The lavish pirate movie is one of the ‘cappers’ of Hollywood’s Golden Age, just before the war broke out, when it seemed as if American movies could do anything (…). With the brilliant, reckless taskmaster Curtiz in charge of the ship-to-ship mayhem, the violent combat has us believing that the film’s daily production reports carried lists of injured extras and stunt men. The swords look potentially dangerous and all manner of shot ‘n’ shell blasts, pointy pikes and other harmful items are flying through the air. The set looks to be at least 35 feet tall. Wounded fighters fall from spars and tumble messily through broken oars into the water. Who knows, when they drained the giant water tank at night, maybe a couple of missing extras showed up. Glenn Erickson