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Kerwin Mathews (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad) and Christopher Lee star in this would-be swashbuckler about pirates who lay siege to a Huguenot settlement in search of treasure the villagers insist they do not have. Mathews plays the outcast son of the town’s leader (Andrew Keir). He escapes a penal colony only to land in the clutches of the pirates, led by a black-clad, eyepatch-wearing Lee. This Hammer Films production bears the studio’s commendable production values, but the script squanders a bounty of dramatic potential. The Pirates of Blood River should have focused on Mathews’ torn allegiance between the village that condemned him and the pirates who offer him a new lease on life. Very little is made of his strained relationship with his father, either — a man who sentenced his own son to fifteen years of hard labor for an adultery charge.
The film is marketed as an action/adventure matinee, but there’s so little compelling action or adventure, it should be labeled a period drama. (A pirate movie without any scenes on the high seas is a cinematic crime of sorts, isn’t it?) At least Mathews is a charismatic lead. Lee is less convincing than usual here, donning a weird accent and dressed more like a circus performer than a pirate. Glenn Corbett gives a dreadfully wooden performance as Mathews’ sympathetic brother-in-law. Oliver Reed, Michael Ripper, and Peter Arne are memorable as three of Lee’s more volatile buccaneers.
Directed by John Gilling. With Marla Landi, David Lodge, and Dennis Waterman.