Anne of the Indies (1951) User Reviews

With potential to be really silly, it turns out to be pretty good

[morrisonhimself · 8/10 · 4 August 2016]

Good-looking women pirates is probably one of those juvenile male dreams, like good-looking women burglars. That a good-looking woman would stand much chance among the scurvy cut-throats who make up the crew of a pirate ship is beyond plausibility.

(I think in particular of a generically named movie, "Swashbuckler" (1978), in which a good-looking woman played by Genevieve Bujold just nonchalantly doffs her clothes and jumps into the Caribbean -- not to escape, but just for a swim! Reality does not often intrude in movies about women and pirates.)

However, though women don't generally get much better-looking than Jean Peters, she came across as believable ordering men into battle and swinging a sword herself.

In fact, though maybe I'm not a good judge, I thought she looked fearsome dueling with sailors and pirates. Supposedly Basil Rathbone was at least one of the best fencers in Hollywood, if not the best, and I felt she could have taken him on.

Watching her incredibly expressive face, especially during the fight scenes, is the best part of viewing "Anne of the Indies." She struck me, in fact, as one of the best actresses I have ever had the pleasure of watching, and certainly the best woman pirate -- taking nothing away from any of the others.

She was ably assisted by a superlative cast, including Herbert Marshall playing the only really sympathetic character.

But James Robertson Justice did shine as the right-hand man. Thomas Gomez, usually so good in anything, was terribly over-weight to be Blackbeard but still seemed suitably scary.

Louis Jourdan was so cool and collected, so at home in his role, he almost blended into the background -- which might be a sign of great talent.

One of my personal favorites is Sean McGlory, whom I interviewed after his stage appearance in an Oscar Wilde play. He doesn't appear in "Anne of the Indies" until fairly late but just grabs a viewer's attention.

I think the ending was rather weak, and even disappointing, but every part is so well played, and the effects were so nearly perfect, I can rate the move very good over all.

I highly recommend "Anne of the Indies" if only for the joy and pleasure in watching Jean Peters and the admiration her performance will inspire.

Slashing and sweeping saga of a known pirate , finely played by Jean Peters , in this colorful buccaneering romp

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 28 February 2017]

Cool effort at a big-budgeted retro-adventure about a highly regarded pirate , who results to be a woman : Anne Bonnie , or Captain Providence , a notorious sea-dog lady . Thrilling and moving adventure about pirates of the Caribbean with Anne Bonnie (Jean Peters) , a pirate woman on the high seas who navigates along with his crew : her second-in-command (James Robertson Justice) , a drunk doctor (Herbert Marshall) and other underlings . During a ship attack , Anne ¨Providence¨ meets the French Pierre LaRochelle (Louis Jourdan) , but she spares his life from walking the plank . Rochelle teams up with the group of pirates , as he signs on as a seaman and she is increasingly drawn to him , a feeling that seems to be mutual . When famous Captain Blackbeard (Thomas Gomez who has a high old time and steals the show as the fearsome buccaneer), her preceptor in the ways of pirating , sets eyes on LaRochelle he recalls him as a French navy officer and then things go awry . Shortly after , Anne is double-crossed and she , then , seeks vengeance in the Dead man's cay .

Storming , moving spectacular saga of history's fabulous pirate queen with lots of derring do . This lusty pirate drama has plenty of punch and pace , emotion , as well as amusement . The action and fencing scenes are choreographed with an unity and surge of which all the best Hollywood filmmakers would have been proud . Combination of overwhelming battle ships , sword-play and full of villainy , romance , swashbuckler and heroism . ¨Anne of the Indies¨ contains enough swashbuckling for half-a-dozen pirate films . This picture is fast-moving , exciting , stirring and thrilling right up to the almost climatic final confrontation between two fabulous ships captained by Anne and Blackbeard . Intelligently budgeted using miniature sets and ship shots from other films when possible . Enjoyable script by Philip Dunne and Arthur Caesar who give several stirring and buccaneering elements , including a love story , jealousy , treason and subsequently , revenge . Nice acting by Jean Peters as the dashing and highly regarded heroine figure , a gorgeous lady buccaneer who stands up in this rousing adventure . Jean Peters sadly lost to the big screen when she married billionaire-recluse Howard Hughes ; she starred some successful films as ¨Apache¨, ¨Broken lance¨ and ¨Niagara¨. Fine , handsome Louis Jourdan as a former captain who uses his cunning in order to recover his ship impounded by the British . Debra Paget is given the opportunity to show both spirit and a lovely wardrobe . Very good support cast in this historical/pirate/adventure tale of heroism and swordplay , standing out the followers support actors : Thomas Gomez as a really villainous buccaneer , James Robertson Justice , Sean McClory Carleton Young and special mention for Herbert Marshall as good-natured but drunken doctor . Furthermore , this bright and lively swashbuckler packs an evocative cinematography by Harry Jackson . Admirable Technicolor photography is effective particularly in the breathtaking naval battle scenes . This story of piracy in the Caribbean displays an original and impressive musical score by Franz Waxman .

