Stylish but barely mediocre overall

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

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.

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.

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.

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.