Ship Pirates

This seemingly routine Hammer swashbuckler set against the backdrop of the defeat of the Spanish Armada in July 1588 with familiar British actors like Michael Ripper and Duncan Lamont playing characters with names like Pepe, Pedro and Pablo deserves to be better known simply because Jimmy Sangster came up with such a terrific idea for it; although it becomes more and more ordinary as it progresses. A dashing young Christopher Lee as Spanish pirate Captain Robeles, limping home after being trounced by the British fleet in the Channel, has to slink into a remote Cornish village for repairs and supplies, realises that news of the Armada's defeat hasn't reached this neck of the woods yet and bluffs the locals that the Armada won and he's the first of a new occupying force. The plot has a ticking clock to keep the tension going, since the reality of Spain's defeat will eventually reach even this backwater. In the meantime the Establishment (like Leslie Banks in 'Went the Day Well?') are shown to be slippery and available to the highest bidder, since it is Ernest Clark as Sir Basil Smeaton (along with Peter Howell as the vicar) who is quickest to extend the hand of friendship to the representatives of the New Order; with whom he is soon discussing trading opportunities. Instead of just rehashing what made money before, today's producers if they had any enterprise could do far worse than resurrecting obscurities like this...

By the early 1960's Hollywood movies had lost their magic touch, due to collapse of the big studio systems, death and retirement of key actors, directors, and other personnel. Pandering to teenagers and others of the lowest mentality and morality hastened the end of whatever potential for quality productions was left in Tensil Town. The occasional good one such as The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) was the fading work of old actors and old directors, a rare oasis in what had become an entertainment desert. American movie makers just couldn't make them like they used to, or at least they wouldn't. It is no wonder then that British pictures, previously regarded as crude, poor cousins of Hollywood productions, enjoyed a height of popularity with American movie audiences during this period. The leader in providing entertainment-starved Statesiders with entertaining pictures from Albion was Hammer Film Productions, ensconced in a Thames-side country manor upriver from London. Lush sets provided by the palatial manor house and its expansive grounds, talented matte artists, and a special touch with color let Hammer produce handsome, classy looking movies while operating on the cheap. Most of the studio's production were horror thrillers, but the mad geniuses at Hammer, could turn out an old time adventure costumer with the same glossy, high production treatment given the blood-sucking Count and the monster-making Barron. Rousing, old time swashbuckling adventure is exactly what Devil Ship Pirates dishes up. It starts with an intriguing story line, shot-up privateer galleon from the defeated Spanish Armada in 1588 beaches on the English coast, and its crew of scummy pirates proceeds to terrorize good Queen Bess's good subjects in a nearby village, deceiving them with the lie that the Spanish have won. Christopher Lee, Hammer's master of menace, is terrific, even without fangs, as the ruthless, indomitable captain of the wicked pirates. He dominates this movie as much and is almost as frightening as he ever was as Dracula! John Cairney makes a bland but admirable hero as the one-armed English blacksmith's son willing to resist the pirates. More dashing is Barry Warren as an enigmatic Spanish nobleman and army officer on board with the pirates but ultimately not in tune with their evil plans. Solid support comes from Andrew Keir, Duncan Lamont, Michael Ripper, and Michael Newport, as a very spunky English boy. Suzan Farmer is on hand as the cleavage lass one came to expect from Hammer. Don Sharp's direction is on target, Jimmy Sangster's aforementioned story intelligent, editing and cinematography fluid. As with all Hammer numbers, Eastman Color is made to look almost as good as the highly superior but by this time practically abandoned three-strip Technicolor. No other studio ever did so well with Eastman Color. The spirited action, which includes lots of well-executed sword play, is almost non-stop. The actors in this picture obviously had many fencing lessons, and Christopher Lee was an artist with a rapier! So much action is crammed into 89 minutes running time, it leaves you feeling as if it were over two hours. And you always know who to root for, as there is no relativist blurring of the line between good and evil here. This element, as was always understood at Hammer and had once been understood in Hollywood, is crucial to making a story entertaining. Devil Ship Pirates is a top notch, old time, costume adventure entertainment -- perhaps not up with one of Old Hollywood's better Errol Flynn or Tyrone Power swashbucklers, but better than most offered by the shell of its former self Hollywood had become by the 1960's.