This sparky pirate adventure was well directed by talented filmmaker Jacques Tourneur . Production Company Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation achieved a considerable hit to match the pace and technical standard of the best Hollywood pirate movies . This film turns to be a classic pirate movie along with other vintage movies , such as : ¨Captain Blood¨ by Michael Curtiz with Error Flynn , ¨Sea Hawk¨ by Curtiz with Errol Flynn , ¨The black swan¨ by Henry King with Tyrone Power , ¨Treasure island¨ by Victor Fleming with Wallace Beery , ¨Blackbeard¨ by Raoul Walsh with Robert Newton , among others . Rating : 7/10 , above average pirate movie , entertaining as well as stirring stuff that provides audience amusement . Enjoyable production packs enough thrills , breathtaking sea battles , tempestuous romance and exciting situations for a good time . It will appeal to pirate movies aficionados .

A decent pirate adventure drama

[IlyaMauter · 7/10 · 12 May 2003]

Directed by Jacques Tourneur (Cat People, Out of the Past, Night of the Demon) and written by Phillip Dunne (How Green was My Valley) Anne of the Indies is a quite interesting adventure pirate movie. Its main character of captain Anne Providence is based on a real woman-pirate Anne Boney who actually lived and sailed through 18th century's Atlantic.

The film begins with the sea battle where Anne's (Jean Peters) pirate ship attacks a trade ship that was on its way to Europe from the South America. As a result a treasure of great value is captured along with a handsome French officer Pierre La Rochelle (Louis Jourdan), who is taken prisoner. Anne ends up falling in love with him and apparently her feelings are reciprocated but it's only till she sets him free when she discovers that he has a beautiful young wife Molly (Debra Paget) with whom he pretty much in love with. Anne begins planning revenge on both of them but in an unexpected twist of fate ends up making a great sacrifice in order to save them instead. The pirate movie cliché figure of `Black Beard' also makes his appearance here, this time played by Thomas Gomez.

Though Anne of the Indies probably appears to be no more nor less than a revisiting of pirate movie clichés, it still has its classical moments in beautiful visuals and sea battle sequences filmed in Technicolor as well as in some aspects of the story and most of all in personal touches in directing of all of it by Jacques Tourneur. 7/10

A woman's desperation defending her sorrow with her sword.

[medtner1970 · 17 August 2003]

Anne of the Indies is one of my favourite movies.On my point of view,the central theme is the impossibility for a woman to live her own identity as a woman.She is trapped in a male identity,being grown up under Blackbeard's school: sword,ships and pirates.

When she falls in love for the first time,she is unable to express female feelings she feels.She almost ridiculise herself for her love,a new experience,and her own humiliation is exceptionally well acted by Jean Peters.Her desperation became more evident as the film goes on,above all when she has to admit herself her own sorrow after having been betrayed (this betrayal is a terrible event which destroys her under-construction female identity) and she is forced to admit her own weakness she has always tried to hide with a splendid use of her sword. The final scene with Blackbeard planting his sword on the ship floor is fantastic,because he does just the same act that every person who understand the dramatic situation of Anne-Captain Providence would have done.

I find this a marvellous movie,almost perfect:the only scene I don't like too much is the very last,when the name of her ship is cancelled from the register of outlaw ships:on my point of view,Tourneur made an error to show her again.It would have been more effective if the last time we look at her was just when she cries to Blackbeard "Come and take me,old pirate"(I base myself on the italian dubbing).

A moving film,which reminds me of the powerful acting of equally desperate Ella Raines in "Tall in the Saddle".

It is a glorious thing to Be a Pirate Queen.....

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 17 July 2012]

The legend of Anne Romney (here referred to as Anne Providence) has recently been made into a short-lived Broadway musical, but in the early 50's, there were two films about her which couldn't be any more different in presentation. Universal's "Double Crossbones" features Romney as a secondary character (played by the quite imposing looking Hope Emerson) in support of Donald O'Connor. That was a comedy/adventure, but for a more serious look at her, 20th Century Fox cast their rising player Jean Peters as the legendary captain of the Sheba Queen. Peters was much more diminutive than Emerson (best known as the evil matron in "Caged"), so it makes a different character altogether. But she is still as tough, trained by none other than Blackbeard (Thomas Gomez in a very showy performance) to captain her own ship. She is first seen in a sword fight with Blackbeard, revealed only to be for fun. When Frenchman Louis Jourdan is about to be made to walk the plank, Peters steps in to save his life, learning he is an enemy of the British. It is her love for him (an enemy of Blackbeard's) which causes her mentor to declare war on her, and she in turn, declares war on Jourdan when she learns that he is married. Herbert Marshall plays her drunken adviser who incurs her wrath when he disapproves of her revenge on Jourdan and his wife (Debra Paget).

