Pirates on the river of death
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Pirates on the river of death |
| Original title | The Pirates of Blood River |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1962 |
| length | 87 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | John Gilling |
| script | Jimmy Sangster |
| production | Michael Carreras |
| music | Gary Hughes |
| camera | Arthur Grant |
| cut | Eric Boyd-Perkins |
| occupation | |
| |
Pirates on the River of Death is a British adventure and pirate film made in 1961 and produced by Hammer Films . Kerwin Mathews and Christopher Lee play the two leading roles, directed by John Gilling .
action
In the 17th century, a number of Huguenots persecuted in their former homeland, France, settled on a Caribbean island . Here Jason Standing, the leader of the council of elders, leads a strict regiment and does not tolerate any decline in morals. His son Jonathon Standing is much more liberal and has an affair with Margaret Blackthorne, a married woman who is brutally abused by her husband. He comes into conflict with the local moral laws and is condemned to do forced labor in a mine in a penal colony. After months of hard work, Jonathon is able to escape, but a little later he falls into the clutches of a gang of pirates led with a hard hand by the fearsome captain LaRoches wearing an eye patch. He ventured into the interior of the country with his pirate raft on the eponymous river of death. LaRoche's people force Jonathon to lead them back to his home village because the life of a pirate means primarily pillage, kidnapping and pillage. LaRoche hopes to find and steal something of value in the godforsaken little market town.
The village is not completely defenseless, one is prepared for pirate attacks. Wooden palisades enclose the place and do not make it easy to penetrate. The residents are not quite as defenseless as expected, but have pistols and rifles. With only around twenty pirates, LaRoche claims to be able to take the village easily and threatens the worst retaliatory measures if the wild things are not let in voluntarily. There are smaller exchanges of fire, in which mainly pirates are killed, while the villagers seem quite well prepared. However, these cannot last long, and under the brutal pirate, including the beefy Brocaire, is now being plundered behind the stockade and the previously high morale is being violated.
LaRoche is sure that the residents are hiding a treasure from him and takes a tough line against the brave Huguenots. To increase the pressure on the residents, he orders his men to execute two villagers a day. Indeed, there is a treasure in the form of a painted pure gold statue that is being hidden by Jason Standing. But despite all the terror, the old man is absolutely silent and does not reveal this hiding place. His son sees it differently and thinks that none of this is worth the annihilation of human lives, and so he sets off on his own in search of the village treasure. With his courageous arbitrariness, he saves a few lives from the pirates who remain behind and who hold the inhabitants hostage. But on the way back with the pirates transporting the treasure, there is a confrontation with the villagers, now led by the brave Henry, who ambush the pirates on the long walk to their raft on the river of death and decimate the villains one after the other. Finally there is a duel between Henry and the deputy pirate captain Hench and Jonathon against Captain LaRoche, which of course the good guys win. Treasure keeper Jason Standing doesn't want to stand around uselessly either and, in order to make the pirate raft unfit to drive, he plunges into the river of death, which has not got its name wrongly: in fact, extremely hungry piranhas lurk in it ...
Production notes
Pirates on the River of Death was (presumably) premiered in Denmark on May 9, 1962. The German premiere was on June 22, 1962, the British premiere took place on July 31, 1962 in London.
Bernard Robinson created the film structures .
Reviews
The Movie & Video Guide found that the film offered a "serious but hackneyed" story.
Halliwell's Film Guide saw the film as "an appropriate coat-and-sword film."
"Colorful adventure cinema based on the clichés of the genre."
Individual evidence
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 1018
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 887
- ↑ Pirates on the River of Death. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed September 11, 2018 .
Web links
- Pirates At Todesfluß in the Internet Movie Database (English)