This story will likely keep you entertained throughout, with occasional action events, and complex interpersonal relationships, not to mention a bombastic Blackbeard. Like Maureen O'Hara, in 1952's "Against All Flags", 25yo Jean Peters was privileged to star as a woman pirate captain, thus achieving the fantasy of a woman ordering a sizable group of men about. Both developed credible skill with a rapier, which added credence to their position. In Jean's case, she duels with Blackbeard(Thomas Gomez)) in a semi-friendly bout, then engages in serious bouts. Clearly, Jean, as Captain Anne Providence, is enjoying her role, putting her all into it....As the story unfolds, Anne hates anything British, blaming them for killing her brother, who, like her, had been nurtured by a young Blackbeard. Now, she was feared nearly as much as Blackbeard. Soon, she sinks a British ship, making the crew walk the plank, all except a handsome Frenchman , whom she calls 'Frenchie'(Louis Jordan), to whom she gives the option of joining her crew or walking the plank. She treats him with some suspicion at first, but gradually warms up to him, and eventually they engage in a passionate kiss or two, something she's presumably never done before with a crew member. But, then she would have him flogged at one point. Later, she would discover that Frenchie had a beautiful wife(Debra Paget, as Molly) housed in Port Royal, and that he was actually a spy for the British, who had impounded his ship and wouldn't give it back until he captured either Anne or Blackbeard. Anne captured Molly , and threatened to throw her to her crew, or sell her into white slavery. But before all this happened, she had defended Frenchie(Captain La Rochelle) from attack by Blackbeard, who claimed he was an ex-captain, and a spy. She made Blackbeard and his small crew leave the island. Blackbeard would get his revenge in the end. So now, Anne has the British, Frenchie, and Blackbeard all out to get her. Eventually, she captures Frenchie, and maroons him with his wife on a very small island, hoping they will starve or die of thirst. Then, she has a change of heart, returns and gives them a small boat. This proves her downfall, as Blackbeard is closing in. After losing Frenchie and Blackbeard as friends or lovers, Anne seems to have no close friends, male or female. She despises the wenches who provide comfort to the pirates and others in the few towns. She also despises kept ladies, such as Molly. She apparently only respected women, like herself, who had earned the status of being a leader in the outside world , or had mastered a complex job normally done by men. She had earned her exalted status, despite being functionally illiterate, as most women of that time were. Check out YouTube to see it.

I saw this movie when I was very young living in Houston, Texas. I really enjoyed this movie, and I wrote to Jean Peters in Hollywood, and I told her how much I enjoyed seeing her in this movie. She sent me an autographed photo. This movie was directed by Jacques Tourneur, and besides Jean Peters in the starring role. It also stars Louis Jourdan, Debra Paget, and Herbert Marshall. It was released in 1951 in color and is 81 minutes long. Jean Peters was married to Howard Hughes. She also starred in "Viva Zapata" with Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn, who won an Oscar for playing the role Zapata's brother (Marlon Brando starred as Zapata) (1952). And she also starred in "Captain from Castile" (1947) with Tyron Power. Since then I've been trying to find a place where it is available, but so far I have not been successful. Does anybody have any suggestions about where I can find and purchase this movie? It this comment contains spoilers, I am unaware of it.

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.

The usual trappings of a pirate movie are here: sailing ships, Caribbean waters, firing cannons, powdered wigs, floggings, gold doubloons, sailors with peg-legs and eye patches, damsels in distress, etc. However, the captain of the pirate ship is a woman, which would seem to provide an opportunity for a fresh slant on an old genre. Unfortunately, Jean Peters seems uncomfortable in this part and her "toughness" never becomes more than a pose. Also, in a concession to the attitudes of the time, she isn't allowed to triumph but instead must "pay" for her usurpation of a male role by moving aside for the properly feminine Debra Paget. The result is a disappointingly conventional affair which, nonetheless, still delivers a passable hour-and-a-half of entertainment.Like Jean Peters, Louis Jourdan seems miscast since his trademark brand of Continental charm and elegance doesn't fit a role that calls for a dashing athleticism. His physique also seems a bit too thin and pale to make him a suitable subject for a shirtless flogging -- perhaps the only flogging in mainstream movies in which the victim appears to be unconscious from beginning to end. (This scene ranks 95th in the book, "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies.")