This is a colorful tale of the romanticism of pirate life that will delight fans of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. Some parts of the movie, in fact, highly resemble the ride at Disney's Amusement Parks. From an entertainment point of view, the film works its magic and ranks a good review. Peters gives a lot of gusto to her portrayal, and Jourdan is romantic and handsome. Paget gets to be a bit more than decorative, and veteran actor Marshall gives a touching, wise performance. While the true story of Anne Romney may be quite different, this will do for a typical rousing Hollywood version of the legends of the high seas.

ANNE OF THE INDIES (Jacques Tourneur, 1951) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 30 July 2008]

This is one of several period sea-faring yarns of its era, which has the added distinction (although not in itself unique) of a female buccaneer at its center. At first, both leads – Jean Peters and Louis Jourdan – might seem miscast but they grow nicely into their roles eventually, thanks no doubt to the talented players (Herbert Marshall, Thomas Gomez and James Robertson Justice) who support them. Velvety-voiced Marshall is uncharacteristically cast as the ship’s obligatory philosophical lush of a doctor, and Gomez is suitably larger-than-life as Blackbeard The Pirate.

The cast is completed by Debra Paget as Jourdan’s wife, who incurs the jealous rage of the tomboyish titular character in whom Jourdan instills the first pangs of love (which, however, does not spare him the occasional flogging or sword-wound); incidentally, the film was the second exotic teaming of Jourdan and Paget in one year, following Delmer Daves’ BIRD OF PARADISE. The direct result of this unexpected softening of Anne’s character is her falling out with Blackbeard’s crew, and her unlikely climactic sacrifice in order to save the lives of the stranded Jourdan, Paget and Marshall.

While the film is not a particularly outstanding example of its type, Jacques Tourneur’s energetic direction and Franz Waxman’s grandiose score ensure an above-average effort that moves along at a brisk pace; incidentally, Tourneur had already done service in the genre with the superior Burt Lancaster vehicle, THE FLAME AND THE ARROW (1950). As usual with vintage Technicolor productions, the cinematography gives the film a sumptuousness that is invigorating. By the way, differing running-times are given for this film (81 or 87 minutes) and, for the record, the version I watched was the shorter one.

Tourneur uses a clichéd genre to examine completely unrelated issues, again :)

[BradLacey · 6/10 · 9 June 2002]

In Anne of the Indies, and not for the first time, Jacques Tourneur takes a fairly clichéd genre (a swashbuckling adventure film doesn't seem particularly flexible) and moulded it to his whim. Other examples include the lesbian subtext of Cat People and critique of populism in Canyon Passage.

And as with these two films, Anne of the Indies' genre bending and most of Tourneur's other semi-studio oddities, it works a charm.

This film is essentially a battle between the feminine and the masculine. Starring Jean Peters as the female-but-hardly pirate Captain Providence, Tourneur uses expectations of gender roles and genre to explore Providence's struggles with her sexual identity. In fact, she remains almost asexual - whilst she shows little interest in men, or only as sexual objects, she is similarly ambivalent (or downright hostile) to women, or "wenches".

Although the cinematography and lighting lacks the stylistic force that is inherent in so many of Tourneur's other films (Cat People, I Walked With A Zombie and Out of the Past most notably), the film is almost thematically flawless. Though these stylistic concerns are to the film's detriment, the script and Tourneur's ability to play strongly to subtle subtexts overcome such problems.

Jean Peters throw herself into this role

[chuckju · 7/10 · 15 September 2005]

This movie was much better than I expected. ++++ Jean Peters actually does a passable job as a pirate and does decent work in her sword fights. (To the extent she may have a double doing the action, it's hard to tell...but Peters herself obviously is doing a good deal of it, and doing it well.) ++++ With a good and serious script, this could have been an excellent film. But it's basically cheesy. Still entertaining however. ++++ Not up to a regular Jacques Tournier film, but definitely above a regular Jean Peters film. Color is typical of this '50s time period, ie. too garish and not realistic. The actors for Blackbeard and her first mate and the drunken doctor were good. Louis Jordan was a bit weak. I don't think Debra Paget was right either. But certainly Jean Peters and Debra Paget were probably the two best looking female stars in the '50s.

