weezeralfalfa As far as telling a reasonably accurate account of Blackbeard's career as a pirate, forget it! It reminds me more of certain westerns that have Billy the Kid, Wild Bill Hickok, and Jesse James, for example, interacting. The two main pirates in this yarn are Blackbeard and Henry Morgan. Well, Morgan was active as a pirate toward the beginning of 'The Golden Age of Piracy', whereas Blackbeard was a pirate near the end of this period, in the next century! Nonetheless, why not have probably the 2 most famous pirates who operated in the Caribbean tangle with each other in a classic tale, irrespective of the historical impossibility......RKO was taking advantage of the success of the mesmerizing characterization by Robert Newton of Long John Silver" in the 1950 hit "Treasure Island" to hopefully produce another pirate tale hit. Throw in a ravishing Linda Darnell as a major player, to spice things up even more....Keith Andes is criticized by most reviewers for being too bland in his role as the romantic lead Robert Maynard. I found him OK. If you need an Errol Flynn or Burt Lancaster, check out "Against All Flags" and "The Crimson Pirate", which were also released that year('52). Torin Thatcher makes an excellent Henry Morgan, while William Bendex is OK as Blackbeard's first mate. Irene Ryan(of "The Beverly Hillbillies")makes an occasional impression as a tipsy Maid in Waiting for Linda. While drunk, Blackbeard got her to reveal the location of Morgan's treasure: right on his ship!........The final scene , in which Keith and Linda are sharing a romantic interlude in their flight from a dying Blackbeard and his crew ignores the reality that the crew is probably hot on their tail in the other landing craft. Good luck!......Blackbeard found the presence of Linda on his deck a great aid in discouraging bombardment or boarding by Morgan or others. Linda claims to be the daughter of one time pirate captain Edwin Mansfield. This name is a slight alteration of Edwin Mansvelt: an actual pirate captain of these times........Blackbeard finally gets his due from his crew for being excessively greedy with the treasure. The ultimate fate of the treasure is ironic......Robert Newton would get yet another opportunity to display his unique charisma as a classic pirate 2 years later in "Long John Silver"

thinker1691 Of all the Hollywood actors who have portrayed Caribbean pirates, none have ever surpassed the over the top performances of Robert Newton. Despite being forever linked with Long John Silver in Treasure Island, in this movie he plays equally notorious villain Edward Teach Aka, " BlackBeard The Pirate. " Having spent a lifetime in the Caribbean, Teach has become synonymous with black hearted crimes on the high seas. In this story written by DaVallon Scott and superbly directed by Raoul Walsh, we catch up with the notorious privateer as he unsuspectingly takes on a new crew member and doctor Maynard (Keith Andes who signs on with the intention of gathering enough evidence, that Sir. Henry Morgan (Torin Thatcher) is also a pirate. The movie is everything associated with Pirates of the Old School, namely tall masted Ships, 20 lbs cannons, ship-to-ship fighting and double-dealing interaction between pirates. To help this endeavor full cast members include William Bendix, Anthony Caruso and Richard Egan. Movie eye candy is amply supplied by Linda Darnell who make the use of Technic color worth the cost. This film is easily recommended and over the years has become the stuff of Legends. Thus it has become a Classic. ****

oOgiandujaOo_and_Eddy_Merckx Central character of the pirate Cap'n Teach is absolutely mesmerising (his end is especially so), a completely eccentric and idiosyncratic performance by Edward Newton. Sir 'Enry Morgan ('imself) is a second perfect double-dealing villain. All the pirate crew seem to have been expertly cast, each is amusing, grubby, ugly, dumb, violent, and filthy-minded, watch as they scale the ship each with cutlass in mouth! Film best seen in the colour version, so that we can see 'the Mansfield gal' (Linda Darnell) in all her lascivious purity tempting 'the sawbones' Edward Maynard. So we got romance, ye want fightin' ! - this is still the movie for you, grappling hooks, sabres, and redcoats are all there in mid-sea terror. Completely artificial yet glorious Hollywood bumf. The best swashbuckler of them all, by far the best film I watched as a child and still in my top ten. Wild horses wouldn't have dragged myself, my two brothers, and my sister away from this. Forget yer Gangs O' New York mateys, this be proper fare for ye table. And youm lads depressed by yer Bergman this be for ye also.

jamil-5 I am gratified that so many others have commented on Robert Newton's completely over-the-top performance in the title role. Unfortunately, it completely transcends the otherwise conventional Hollywood pirate movie that surrounds it. When he's on the screen, nothing else exists. Yes, it's ham-acting at its hammiest but it's virtuoso ham acting that hardly anyone could hope to match. He rolls his eyes, growls, orates...he simply takes over the movie and almost gives ham-acting a good name. The only performances of this kind that I can think of which come close to matching him are Orson Welles (in many things but especially in "Black Magic") and Ralph Richardson in "Things to Come."