The Boy And The Pirates (1960) The 'B.I.G.' we refer to in this post could only be the one and only Bert I.Gordon, the tireless producer-writer-director of many, many low budget horror-sci-fi shlockers like "The Spider", "King Dinosaur", "Attack Of The Puppet People" and "The Amazing Colossal Man".....
B.I.G. also fancied himself a special effects maestro, but when it came to engineering his films' effects........well, let's just say that Bert had delusions of adequacy.......
"The Boy And The Pirates" was quite a change of pace for him, an ambitious attempt to craft a family-friendly, kiddie matinee movie, chasing after the same audience that adored the Ray Harryhausen fantasies like "7th Voyage Of Sinbad" and "The 3 Worlds Of Gulliver".
After a string of black-and-white cheapies, Gordon wisely chose to go full color, having the film shot by veteran cinematographer Ernest Haller (the D.P. on "Gone With The Wiind") \
And for a pirate epic, it looks colorfully ripe enough and even the ever prolific Grace C movie composter Albert Glasser rose to the occasion, writing a loud, raucous imitation of an Erich Wolfgang Korngold swashbucking score.
And we can't fault the screenplay, which cleverly taps into every kid's backyard imaginary adventures......using a mischievous genie-in-a-bottle to propel an modern day little boy (Charles Herbert) back in time and smack on on to Blackbeard The Pirate's ship.......(complete with scurvy crew, including Hollywood's reigning crazyman, Timothy Carey).
Surprisingly, Gordon's special effects (almost always the most embarrassing parts of his films) don't look too bad either.......the miniature genie smoothly matches into the live action and there's a rising volcano that looks as good as anything in other effects films of the 60's.
The problem, as always, is the director's all too typical slack, pedestrian direction and editing. B.I.G. was never anything but barely functional as a film director and this movie really cried out for somebody with aggressive spunk and an imaginative flair for melodrama and action.
Gordon was none of those things and much of the film just lies there inert, like a indifferently performed skit on a local live Saturday morning kids TV show..
Kind of shame too, since the film boasted having Herbert, the most in-demand kid actor of his day ("13 Ghosts", "The Fly", "Houseboat") and the added attraction of Gordon's own daughter Susan, a genuinely talented child whose career went beyond appearing in her father's films. including "The Five Pennies" and "The Twilight Zone".
But then neither kids nor their parents demanded much from a film like this and it settled into theaters as a reliable staple of the 1 PM Saturday 'kiddie matinees', usually on a double feature with a sci-fi or monster movies (maybe one of Gordon's ). Baby boomer kids roared with laughter as Blackbeard (a fine, snarling Murvyn Vye) and his scalawags blew bubbles after eating stew peppered with Herbert's bubble gum.
We wish we could say the movie was a wonderful bit of nostalgia to return to.......and for a while, it was, until the overwhelming mediocrity of Bert I. Gordon came back to us........and started to drain the fun out of it........
2 stars (**) Boomers might enjoy some of it as a trip down memory lane.......but we can't blame you if you want to bail out early. But stick around for volcano......it's....uh.....hot! (And don't miss don't miss the sight of raging loon Timothy Carey pushing around Herbert so roughly, it got him kicked off the film.....)
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