Jean Peters stars as a ferocious, if dimutive, Caribbean pirate captain

[weezeralfalfa · 9/10 · 21 February 2018]

This story will likely keep you entertained throughout, with occasional action events, and complex interpersonal relationships, not to mention a bombastic Blackbeard. Like Maureen O'Hara, in 1952's "Against All Flags", 25yo Jean Peters was privileged to star as a woman pirate captain, thus achieving the fantasy of a woman ordering a sizable group of men about. Both developed credible skill with a rapier, which added credence to their position. In Jean's case, she duels with Blackbeard(Thomas Gomez)) in a semi-friendly bout, then engages in serious bouts. Clearly, Jean, as Captain Anne Providence, is enjoying her role, putting her all into it....As the story unfolds, Anne hates anything British, blaming them for killing her brother, who, like her, had been nurtured by a young Blackbeard. Now, she was feared nearly as much as Blackbeard. Soon, she sinks a British ship, making the crew walk the plank, all except a handsome Frenchman , whom she calls 'Frenchie'(Louis Jordan), to whom she gives the option of joining her crew or walking the plank. She treats him with some suspicion at first, but gradually warms up to him, and eventually they engage in a passionate kiss or two, something she's presumably never done before with a crew member. But, then she would have him flogged at one point. Later, she would discover that Frenchie had a beautiful wife(Debra Paget, as Molly) housed in Port Royal, and that he was actually a spy for the British, who had impounded his ship and wouldn't give it back until he captured either Anne or Blackbeard. Anne captured Molly , and threatened to throw her to her crew, or sell her into white slavery. But before all this happened, she had defended Frenchie(Captain La Rochelle) from attack by Blackbeard, who claimed he was an ex-captain, and a spy. She made Blackbeard and his small crew leave the island. Blackbeard would get his revenge in the end. So now, Anne has the British, Frenchie, and Blackbeard all out to get her. Eventually, she captures Frenchie, and maroons him with his wife on a very small island, hoping they will starve or die of thirst. Then, she has a change of heart, returns and gives them a small boat. This proves her downfall, as Blackbeard is closing in. After losing Frenchie and Blackbeard as friends or lovers, Anne seems to have no close friends, male or female. She despises the wenches who provide comfort to the pirates and others in the few towns. She also despises kept ladies, such as Molly. She apparently only respected women, like herself, who had earned the status of being a leader in the outside world , or had mastered a complex job normally done by men. She had earned her exalted status, despite being functionally illiterate, as most women of that time were. Check out YouTube to see it.

A swashbucklerette

[dinky-4 · 6/10 · 15 May 2002]

The usual trappings of a pirate movie are here: sailing ships, Caribbean waters, firing cannons, powdered wigs, floggings, gold doubloons, sailors with peg-legs and eye patches, damsels in distress, etc. However, the captain of the pirate ship is a woman, which would seem to provide an opportunity for a fresh slant on an old genre. Unfortunately, Jean Peters seems uncomfortable in this part and her "toughness" never becomes more than a pose. Also, in a concession to the attitudes of the time, she isn't allowed to triumph but instead must "pay" for her usurpation of a male role by moving aside for the properly feminine Debra Paget. The result is a disappointingly conventional affair which, nonetheless, still delivers a passable hour-and-a-half of entertainment.

Like Jean Peters, Louis Jourdan seems miscast since his trademark brand of Continental charm and elegance doesn't fit a role that calls for a dashing athleticism. His physique also seems a bit too thin and pale to make him a suitable subject for a shirtless flogging -- perhaps the only flogging in mainstream movies in which the victim appears to be unconscious from beginning to end. (This scene ranks 95th in the book, "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies.")

Pirate nonsense with tomboyish Jean Peters swaggering with a sword...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 23 September 2006]

Fox must have had a lot of left-over sets from Tyrone Power's THE BLACK SWAN (and a trunkfull of period costumes on hand) when they decided to film ANNE OF THE INDIES. It provides JEAN PETERS with a flashy role as a lady pirate (a la Ann Boney), but her swagger seems more like the pose of a well-rehearsed actress willing to submit herself to a pirate film totally lacking originality aside from starring a lady pirate.

All the clichés are here, including the black-hearted Blackbeard the Pirate (THOMAS GOMEZ) given the hammy, tongue-in-cheek style usually reserved for such an outgoing villain. This time the captive is not a beautiful woman but a handsome Frenchman (LOUIS JOURDAN) who, naturally, catches the eye of the tomboyish heroine and makes her wish she looked more like a woman. What she doesn't know is that he does indeed have a wife (DEBRA PAGET) who fills the role of conventional beauty nicely.

Some of it is actually fun to watch and it's a no-brainer that, given the standards of the 1950s, the ending will conclude the way it does. I like JEAN PETERS very much, but this is one role that would have served MAUREEN O'HARA better. O'Hara had a more convincing way with a sword and the fiery temperament to go with the role.

