Against All Flags [1952] / The Rare Breed [1966] [DVD]

By 1952 Errol Flynn's wicked wicked ways were starting to catch up with him but, a few shots where he's short of breath aside, he still manages to hide it pretty well in pirate romp Against All Flags. It's certainly not in the Captain Blood or Sea Hawk league, but it is an entertaining glorious Technicolor swashbuckler that has fun playing with Flynn's rakish image - when asked to explain trying to sneak away with a female captive he simply shrugs "Springtime?" - and delivers the goods in a tight 83 minutes. Flynn's not a proper pirate this time but a British naval officer pretending to be a mutineer to go undercover and stop the pirates of Libertatia ransacking the local shipping, wooing Maureen O'Hara's fiery ship owner Spitfire Stevens to memorise her map of the islands defences (conveniently located in her bedroom) and unsuccessfully trying to prevent Anthony Quinn's suspicious pirate chief from sacking the Moghul of India's ship and kidnapping his daughter. Frankly, as played by Alice Kelley, she's such an irritating simpering moron that you'd think the Moghul would be glad to see the back of her, but with every Englishman in India facing death if she isn't returned he has to somehow rescue her without incurring the wrath of O'Hara...

No, it's not the greatest plot in the world, but it zips along at a cracking pace, is lavishly produced and well cast (Mildred Natwick's in there as a sharp-tongued chaperone as well), the action decently handled - itself a surprise in a late Flynn film - and everyone plays it like they mean it and they're having a good time in the process.

(Although available on its own in France and in a double-bill with The Rare Breed in the UK, it's worth seeking out Universal's Region 1 NTSC four-film 'Pirates of the Golden Age' collection, which has a rather good transfer and also includes the original trailer, complete with Flynn breaking off a fight scene to address the audience, promising, among other things, "women with nothing on... their minds." It also includes another feature that Universal quickly cobbled together to take advantage of the sets while Flynn was recovering from a sprained ankle, Yankee Buccaneer with Jeff Chandler, the Donald O'Connor musical Double Crossbones and Buccaneer's Girl.)

the supporting feature on the UK release, The Rare Breed is one of those lukewarm westerns from James Stewart's sixties' `loveable' phase when he abandoned the dark determination of the Anthony Mann films to go for a more Disneyfied comic approach. Indeed, the film feels more like a typical Disney family comedy of the 60s than a Western, an impression not dispelled by Jack Elam's comedy villain, Juliet Mills' and Don Galloway's juvenile leads and, most terrifying of all, Brian Keith in bushy red wig and beard with outrageous `Scottish' accent wooing Maureen O'Hara. Throw in the standard John (then still billed as Johnny) Williams Western score, and you've got an inoffensively bland but utterly unmemorable Sunday afternoon movie.

The 2.35:1 widescreen transfer is more than acceptable, but the fullframe trailer has clearly seen better days.

I bought this specificaly for the Flynn film Against All Flags. Flynn is older and a bit more weighty maybe but he is still all action hero! ASnd with Margaret O'Brian what a combimnation.
Excellent value.

Featuring two movie's with one or two years apart in Maureen O'Hara's career and starring along side two of Hollywood's greats, the first of the films is a real swashbuckler on the high seas. Set In 1700, the pirates of Madagascar menace the India trade British officer Brian Hawke has himself cashiered, flogged, and set adrift to infiltrate the pirate "republic." There, Hawke meets lovely Spitfire Stevens, a pirate captain in her own right, and the sparks begin to fly; but wooing a pirate poses unique problems. Especially after he rescues adoring young Princess Patma from a captured ship. Meanwhile, Hawke's secret mission proceeds to an action-packed climax.
In the second When her husband dies en route to America, Martha Price and her daughter Hilary are left to carry out his dream: the introduction of Hereford cattle into the American West. They enlist Sam "Bulldog" Burnett in their efforts to transport their lone bull, a Hereford named Vindicator, to a breeder in Texas, but the trail is fraught with danger and even Burnett doubts the survival potential of this "rare breed" of cattle.
Two very enjoyable films from the old school of movie making and excellent value as I hadn't realised the came as a double bill when I ordered them 9/10.