Against All Flags - Liked It

Continuing on with older movies in Pirates weeks with Against All Flags, a movie that was released in 1952 and again, stars no one I have ever heard of, except for the fact that Errol Flynn is the lead actor in this film!!!!! This film and Captain Blood are extremely similar. We have a stranger on a new island, who becomes a pirate to save his own skin, and who then later shows how good of a person he actually is. Brian Hawke (Errol Flynn) is part of the Royal Navy and has been sent to Madagascar to be a spy. There he meets Prudence (Maureen O’Hara) who is a woman pirate, and Captain Brasiliano (Anthony Quinn) who is the one that wants to win Prudence’s heart.

Since it has been awhile since I’ve done some bullet points on the thoughts I had while watching, I think I’ll change it up and do it for this movie.

• The whipping that Hawke had to endure in the beginning did not look like it hurt that bad. Therefore the acting wasn’t the greatest.
  
• Oh what a time in film when there were painted backdrops.
  
• The captain and Hawke both look like Gaston in multiple parts of the movie.
  
• Someone’s name was Crookshank… I do love Harry Potter
  
• Prudence kisses the prisoner before she even knows him. And then the kissing just keeps becoming more eventful throughout the movie. It was actually a tad comical, especially with the idiot Indian princess.
  
• Prudence had the best outfits in this movie! Gah! Is it Halloween yet?
  
• Back to what I said about the Indian princess… “I’m scared” and he kisses her and everything gets better. I don’t think that would fix the problem when my ship is burning down and there’s a stranger pirate in my midst who kisses me.
  
• There is a scene where a woman gets slapped (I’m sorry I don’t remember, it was probably Prudence though) and it’s the worst acting I’ve ever seen. Was this before they figured out how to fake being slapped or something?
  

In the end, I actually enjoyed this film. The storyline was good I think. A “prisoner” turned pirate, falls in love, saves a Princess, etc. There were a few scenes that just made me roll my eyes, especially the ones with the Princess, but other than that it was decent. Obviously I can’t say much to the effects, as this was in the 50s the majority of the set was painted backdrops and staged scenery. It actually felt like I was watching a live play. All the sword fighting scenes and even the scenes between Hawke and Prudence felt like that. I know they didn’t have “fake blood” back then (I’m speculating here) so it was just like on stage with the stabbing and killing. One thing - the original fight scene between Hawke and the other pirate guy was a bit long and drawn out.

I looked up Maureen on IMDB to see if she was in anything else I’ve seen, and she wasn’t. But I’d say she looks super familiar - perhaps most of the movie stars back then all looked the same. Since there was a 20 year difference between Against All Flags and Captain Blood, I didn’t even realize it was the same actor who played both leading roles, until I started writing this review and looked up the actors’ names. Too funny. I’ll give this movie a “Liked It” rating. It makes me want to watch 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. If you want to watch this too, the St. Louis County Library has it!