A Story of Love and Honor

[sheilahcraft · 10/10 · 7 February 2016]

This film is far from the purely cutthroat pirate escapades one might expect from a film about pirates. There is much more to this film. Love, revenge, and sacrifice are at the heart of this engaging story.

The incomparable Louis Jourdan portrays Captain Pierre François LaRochelle, who is forced into pretending to be a prisoner on a pirate ship whose purpose is to spy on Blackbeard (Thomas Gomez) and Captain Providence (Jean Peters. The discovery that Providence is a woman changes LaRochelle's game plan; he woos and romances her all the while holding tight to the fact that he is happily married to Molly (Debra Paget). When LaRochelle plots to have Providence captured, she realizes his truth and kidnaps Molly as revenge.

Revenge because LaRochelle does not truly love her. He had lied to get what was needed in order to get his own ship back. Despite the tough exterior that Providence exhibits, she is still a woman--a reality that LaRochelle had shown her through his (albeit false) tenderness. She even reneges on her banishment to a deserted cay, where she had taken Pierre and Molly, and arranges their departure moments before she engages in battle with Blackbeard--her mentor--and is killed. Her last act is the kindest Providence has ever shown. It also cements her legend as one of the great pirates.

This is a tale of love--true love and unrequited love. Pierre's true love lies with Molly. Providence's love for Pierre is unrequited. However, witnessing the true love shared between Pierre and Molly quenches Providence's thirst for revenge and opens her kindness and humanity. She sacrifices herself so that Pierre and Molly can live out their lives together. That is indeed a noble act.

Good Old Fasioned pure Entertainment

[byron-116 · 7/10 · 2 July 2019]

Anne of the Indies is good, clean, old fashioned pure entertainment. Pity that Hollywood doesn't make films like this anymore.....

Ahoy there Calamity Blackbeard.

[hitchcockthelegend · 4/10 · 1 March 2010]

Less than two hundred and fifty years ago, the last of the great pirates wrote their names in blood and fire across the pages of maritime history. This is the story of a buccaneer Captain whose name for one short year struck terror in the hearts of seafarers and merchants from the ports of the Caribbean to the trading houses of London.....

Hmm, that opening to the film sounds like we are in for one hell of a swashbuckling, pillaging, ripper of a movie doesn't it? Well it's not. Tho it's not totally without value as a curio piece. Out of 20th Century Fox, Anne Of The Indies is adapted by Philip Dunne & Arthur Caesar from a short story written by Herbert Ravenel Sass. Direction is by Jacques Tourneur, the score is by Franz Waxman and Harry Jackson is providing the Technicolor photography. Jean Peters is in the titular title role of Anne {AKA Captain Providence} and support comes from Louis Jourdan, Debra Paget, Herbert Marshall, Thomas Gomez & James Robertson Justice.

Originally meant to be be based on true life pirate Anne Bonny, the film ultimately turns out to be a tale of a woman seeking identity, and finding herself, in the predominantly male led world of piracy and sea based shenanigans. Filled with clichés and over familiar set pieces, the film also suffers from a cast that is largely misfiring. Peters gives it a right good go, and Paget lights up the screen with effervescent beauty. While Robertson Justice, although underused, actually looks the part and doesn't overact like the rest of the male cast does. Some reviewers have desperately tried to dig deep into the film to find intelligence and hidden meanings, purely because it's Tourneur in the directing chair. But there is no depth here, this is merely a job for Tourneur, a professional one granted, but its thinly plotted and actually lacking swash to go with the buckle in the action stakes.

Disposable at best. 4/10

A Woman's desperation defending her sorrow with her sword.(A masterpiece)

[medtner1970 · 17 August 2003]

WARNING : Please,DON'T READ this comment if you have never seen this movie,as it can reveal some crucial points of the plot,but I needed to speak about these points in order to express my idea.

Anne of the Indies is one of my favourite movies.On my point of view,the central theme is the impossibility for a woman to live her own identity as a woman.She is trapped in a male identity,being grown up under Blackbeard's school: sword,ships and pirates.

When she falls in love for the first time,she is unable to express female feelings she feels.She almost ridiculise herself for her love,a new experience,and her own humiliation is exceptionally well acted by Jean Peters.Her desperation became more evident as the film goes on,above all when she has to admit herself her own sorrow after having been betrayed(this betrayal is a terrible event which destroys her under-construction female identity) and she is forced to admit her own weakness she has always tried to hide with a splendid use of her sword.

The final scene with Blackbeard planting his sword on the ship floor is fantastic,because he does just the same act that every person who understand the dramatic situation of Anne-Captain Providence would have done.I find this a marvellous movie,almost perfect:the only scene I don't like too much is the very last,when the name of her ship is cancelled from the register of outlaw ships:on my point of view,Tourneur made an error to show her again.It would have been more effective if the last time we look at her was just when she cries to Blackbeard "Come and take me,old pirate"(I base myself on the italian dubbing).