"The Devil-Ship Pirates" is an odd film because it's all about the adventures of a Spanish privateer...yet no one on the ship sounds very Spanish. Instead, they're all Brits and a few of them (such as Christopher Lee as Captain Robeles) sport body paint to make them look more Spanishy (is that a word?). This is a shortcoming in an otherwise decent adventure film from Hammer Films. When the story begins, the Spanish Armada is being beaten and the ship 'Diablo' (I think that's some sort of fighting chicken*) is taking on water and must retreat. But this privateer ship can't make it all the way back to Spain and they are forced to put in in a lonely part of the English coast and hope they aren't discovered. However, they soon are and the residents of this small town are then held hostage and many of them are forced to help fix the Diablo...or else. To help encourage their cooperation, the pirates not only use threats of force but lie and tell them that the Spanish won! However, the citizens are good and loyal subjects of the Queen and eventually you know they are going to fight back and at least try to stop these rogues. This is a fairly decent film. Sure, it won't make you forget about "Sea Hawk" or "Captain Blood" but is a competently made and interesting film. Not a film I'd rush to see but an amiable time- passer with a few nice action sequences. *Yes, I know Diablo is Spanish for Devil. The fighting chicken reference is from "Talladega Nights".

Christopher Lee's performance as the stern captain keeps "The Devil-Ship Pirates" from being a typical pirate flick. I also thought that Suzan Farmer was a real hottie in this movie, as she also was in "Die, Monster, Die!" True, this wasn't the best role of any of the cast members, but I enjoyed it. Whenever I watch old movies set in centuries past, I notice that they characters look well groomed. I doubt that anyone looked that tidy in 1588. Of course, no one expects action movies to be realistic. Along with the scenes of the captain discussing how to keep the town under control, there's some drinking and swordfights to keep things going. Pretty fun movie. PS: The long-term result of the war involving the Spanish Armada was that the British colonization of the Americas got delayed twenty years: when they returned to the Roanoke colony in 1590, the colony had vanished, and its fate remains a mystery to this day.

A great title, but THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES is not one of Hammer's best films - or, indeed, one of its best swashbuckler films. It's a singularly slow paced production that feels slightly lethargic, despite lots of incident in the plot and a storyline that works despite the absurdity of it all (think of it as a 16th century spin on WENT THE DAY WELL?). I think the main problem is that it all feels a bit genteel and twee, and never as genuinely menacing as it should be. Still, even second-rate Hammer is still better than its rivals, and this is the kind of film to while away a rainy afternoon. It features typically lush and vibrant cinematography, that makes even the low budget sets look grand; some decent special effects, including a full-size ship; colourful costumes and a handful of good action scenes, too. Towering over all is Christopher Lee as the chief pirate, a sinister Spaniard with a fine line in swordplay. Lee growls and barks his way through a pantomime performance as dastardly as Alan Rickman's in ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES, and the film garners a lot of goodwill on the strength of his performance alone; he supplies at least half of the entertainment value. As is usual with Hammer, part of the fun comes from spotting the familiar faces while watching. There are fairly meaty roles for Andrew Keir and Michael Ripper here, playing villager and pirate respectively, while Suzan Farmer (of Dracula, PRINCE OF DARKNESS and RASPUTIN, THE MAD MONK) once again finds herself menaced by Lee. THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES is no classic, but Hammer fans will enjoy it.

Don Sharp directed this pirate film set in 1588, where a pirate ship led by Captain Robeles(played by Christopher Lee) is fighting for the Spanish Armada against the British. Their ship is badly damaged, and must go into dock for necessary repairs before they are captured. Their only chance is to convince an isolated nearby English village that in fact, the Spanish have won the battle(and not the other way around) which they manage to do at first, but after awhile, the village men become suspicious, and begin a campaign of sabotage and resistance, in the hope that they are in fact right... Good adventure yarn with interesting premise, fine acting, and well-staged action scenes. One of the best non-horrors from Hammer studios.

A handsome but unremarkable pirate flick from the Hammer folks, The Devil-Ship Pirates is a fairly agreeable way to while away a rainy afternoon. It was also the first film in which Christopher Lee received top billing, so in some ways it has a kind of nostalgic importance in a study of his remarkable career. The story is quite intriguing, with a reasonably novel plot and some engaging characters, and director Don Sharp does a good job in putting most of the film's modest budget up there on the screen. I can't imagine anyone in the world claiming that this is their all-time favourite film, but I would be equally taken aback if someone were to call it the worst film ever made. It's just a solid, middle-of-the-road swashbuckler that's perfectly easy to watch and perfectly easy to forget. In 1588, the English defeat the Spanish Armada. A Spanish ship called the Diablo (Spanish for "devil", hence the title) is severely crippled in this unsuccessful invasion of the British Isles. The captain, a hissable villain named Robeles (Christopher Lee), puts his ship in for repairs in a lonely marshland area of South West England. Nearby is an isolated village, so detached from the rest of humanity that news is slow to reach the place. Robeles and his crew come up with the ingenious plan of seizing control of the village and hoodwinking the villagers into believing that the Armada has successfully invaded England. Initially the villagers have no cause to suspect the ruse, so they disconsolately give in to the Spanish demands. The Spaniards blockade the village to prevent the truth of the Armada's defeat from getting in while they ready their ship for the journey home, but gradually the villagers grow in pluck and soon a rebellion is on the cards, led by young aggressor Harry (John Cairney). The film is nicely photographed by Michael Reed, who manages to get across a stamp of quality that belies the film's meagre budget. Lee is very good as the sinister Spanish captain, looking truly intimidating in his costumes and bringing the same Dracula-like aura to the proceedings that he brought to his role in the Bram Stoker adaptations. The supporting cast of British stalwarts (how good is it to see Michael Ripper in such a prominent role??) provide engaging subsidiary characters that blend well with Lee's dominant presence. Like I've already said, the film is not particularly memorable or resonant, but that was never its aim anyway. This one is designed purely as entertainment - a simple blood-and-thunder pirate flick that can be enjoyed without pretensions - so within the context of its own aims it is a decent little film. You could do a lot worse.

