slschiff (Contains spoiler info) Definitely not a 21st century movie. The female lead is out to catch a man any way she can. Her men are either overtly dominant and aggressive to her, in a way that no (few) modern women would accept, or else they are entirely passive and destined to be passed over.The male lead becomes a pirate, which is OK with the film's audience because he's stealing from a 'bad guy'. One of his men gets killed when the screen villain double-crosses him, and nary a word is said about it.Drunks are 'funny.' No one goes to AA :) .I enjoyed the movie, but it's a fantasy that no modern audience would accept.

Dalbert Pringle Corsair (from 1931) is a real moldie-oldie, that, in spite of its obvious age and creakiness, still manages to be fairly entertaining, in the long run.This 83-year-old Comedy/Romance/Adventure story tells the roundabout tale of how dashing, college, football hero, Johnny Hawkes, meets cheeky, spoilt, heiress, Alison Corning.Before long Hawkes finds himself captain of the Corsair (a sleek, high-speed gunboat).Imminent danger lurks everywhere once Hawkes and his crew begin dealing with ruthless, modern-day pirates involved in big-time liquor smuggling.With its story set mainly in the West Indies, Corsair (at 72 minutes) certainly had its fair share of high-seas action, violence and double-crosses.This fast-paced story starred blond beauty, Thelma Todd (murdered at 29) and early-talkies heart-throb, Chester Morris (suicide at 69).

JohnHowardReid If ever there was an "almost best" movie, Corsair is it! Chester Morris never gave a more vigorous performance, Fred Kohler was never more hissable, and Thelma Todd was never more sexy. But, putting the leads to one side, the movie also represents the crowning acting achievements of Frank Rice and Mayo Methot. Ned Sparks and Emmett Corrigan just miss the top rung – Sparks because he was later to better his role in this one, and Corrigan because he fails to communicate a vital turn in the script. Maybe he was unaware of this, or maybe West wrote the screenplay on the run. But it does make the screenplay's last minute revelation seem rather weak and forced. Also, as other critics have pointed out, the Fred Kohler plot is left hanging and not brought to its expected conclusion. But otherwise, Corsair is a thrilling gangsters-on-the-high-seas movie, pacily directed, admirably enacted and loaded with visible and highly engaging talent on both sides of the camera.This movie is currently available on two rival DVD labels. So which is the better? It depends what you're looking for. If you want a nice clear, clean, complete, black-and-white print, then Alpha has just what you want. On the other hand, if you'd prefer to see the movie just as it was issued to theatres back in 1931, with all its tinted sequences intact (despite a few scratch marks here and there), then Grapevine is your choice. Me? I choose Grapevine!

boblipton Pretty good adventure flick as Wayne Morris, fed up with the petty piracy of Wall Street, goes into business for himself, highjacking rumrunners' ships bound to Prohibition America. Some pretty good sequences featuring Fred Kohler as a sadistic gangster, although Thelma Todd is pretty well wasted as a role that calls for her to play an idiot.