Ehirerapp Waste of time

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

utgard14 Errol Flynn plays a British naval officer who goes undercover with pirates and romances pirate captain Maureen O'Hara. Jealous pirate Anthony Quinn is suspicious and believes Flynn to be a spy. Expect a swordfight at some point.Touted as being one of Flynn's better '50s films. I'd have to agree with that, although this still doesn't hold a candle to his best films from 1935 to 1945. As everybody pretty much knows, Flynn was an alcoholic and, by this time, years of abuse had started to take its toll on his handsome features. While he would look much worse just a few short years later, here he still looks like he's ten years older than his actual age. That being said, it doesn't affect his ability to act. He still has a good screen presence, charm, and pleasant chemistry with O'Hara. Speaking of Maureen O'Hara, she's as lovely and feisty as ever. She's always a treat to watch and here she's the highlight of the picture for me. Anthony Quinn goes through the motions as the villain. Dig his velvet coat, though. It pops like so many of the colors in this. Gotta love Technicolor. It's not Flynn's last swashbuckler but it's his last good one.

zardoz-13 "London Blackout Murders" director George Sherman's formulaic seafaring voyage "Against All Flags" was actor Errol Flynn's final swashbuckler on the high seas against marauding pirates. Indeed, the title sums up the nature of piracy. Wicked pirates pit themselves against all flags when they hoist the skull and crossbones. Nothing really special stands out in the predictable screenplay penned by "Essex and Elizabeth" scenarist Æneas MacKenzie and "At Sword's Point" scribe Joseph Hoffman. This is one of those daring 18th century escapades where the intrepid hero infiltrates the ranks of the pirates. Basically, two kinds of movies like "Against All Flags" exist. The first example is when the filmmakers explain ahead of time that their hero has committed no iniquity and plans to undermine an opponent with false information. In the second example, the true identity of the hero is not revealed until the final reel. "Against All Flags" exemplifies the first example. As the heroine, auburn-haired Maureen O'Hara enlivens this epic with another one of her ardent performances. Anthony Quinn projects a commanding presence and his use of gestures to reinforce his character is good. Compared to his earlier Warner Brothers' sea spectacles, this budget-minded Universal-International Pictures' release isn't half as spectacular. Lenser Russell Metty makes sure that all this nonsense benefits from his elegant Technicolor cinematography. The closest that "Against All Flags" comes to being unsavory are the repeated threats to relegate prisoners to the tide stakes. These tide stakes are planted in the shoal waters of the reef. Before the tide rises sufficiently high enough to drown the unfortunate fellow, the hungry crabs will have feasted on the prisoners. "Against All Flags" unfolds at sea with the following prologue: In 1700 A.D., the Pirate Republic of Libertatia on the island of Madagascar was a constant menace to the rich trade routes to India. Several days sail is the British merchant ship 'Monsoon.' The British Navy is determined to wipe out the heavily armed stronghold of pirates on the island. British Navy Lieutenant Brian Hawke (a mature Errol Flynn of "Captain Blood") and two sailors—gunner's mate Harris (John Alderson of "Violent Saturday") and topman Jones (Phil Tully of "All the King's Men")--pose as deserters and take a longboat to the island. "I don't like the cut of your sail," Captain Roc Brasiliano (Anthony Quinn of "Larceny, Inc.") opines when he lays eyes initially on Hawke. Brasiliano suspects that Hawke may be a spy, while hot-tempered beauty Prudence 'Spitfire' Stevens (Maureen O'Hara of "Sinbad the Sailor") finds herself sexually attracted to Hawke. Brasiliano wants proof that Hawke is a deserter. One of Brasiliano's gnarly-looking pirates inspects Hawke's back where our hero received twenty terrible lashes by a cat o' nine tails. The pirate had served on the East Indian Company ship Monsoon and he recognizes the distinctive handiwork of Flogger Flower (Dave Kashner of "High Lonesome") who delivered the punishment. Prudence cannot wait to get her hands on Hawke, so Brasiliano orders him to serve as his navigator on the ship Scorpion. The secret defense of Madagascar is the point of Hawke's mission. He must spike the cannons defending the island so the Royal Navy can sail into port and blast away with broadsides at the moored pirate vessels. Hawke learns not long after he is accepted amongst the pirates that a map of the cannon emplacements hangs in the bedroom and he memorizes the positions while he is instructing Prudence about the make-up that women wear in proper society. Prudence's father was a well-known pirate and he created the gun emplacements. Meanwhile, when Hawke isn't romancing the fiery Prudence, he is following Captain Brasiliano's orders. Instead of allowing Hawke to horn in on his relationship with Prudence, Brasiliano makes Hawke his navigator. They attack a royal Indian ship and is carrying Princess Patma (Alice Kelley of "Buckaroo Sheriff of Texas") and her mistress, Molvina MacGregor (Mildred Natwick of "Yolanda and the Thief"). Brasiliano sets the Indian ship afire and MacGregor appeals to Hawke because the princess is still aboard the burning ship. Hawke rescues her and gives the princess a kiss that leaves the poor girl stunned beyond imagination. Afterward, every time that the princess lays eyes on Hawke, she begs for another kiss. "Again," she pleads. This becomes a running joke throughout "Against All Flags." Ultimately, George Sherman qualifies as a competent enough director, but he lacks the artistic flair of director Michael Curtiz. Curtiz helmed all of Flynn's early swashbucklers, starting with "Captain Blood," and Flynn assumed the significance of a larger-than-life hero. Little about "Against All Flags" is larger-than-life. Everything approves rather second-rate in this costumer. You know in some scenes that the gorgeous looking sailing ships are brightly lighted models in a massive studio tank. The close quarters combat scenes aboard the ships are staged with a modicum of verve. Of course, Hawke and Stevens will get out of it alive, but Brasiliano isn't as fortunate. Quinn excels as the villainous Brasiliano, and O'Hara is funny the more she gets riled up about the amorous Hawke. Happily, this 83-minute movie never wears out its welcome.