A moving film,which reminds me of the powerful acting of equally desperate Ella Raines in "Tall in the Saddle".

non-historical romp through pirate lore

[grossmusic · 6/10 · 10 February 2009]

The title is the only part resembling the author's original movie treatment, which was designed to hold at least a nugget of history about the very real Anne Bonny. However, the resulting movie is a fun perpetuation of pirate myth.

Historically, very few (if any) pirates would do any of the things that happen in the opening sequence: attack & sink a superior ship, make the survivors (including captain) walk the plank, meet up with an elderly Blackbeard (who in reality never lived to see 30).

It's still worthwhile, as there is anthropological value to watching anything made in the 50s, with a common knowledge approach to history. And it's fun to see a fresh-faced Louis Jourdan. Like most B movies of the era, the miscast acting is stiff & contrived, but dramatically engaging.

I can name a dozen better pirate movies, but even the worst of pirate films is fun if approached with the right attitude.

Good luck finding a watchable, legal copy, though.

Teach Me Tonight, Blackbeard

[writers_reign · 6/10 · 29 February 2008]

Having tried his hand successfully at most other genres Jacques Tourneur, son of the great Maurice, moved to swashbucklers in 1950 via the Burt Lancaster vehicle The Flame And The Arrow. Having enjoyed a huge international success with Flame he followed it with a fictionalized account of Anne Boney, a lady pirate who became Anne Providence for the movie. Shot in the old (and best) three-stripe Technicolor Tourneur gets the movie off with a bang as Anne's ship captures another and quickly disposes of the crew via the traditional plank. Quickly establishing a major plot point Tourneur has her balk at dishing out the same treatment to Pierre La Rochelle (Louis Jourdan) and inviting him to join her crew. From there on it's pretty formulaic, we know Peters is going to fall for Jourdan and that he will either have a wife/fiancée or be a spy and as things turn out he is guilty on both counts. Herbert Marshall is the pick of the supporting cast as might be expected whilst James Robertson Justice is a joke as a pirate with a voice half a tone higher than Tiny Tim and a Scottish accent that would bring a blush to the cheek of Dick Van Dyke. With Tourneur at the helm it can't be ALL bad but a little more good would be nice.

Old Movie Fun

[sherilcarey · 7/10 · 26 December 2018]

This was a good pick for me today to get to watch an old film that I'd never seen before. It was clean and simple and well done for its age. And it really wasn't the same old, same old. We so often see too much predictability out of Hollywood in recent years...actually for quite a large number of years now. Not that it was impossible to predict but it was still different from more recent films in so many ways.

The older sensibilities can be so satisfying to watch and consider. And it exposed me to a leading lady I'd never watched before!

Hello ''Frenchie''

[apararas · 6/10 · 5 April 2020]

Jean Peters is terrific as the female captain in this pirate film which provides us with one hour of entertainment,adventure and fine swqashbuckling fights.Guest star appearance from ''Blackbeard'',nice photograph and suggestive music.Enjoy!

Love, guilt and atonement on the caribbean

[anjan · 10/10 · 3 November 2003]

I like the film, it´s the best pirate-movie I watched hitherto (forget silly Errol-Flynn-stuff and Pirates of the Caribbean). This movie is wonderful melancholic. I compare it with "Johnny Guitar" at the sea-side (but 3 years earlier), two women fighting for a man, where mad love might lead one.

The character of the female (anti-) heroine, Anne Providence, is superb, acting without compromise like a child, lost alone on her search for a own female identity in a real man´s world. She´s a quite strange movie-hero, not a funny pirate, as most of her companions in this genre, not making jokes all the time, fighting for the poor and good and only killing the stupid spanish or british soldiers or - better - sly governors, but she´s murdering all the poor prisoners of war, after she captured a ship (look careful at this at the start of the movie), she´s primitive (she can´t even read), she is desperated and she get´s an alcoholic, she looses all her friends as consequence of her obstinacy and she´s wearing rags most of the film. This film shows a pirate "hero" a little (!) bit as he (or in this case "she", but there has been a female "Anne" buccaneer, Anne Boney) might have been in brutal reality.

The film is quite short and the story is told in a breathtaking manner. Certainly, a film from the 1950s has no exciting special effects for present time viewers (the ships swim very obvious in a bath tube), but this real drama about love (that kills), trust, betrayal, revenge, hatred and sacrifice drives one crazy. Maybe, Anne is even supposed to be Judas Iskarioth and Jesus from Nazareth in one person, being betrayed by her friend (the french LaRochelle) as Jesus; after being disappointed by the friend, delivering him to a death penalty (as Judas); than getting remorse about this (like Judas, who commits suicide according to the gospel of Matthew); and in the end sacrificing herself for the rescue of the beloved enemy (as Jesus). But, even if you are not interested in this philosophical questions of guilt and atonement, the film brings a lot of (cheap) action as sword fights and burning (plastic) ships for a very short one and a half hour.

