'THE CRIMSON PIRATE'........THE ALLTIME BEST BUCCANEER 'DO WELL.......

The Crimson Pirate (1952).........forever stays implanted in film buffs' minds as the best pirate movie ever made......

             With good reason......

              Brash,swiftly paced,  breezily tongue-in-cheek, exciting and infectious in its desire to entertain, there's never been an action-adventure movie so joyous and fun to watch as this one.

               This arrived back in the days when popcorn movies had a much different mission......to engage their audiences and take them along for the ride as co-passengers.......as opposed to the mission of the superhero movies that clog up theaters today.......to pound and pummel their audiences into submission with 2 and a half hours of stereo noise and a vomitous river of CGI.

              "Gather round!"  yells pirate captain Vallo (the young, acrobatic Burt Lancaster).....he repeats these words constantly and well he should. Because it's made clear from the opening moments that Lancaster's Captain Vallo is gathering us 'round the campfire to tell us the tallest of tales......("believe only what you see......no, believe half of what you see....")

               And then the film's off and running like a lightning bolt, with Lancaster and his equally acrobatic lifelong friend Nick Cravat as a gravity-defying comedy team.......outwitting, outleaping and outfighting vast amounts of bumbling British soldiers in the 1700's Caribbean (including a tall young newcomer, Christopher Lee....)

               There's simply way too many non-stop thrilling and hilarious scenes to describe without making this post come out to 10,000 words.........(our personal favorite will forever remain the sight of Lancaster and Cravat taunting the militia as they use second-story awnings as trampolines....
.......always accompanied by William Alwyn's rousing , rollicking music score.)

              We also don't want to forget the gems in the supporting cast.......Torin Thatcher, oozing insincerity as Lancaster's shifty First Mate, the ever white-bearded Noel Purcell as a feisty island rebel, and James Hayter as a Ben Franklin-ish scientist who helps our heroes out with all manner of wondrous inventions.....including hot air balloons, submarines and nitro-glycerin.

              If you haven't experienced "The Crimson Pirate".....do it ASAP.  For us, nothing lifts our spirits more than at least a once-a-year viewing.....gather 'round, mateys for a swashbuckling 5 stars (*****), a FIND OF FINDS.