Watch Raiders of the Seven Seas For Free

Sadly Over-hyped

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Low-budget independent (released through United Artists) pirate adventure starring John Payne has him as famed pirate Barbarossa fighting against a corrupt Spanish officer (Gerald Mohr), with an uncomfortable-looking Donna Reed miscast as the "fiery" daughter of a Spanish governor who is Payne's love interest. In every one of director Sidney Salkow's films I've seen he's had problems with pacing, and his track record is unbroken here. It moves like molasses, with awkward dialog scenes broken up by mostly lackadaisical, by-the-numbers action scenes (and some rather shoddy miniature work for the ship-to-ship battles). Payne is earnest, and actually a bit more animated than he normally tends to be, but Reed looks like she wished she was somewhere else. A decent supporting cast helps somewhat, but overall the picture is pretty standard fare.

Just watched this obscure pirate flick on Netflix Streaming. Since I've been devoting these summer months-in honor of the recent new "Dallas" series on TNT-to the original cast, regular and recurring, of the first series in order to review their work, on TV and film, in chronological order, this was next on the list with the second Miss Ellie-Donna Reed-in the heroine role opposite that of the hero-John Payne. Payne plays Barbarossa, a pirate who fights the villainous Spainards, one of whom was planned for an arraigned marriage with Ms. Reed. I'll stop there and just say that I found much of the action and dialogue much fast paced but also clear enough for me to understand what and why whatever happens is going on. Also, I liked Lon Chaney Jr.'s supporting performance as sidekick Peg Leg. So on that note, Raiders of the Seven Seas is worth a look if you're interested in these obscure old-time adventures.

When one considers the amount of acting talent here it is a shame it was so misused. With the likes of B-movie vets John Payne, Donna Reed, Gerald Mohr, Anthony Caruso and Lon Chaney i was expecting much more. It is just your basic story of a ship's captain, John Payne, who frees a crew from the nasty Spanish and takes off to be a pirate. It also features the standard pirate plot where Payne captures the local lord's wife to be, Donna Reed, who of course falls for the dashing pirate. Director Salkow did much better with THE GOLDEN HAWK and PRINCE OF PIRATES. Donna Reed would win a Best Supporting Oscar on her next film, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. She gave not a clue of such talent in this rather soft action flick. Same thing with the normally solid, John Payne. Not a complete loss since there are several brisk battle scenes and the odd comic touch from Lon Chaney. A grade b, b film. (color)

First, the good news. This movie is only 4 minutes and 23 seconds old before John Payne takes off his shirt, revealing a V-shaped torso which, unlike many of his earlier unveilings, is gloriously unshaven and only a few years past its prime. Now the bad news. It's all downhill from here. Even fans of pirate B-movies will find this concoction an anemic affair which lacks energy and style and which, due to a tight budget, has a disappointingly studio-bound quality. Throwing in an "adorable" child actor only accentuates the vapidity of the proceedings.John Payne manages to get by without serious damage to his reputation, aided, of course, by that bare-chest scene, but adding a reddish dye to his dark hair tends to make him look more silly than rakish. Donna Reed doesn't have the fire and flash needed for her part but, to be fair, no one could do much with lines such as: "I will enjoy (your company) even more when you are stretched to the four winds on a torture-rack!"A better grade-B pirate movie from this era is "Prince of Pirates" with John Derek and Barbara Rush.