clivey6 Latter day Errol Flynn pirate adventure, filmed in sumptuous colour and with Anthony Quinn and Maureen O'Hara providing fine support as the villainy and love interest respectively (of course!). O'Hara was in the not dissimilar Black Swan but I much prefer her in this, as a feisty pirate captain called Spitfire. She wears Lincoln green a lot, perhaps as a nod to Flynn's Robin Hood many years earlier.Sadly, I found Flynn to be the weakest link here. People say he's aged a lot in this, but no more than many of us do in over a decade, certainly no more than Bond stars Connery and Moore did in the same amount of time. I don't mind the 19th-hole, fetch-me-a-double-whiskey-and-Xerox-it pallour, rather that Flynn seems to be a man with the fight completely knocked out of him. There's none of the animus or spirit of his earlier performances - and Flynn without spirit is like Connery without his dangerous edge - or, as Connery appeared in Never Say Never Again. In fact, this vehicle has the feel of a belated comeback picture like NSNA or Indy and the Crystal Skulls, there's the sense that something is not quite right with the leading man. There's a defeated, shifty look in Flynn's eyes that's very uncharismatic.It doesn't help that the script seems written for Flynn in his younger glory years, a lady killer who can turn Spitfire's head without preamble. It's a scene that anticipates Connery and Karin Dor in YOLT, but at least Connery had a bit more of the youthful, indolent way about him still then.I didn't care either for the plot, a Donnie Brasco-type thing where Flynn is a naval officer posing as a deserter to infiltrate the pirate colony, but that's just my taste. Like Lazenby in OHMSS going undercover as Sir Hilary Bray, it works against the leading man's natural brio and bravado. It would have helped to show some dastardly, nasty pirate behaviour early on to justify his undercover actions, because often Flynn plays the outraged insubordinate rather than an establishment figure. Still, the look of the film carried me through and I wish Captain Blood had been filmed in that sort of colour.

Ben Burgraff (cariart) AGAINST ALL FLAGS, Universal's 'take' on the WB swashbucklers of the previous decade, utilized the services of the quintessential Warner buccaneer, himself, Errol Flynn, in the lead. While he was no longer the devil-may-care young matinee idol he'd once been, the actor, finishing up his WB contract, negotiated a 'percentage of the gross' deal to make the film, and with a potential big payday as incentive, Flynn would show more energy and enthusiasm than in THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE (which would be released a year later, and would be his last WB swashbuckler).As Brian Hawke, a British naval officer 'undercover' to destroy the batteries of a pirate island stronghold, Flynn looks far older and more jaded than in his halcyon days (when his commander refers to him as 'young', you can almost see both actors wince), but his rakish smile is still present, and his dialog is ripe with the sexual innuendo audiences had come to expect from a Flynn film (to female pirate Maureen O'Hara, he says, with tongue in cheek, "I'd looked forward to serving under you, ma'am"...). Posing as disgraced and discharged, his obvious refinement draws the suspicion of ruthless pirate captain Anthony Quinn, but stirs the long-suppressed sexual yearnings in O'Hara, whose father had built the artillery emplacements. Discovering that the plans are located in O'Hara's bedchamber, Flynn goes to work on her, combining his mission with his infamous off-screen reputation for seduction, in a funny scene that both actors play to the hilt.Placed under Quinn's command, Flynn participates in the capture of a galleon, then discovers that the 'cargo' is a virginal Indian princess (Alice Kelley), who'd never been close to a man before, other than her father. Having Errol Flynn as a 'first' provides another point of humor, as, after he gives her a platonic kiss, she nearly swoons, and begins incessantly begging, "AGAIN!" (A chant O'Hara would take up, as the film's final line).There is the 'mandatory' discovery of Flynn's true identity, O'Hara's betrayal to rescue him, and O'Hara and Kelly both held as hostage aboard Quinn's ship, leading up, of course, to a 'by-the-numbers' final swordfight between Flynn and Quinn. Unfortunately, in filming the final duel, Flynn fell, breaking his leg, and the production was halted until the aging actor could heal (Universal, ever conscious of budget, filmed YANKEE BUCCANEER, with Jeff Chandler, on the Flynn sets, as he recuperated). The shooting was, overall, a pleasant experience for Flynn, at a time when the WB had relegated him to 'B' pictures, and he advertised AGAINST ALL FLAGS in theatrical trailers as one of his favorite films. While it wasn't the hit he had hoped for, it did do well enough that the WB would 'green light' THE MASTER OF BALLANTRAE, to be made in England. (Universal would remake AGAINST ALL FLAGS, 15 years later, as THE KING'S PIRATE, with Doug McClure in Flynn's role.)Financial difficulties would soon force Errol Flynn to leave the United States, and the pirate yarn would be his last film shot in America for five years.A new stage of his rollercoaster career was about to begin...