The Pirates of Blood River

Kerwin Mathews, the star of 7th Voyage of Sinbad, plays a Huguenot who falls into the clutches of pirate king Christopher Lee, who attempts to use Mathews in a dastardly plan to steal Huguenot riches, and ends up holding the people of a quiet French religious settlement hostage. A full blooded pirate adventure full of action and some good swordplay, especially between Kerwin Matthews and Christopher Lee at the end. Though some bits were censored so it could be suitable for younger kids, there's still a trace of grimness and grit. It can be overly serious, but it's a colourful swashbuckler. Christopher Lee is at his villainous best, dressed in black and wearing eyepatch, and Kerwin Matthews acts really well as the hero.

I saw this film once in 1967. My young friends and I had barely left the movie theatre and we had forgotten the plot of this movie. Apparently we got to see scenes that were cut when released elsewhere so it should have made more sense, but I remember in less than a week we argued over what had happened, and why. Since then we have forgotten almost everything about it, except for two things which we still laugh about today. One; the skeleton rising from the river after its flesh had been stripped from it by piranhas (why would a skeleton rise up? the don't float),and the terrible continuity gaffe of the potted palm tropical forest; one minute the trees were green and lush, in the next scene dry and brown, then back to green again. But it was a Hammer film, and we loved Hammer films back then. Still do. Aah nostalgia. But there is a lot to be said for production values and a budget.

Different to what you might expect from the Hammer studios. It's better than "The Devil Ship Pirates", anyway. Christopher Lee is, as usual, brilliant as Captain La Roche (yes, I think they made up that name, too), speaking in very convincing French accent. It's fun, good for the family and Hammer fans. Watch out for Kerwin Matthews as the hero (would you believe!)- he's convincing hero.

John Gilling directed this pirate adventure that stars Kerwin Mathews as Jonathan Standing, an inhabitant of a 17th century Huegenot village where he was exiled by his father for adultery to a penal colony. While there, pirates led by Captain LaRoche(played by Christopher Lee) kidnap him and force him to lead them back to the village, because the pirates want a rumored buried treasure that their founding fathers left behind, and LaRoche will stop at nothing to find it, not even murder. Marginal Hammer studios film certainly has a colorful title that sums up the plot, and good production values and acting, but story is strangely unappealing and unmemorable, despite an interesting "landlocked pirates" premise.

You won't find here any 18th-century ships in full sail photographed against a Caribbean seascape of azure blue skies. Instead, all of the action takes place on a mundane-looking island which offers little in the way of beaches or coves. (The geography of this made-in-England movie is disturbingly vague.) The result is somewhat drab and claustrophobic and makes one wish for the colorful sweep of "Anne of the Indies" or "The Crimson Pirate." Partially making up for this weakness is an interesting cast which includes not only bound-for-better-things Christopher Lee and Oliver Reed but also a curiously-cast Glenn Corbett. Dennis Waterman pops up as a boy who's sent on horseback to warn of the pirates' attack. Kerwin Matthews qualifies as an adequate hero. However, while the movie's poster shows him bound bare-chested to a ship's wheel, such a scene never appears in the print under discussion.