Beautiful Eastmancolor 2.35:1 widescreen production with lots of action. "The Devil-Ship Pirates" is a well-paced and directed Hammer film with a decent budget and fine acting, including Sir Christopher Lee (then just plain Mr. Lee) convincingly mean and cruel as a pirate captain. One of Lee's better acting jobs in my opinion as he swashes and buckles (including some good sword fights) in an energetic role. English vs. Spaniards and pirates at the time of the Armada, while not much at sea there is plenty of action. Will hold your attention and moves at a brisk pace, therefore everyone can watch and everyone will be entertained.

As I said in my review for THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER (1962), this is a virtual retread of the script for that film (just as THE TERROR OF THE TONGS [1961] had reworked the central premise of THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY [1960] – all four titles, incidentally, comprise Columbia's recent "Icons Of Adventure" DVD set)…or, perhaps, it was closer to what Jimmy Sangster had originally envisaged before John Gilling got to work on it! In any case, the two pirate films don't have just the plot in common – but many of the names associated with BLOOD RIVER resume their duties on DEVIL-SHIP, including composer Gary Hughes as well as several Hammer stalwarts (production designer Bernard Robinson, editor James Needs, not to mention co-stars Christopher Lee, Andrew Keir and Michael Ripper, all of whose characters are practically identical!). This doesn't mean that the film is a cheap rip-off of the earlier effort: it can stand well enough on its own merits, and there are even those who prefer DEVIL-SHIP to BLOOD RIVER; as ever, the company managed to give the whole a semblance of expensive production values when it was typically done on a low-budget. The rest of the cast is generally effective, if not quite as satisfactory as that of BLOOD RIVER – even so, characterization is more fleshed-out this time around: John Cairney does alright by the hero (who, unusually, is a cripple); Suzan Farmer is a lovely heroine (though she gets little to do – but, then, neither did Marla Landi – and in her case, it's Lee who leers at the girl rather than his underlings); Duncan Lamont is imposing as Lee's right-hand man, but his role never really amounts to much; Keir and Ripper were both better served by each's first stab at their respective roles (Ripper, in particular, is here merely to supply the obligatory comic relief). However, we do get a couple of interesting 'new' characters: Farmer's aristocratic father (Ernest Clark) is a sycophant, while Barry Warren – a Spaniard officer detailed with an outfit of pirates-turned-soldiers is an outsider amidst their ranks and, on several occasions, lends a helping hand to the locals in order to defeat them! By the way, the narrative deals with the aftermath of the Spanish Armada's defeat by the British in the late 16th century; a stray vessel, the "Diablo" (hence the film's title), decides to rest furtively on British soil to effect the necessary repairs – however, when they're discovered, the Captain (Lee, of course) decides to risk passing themselves off as conquerors and, in no time at all, has the run of the village! The groveling Clark is all-too-willing in this respect (to the point of inviting Lee into his own house…but, on objecting to the latter's unsavory attentions towards his daughter, is summarily executed!), while Keir offers opposition – and pays the price for this affront with his life. His son, Cairney, naturally seeks revenge – which he attains, with Warren's help, by sabotaging the ship (Lee having ordered the artisans among the locals to carry out the required maintenance). Incidentally, unlike THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER, this does feature reasonable large-scale action with a sea-battle at the very start and a literally explosive climax. The ultimate assessment, then, is that THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES is a pretty good adventure flick…though, when it comes to director Sharp's Hammer output, I still feel he did his best work on the far more typical THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE (1963) – which, if you ask me, is a genuine minor classic of Gothic Horror.

Except fro one or two fights and the scenery.B- casting and weak script.A total waste of time.Not even fro swashbuckling fans.