Pirate Movie with a Twist

[JamesHitchcock · 6/10 · 2 June 2020]

Pirate adventure films such as Tyrone Power's "The Black Swan" and Burt Lancaster's "The Crimson Pirate", were popular in the thirties, forties and fifties. Errol Flynn made three in the course of his career, "Captain Blood", "The Sea Hawk" and "Against All Flags". "Anne of the Indies" is a pirate movie with a twist.

The action takes place during the Golden Age of Piracy, the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, although the exact date is unclear. The real-life pirate Edward Teach ("Blackbeard") plays a role, which would suggest a date in the 1710s. References to the Jamaican city of Port Royal, however, would suggest an earlier date, as the city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1692, whereas some of the costumes suggest a rather later one. A notorious pirate named Captain Providence is preying on shipping in the Caribbean, causing consternation to the authorities. Unknown to those authorities, piracy has become an equal-opportunities profession and Captain Providence is a woman. And, this being Hollywood, not just a woman but a young and beautiful one. Nobody wants to see a film about an ugly female pirate. ("Against All Flags", made a year after "Anne of the Indies", also features a glamorous woman pirate, Prudence "Spitfire" Stephens).

When Captain Providence, or Anne as she is known to her friends, captures a British ship, she rescues a handsome young French prisoner named Pierre. He joins her crew and she begins to fall in love with him. At this point we think we understand where the film is going. It will become a swashbuckler-cum-romantic comedy and will end in wedding bells for Anne and Pierre, possibly after retiring from their piratical careers. Only it doesn't. In a sudden coup de cinema it is revealed that Pierre is secretly working for the British authorities as a sort of anti-pirate secret agent. To make matters worse from Anne's point of view, Pierre's affection for her is all a feint. He is actually married and deeply in love with his wife Molly.

This revelation does not just provide us with extra information. It changes the whole balance of the film. We were originally led to believe that Anne was the protagonist and Pierre her love-interest and that some other figure, possibly Blackbeard, Anne's former mentor with whom she has quarrelled, would emerge as the antagonist. And then, we realise that Pierre is the real protagonist and Molly his love-interest. And Anne? She suddenly becomes the antagonist. She may be young and beautiful, but she is nevertheless the bad girl.

"Against All Flags" also has a plot involving an undercover agent who infiltrates a gang of pirates, hoping to bring them to justice, but in that film we are fully aware of the truth about the hero, Flynn's character Brian Hawke, from the start. I felt, in fact, that "Anne of the Indies" might have been a better film if it had adapted the same strategy of making Pierre's identity and motives clear from the start. The first half of the film is not very interesting, but it starts to improve in the second half after the truth about Pierre has been established.

Such an approach might also have made Pierre a more interesting character, more complex, certainly, than Hawke, who is a straightforward heroic swashbuckler straight out of "Boys' Own" and who is rewarded for his heroism with the love of the beautiful Prudence. Pierre could have been presented as a conflicted character, torn between his love for Molly and a growing sense of attraction to Anne, the very woman whom it is his mission to destroy. It is notable that Jean Peters as Anne and Debra Paget as the virtuous Molly are made to look rather similar to each other- both are striking beauties with long, wavy brunette hair- as though they represented the good and evil sides of the same character.

This opportunity was not taken, possibly deliberately; there may have been a view that action-adventure and psychological depth do not belong in the same film. As it is, "Anne of the Indies" is not a bad film, a swashbuckling adventure story with the unusual twist of a female lead. I just felt it cd have been better. 6/10

Mrs. Howard Hughes takes to the cutlass

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 21 May 2005]

I'm not quite sure what Jean Peters did in her life to warrant getting cast in Anne of the Indies. I thought being married to Howard Hughes she would have been able to get her pick of parts. Unless of course her eccentric husband was doing the casting.

As Anne Provedence, protégé of Blackbeard, and captain of her own crew of pirates she's one nasty lady to cross. But along comes Louis Jourdan who's spying for the British who are hoping to get rid of this she devil of the seas.

Jourdan as Captain LaRochelle is not expecting a woman, but he switches gears and romances her. He's certainly a better looking male specimen than any of her crew. What's a girl to do.

But Jourdan also has a wife, a real girly girl Debra Paget. That really tangles things up.

You'd like to say that Anne of the Indies was some kind of a harbinger of films about liberated women, but it ain't. It's a muddled mess with the cast going through the motions and looking like they'd rather be just about anywhere else.

Who knows, maybe this thing was something from the brain of Howard Hughes as he was entering his reclusive stage.

