moonspinner55 Italian-French co-production involving 17th century slaves-turned-buccaneers who take on the Spanish government of Panama. Action-adventure from producer Joseph E. Levine stars muscular Steve Reeves as the footman and stable-hand to the governor's pampered daughter; he's arrested and nearly put to death for kissing the glinty-eyed man-eater (who obviously doesn't mind in the slightest!). Turning the tables on his captors at sea, Reeves takes on the mercenaries of the neighboring city, eventually leading a revolt by foot into Panama after saving his lady-love from kidnappers. Dull and ridiculous dreck; the action sequences are as muddled as the romantic drama, though the English-dubbing isn't too distracting. * from ****

mhrabovsky1-1 You have to give Steve Reeves agent (s) a lot of credit for morphing him into a great action film such as this one. After two hugely successful Hercules films, Reeves spun off his superman, supermusclebulger personna in a number of sword and sandal type films and other historical characters. One such was the role of Henry Morgan in the great pirate film, "Morgan the Pirate". Most of the Italian made "epics" of the late 50s and early 60s such as the never ending Hercules type films were that they were made on skimpy budgets with shapely, lovely starlets who would never make any Hollywood films. Some of Reeves love interests in those films were Mylene Demengeot, Valerie LaGrange, Chelo Alonso, Georgia Moll and Ombretta Colli....didn't think any of those names rang a bell with you. As Captain Morgan Reeves is a slave to be sold off at an auction in a Panama market, but the daughter of the governor (Valerie LaGrange) is smitten with him after witnessing a flogging and makes him her personal valet. Reeves mistakenly embraces her in a barn and is sent packing to a Spanish war galleon by the governor as a result - presumably never to be heard from again. After leading a slave revolt on a ship, Reeves takes over and forms his own pirate band with him becoming the captain. On a raid Reeves discovers the governor's daughter has been captured on another pirate raid and he is smitten with her and "wins" her in a battle with another pirate captain. As the story goes Reeves and his band sink Spanish ships, have endless fights with other pirates and Reeves becomes more and more powerful as the "scourge of the seven seas"...all along Reeves desires the love of his captive lady Lagrange, but she fends him off wanting to go back to Panama and her freedom. After being set free by Reeves (Capt Morgan) she realizes she truly loves him and longs to see him again. After a failed attempt to capture the city of Panama in a raid, it appears Morgan has drowned.....alas..Morgan is alive and then in another back entrance raid he and his pirate band capture the city and reunites with Lagrange. Reeves showed some true acting ability in this film, and it is considered by his fans as his very best movie. There is a great musical score in this film also. Gets you in the mood for action. I'd rate this film in a pirate league with "Captain Blood" and "The Black Swan".....two very formnable pirate tales. Reeves fans will love this movie.

Daniel R. Baker I can't claim I wasn't entertained. MORGAN THE PIRATE is great fun, just not the way that I expected. I was looking for thrills, and got laughs instead.I was psyched up to enjoy this movie right through the opening credits. I was saturated with those glorious Technicolor shots full of blue water and white sails, and I loved Franco Mannino's score. Unfortunately, it's all downhill from there. Andre de Toth's direction is ludicrous from beginning to end. Shall we start with the hamfistedness? A Panamanian is buying a cow, inspects her teeth, and the seller declares it to be in prime condition. Pan to a slave girl, whose teeth are also being inspected. Okay, we get the idea, but just in case we miss the parallel, the slave's seller says the SAME WORDS, TO THE LETTER, as the cow's owner does!That was my first hint that the movie was going to be bad, but not until the `action' scenes start did I realize just how funny it was going to be. Steve Reeves, enslaved aboard a Spanish vessel, leads a mutiny below decks. Instead of shooting the slaves from the hatchway, the Spanish marines obligingly climb right down the ladder and fall directly into the slaves' hands without even putting up a fight! Having thus gained some idea of the quality of his opposition, Steve Reeves just blows off the rest of the action sequence; it's obvious he isn't even trying. He swordfights like a septuagenarian English country gentleman pointing out landmarks with a cane. When he has to knock a man overboard, he just half-heartedly waves the stock of his musket at the victim, who promptly goes flying.Then there's the dialogue. Of course there is nothing easier than to poke fun at badly dubbed Italian movies. But in this case, to blame the translators and dubbers would be unfair, since the original Italian dialogue obviously never made sense to begin with. For example: Dona Inez, seeing a dying sailor, slaps Captain Morgan and says, `You're nothing but a murderer!' His answer: `And you are beautiful!' Wow, what a splendid rebuttal! (It sounds even lamer if you remember THE SEA HAWK, where Errol Flynn answers a similar accusation from a beautiful prisoner by gently pointing out that his actions are no different from those of Spanish military `heroes').The best laugh of all is when Morgan gives the order to abandon ship, which his sailors proceed to do not by taking to the dories, but by just diving overboard en masse! But the amazingly incompetent editing is humorous too; sometimes it looks like an early attempt to pioneer MTV-style jump cutting. At another point, a major patch of the movie simply goes missing in action. At one point, Morgan and his pirates have been abandoned, without ships (Morgan having burned them), on the beaches of Jamaica: they then proceed to march overland to Panama! The entire portion of the movie that explains how they got off the island of Jamaica to the Central American isthmus is just GONE!I won't bother criticizing the movie for lack of historical accuracy. It's perfectly excusable to sacrifice historical accuracy in the name of a good story, like in BRAVEHEART or in almost any Shakespeare play. What I find more annoying is when the good stories in history are not exploited to their full potential. This movie, for instance is the second I know of (THE BLACK SWAN is the other) that wastes the dramatic possibilities of Henry Morgan. The historical Captain Morgan had all the qualities of a classic Hollywood villain: diabolic charisma, a penchant for treachery, absolute ruthlessness, a cunning genius for strategy, insatiable greed and lechery. He even had sinister, bushy eyebrows and a Basil Rathbone mustache! And film-makers can't think of anything better to do with him than make him a hero?One parting shot: if I'd been in Morgan's shoes, I'd have told Dona Inez to go fly a kite. Consuela for me!Rating: *½ out of ****.Recommendation: If you want to see a good movie, skip it. If you want to laugh at a bad one, then by all means, see it.

mhrabovsky1 It is a shame that "Morgan the Pirate" is not shown or recognized more by action fans. It is very hard to find this film on any tv station - including cable or video stores. Steve Reeves gives his very best acting job in this venerable pirate tale.....also, an oddity is that Steve has to pursue the lovely Dona Inez, the daughter of the governor of Panama, throughout the film.....she makes Reeves work very hard to make a conquest of her. In other Reeves tales the women begin swooning over him very early. Morgan the Pirate has great action scenes, with good closeups of some beautifully reconstructed pirate ships. The costumes are quite historical, with Reeves decked out in a slew of pirate regalia as the film progresses. The music sets off this swashbuckler to a great extent. Best music score around for this pirate tale. Reeves survives a mini mutiny among his own pirate group, spearheaded by a jealous cohort captain who Steve outduels in an excellent action sequence early in the film as Reeves establishes his authority as the overall leader of the pirates. Some lovely women to look at in this film, and Reeves does not appear overly muscular for the role.Plenty of pirate fighting and a good romantic ending for Captain Morgan.