Glorious Jean Peters.

[jromanbaker · 10/10 · 16 October 2019]

What a presence in film Jean Peters was. Sadly she only made a relatively small number of films, but this wonderful pirate film was hers and hers alone. Debra Paget pales beside her and in the major scene they have together Jean Peters eats insolently around her, prowling like a big angry cat with a rather timid mouse. She is stronger than the men around her, and her deep voice resonates more than theirs does. She is both male and female in this film, and shows quite clearly that she could play any role with power and strength. I think she was one of the joys of Hollywood in the late forties and early fifties and yet I wonder who really remembers her ? If few associate her with any films then watch her role in ' Niagara ' equal to Marilyn Monroe and in that stage of Monroe's career a more accomplished actress. In ' Three Coins in the Fountain' she is the strongest focal point, and in the interesting and almost unknown ' Vicki ' she is again the focal point. That Howard Hughes took her away from audiences is one of the great losses to cinema. In this glorious technicolour film that shows off bright colours as if they had been newly invented, she is ably supported by Louis Jourdan and the great Herbert Marshall. Anyone who enjoys the splendour and simplicity of early 1950's colour adventure films should watch this one. It is a minor masterpiece directed by a master of the genre, Jacques Tourneur.

Fast, Colorful, Simple, Studio Pirate Story.

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 28 January 2013]

This is the sort of thing that the studios were experts in grinding out in the 40s and 50s. The opening credits are flung across the screen in huge crimson letters. The musical score, by Franz Waxman, resembles on a lower plane the exquisite bombast of Eric Wolfgang Korngold, who was referred to by one of his detractors as Wolfgang von Korngold.

That fact is only worth mentioning in passing but so is this entire movie. I liked it, especially when I saw it as a child in the Mayfair Theater in Hillside, New Jersey. I thrilled at the boom of the cannon, shivered when a protagonist was threatened with death by cutlass, chuckled when Thomas Gomez as Blackbeard swilled wine and overturned wooden tables, and stirred in my seat when the pale, prim, innocent Debra Paget was thrown into Captain Paradise's cabin with her dress half torn off.

That particular incident went nowhere because the captain was Anne of the Indies, Jean Peters. As the stern, scowling pirate captain, Peters, I think all of us must admit, was a little butch but she was heterosexual. She proved that when she made chaste love to her prisoner, played by the handsome, suave, organically grown Frenchman, Louis Jourdan. That lovemaking wouldn't be so pure in one of today's movies. And I'm not so sure that Debra Paget would have remained unscathed.

The plot. Some nonsense about rivalries and possessions and revenge involving Peters, Gomez, and Jourdan. Peters, having discovered that Jourdan and Paget are married, is convulsed with rage and jealousy. She maroons the two of them on one of those desert islands with nothing but sand and she sneers as she describes the horrible deaths they will suffer because they have no food or water. Actually, I think if they dug deep enough they'd find a fresh water lens. I don't know about the food situation. The best they could hope for would be crude versions of moules mariniere or zarzuela de mariscos.

Jean Peters plays the role of the unlettered Pirate Queen in a blunt and one-dimensional fashion. She was really good in Sam Fuller's "Pickup On South Street." Louis Jourdan is too debonair for me. I suspect he wins a lot of good-looking women just because of his French accent. Fine for him, but what about the rest of us? Thomas Gomez is fine as the blustering, uninhibited, proudful Blackbeard. He looks as if he's wearing a fat suit. I met him in a now defunct San Francisco night club called Finnochio's. Debra Paget has very little to do except look distressed.

Sometimes its hard to be a woman pirate............................................

[ianlouisiana · 9/10 · 7 December 2008]

Sometimes it's hard to be a pirate...............but by golly Miss Jean Peters has a lot of fun trying - and it shows,particularly during her first spot of friendly swordplay with Blackbeard (Mr Thomas Gomez - eminently hissable)when the sheer joy of performing is plain on her face. With fifty years of hindsight Feminists seem intent on grabbing this movie as some sort of an anthem for the empowerment of women in a male - dominated society but I have serious doubts that either M.Tourneur or Miss Peters had any such concept in their heads at the time. It was an exciting,entertaining family film with absolutely no pretensions,hidden meanings or alternative agenda.It was fun. M.Louis Jourdan is both winsome and treacherous as her love interest. Mr Herbert Chapman is wise and philosophical as the wise and philosophical doctor.Mr James Robertson Justice is just a tad unbelievable as the bosun. But it is Miss Peters who stays in the memory.Wilfully adolescent,illiterate,tough but vulnerable,wonderfully agile,and ultimately,courageous,she is everybody's idea of a lady pirate. There was a definite window of opportunity for her in feisty costume roles - that she did not choose to seize it is a matter of some regret.