''Buccaneer's Girl'' is a 1950 American

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

romantic

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed by Frederick de Cordova starring

Yvonne De Carlo Margaret Yvonne Middleton (September 1, 1922January 8, 2007), known professionally as Yvonne De Carlo, was a Canadian-American actress, dancer and singer. She became a Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film star and sex symbol in the 1940s a ...

and Philip Friend.

Plot

Deborah McCoy, a

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

singer, is on a ship that is captured by the forces of the pirate captain Fredric Baptiste. Baptiste keeps McCoy captive but she escapes in New Orleans and is hired as a singer by Mme. Brizar, the proprietor of a school for young ladies. Deborah is sent to a party held by Captain Robert Kingston, the head of the Seaman's Fund. Robert is also Baptiste. She discovers that Baptiste uses his piracy activities to subsidise the Fund, which supports local seamen. Robert is engaged to Arlene Villon. The businessman Narbonne discovers Baptiste's ruse and sets a trap for him. Deborah overhears this and joins Baptiste on the open seas. They attack Narbonne's ships. Baptiste is captured by Narbonne but Deborah helps him escape.

Cast

as Deborah McCoy * Philip Friend as Frederic Baptiste * Robert Douglas as Narbonne *

Elsa Lanchester Elsa Sullivan Lanchester (28 October 1902 – 26 December 1986) was a British actress with a long career in theatre, film and television.Obituary '' Variety'', 31 December 1986. Lanchester studied dance as a child and after the First World ...

as Mme. Brizar * Andrea King as Arlene Villon * Norman Lloyd as Patout *

Jay C. Flippen John Constantine Flippen Jr. (J.C. or Jay C.) (March 6, 1899 – February 3, 1971) was an American character actor who often played crusty sergeants, police officers or weary criminals in many 1940s and 1950s pictures, particularly in film noir ...

as Jared Hawkins * Henry Daniell as Captain Duval *

Douglass Dumbrille Douglass Rupert Dumbrille (October 13, 1889 – April 2, 1974) was a Canadian actor who appeared regularly in films from the early 1930s. Life and career Douglass Dumbrille ( ) was born in Hamilton, Ontario. As a young man, he was employed ...

as Captain Martos * Verna Felton as Dowager * John Qualen as Vegetable Man *

Connie Gilchrist Rose Constance Gilchrist (July 17, 1895 – March 3, 1985) was an American stage, film, and television actress. Among her screen credits are roles in the Hollywood productions '' Cry 'Havoc (1943), '' A Letter to Three Wives'' (1949), ''L ...

as Vegetable Woman *

Ben Welden Ben Welden (born Benjamin Weinblatt; June 12, 1901 – October 17, 1997) was an American character actor who played a wide variety of Damon Runyon-type gangsters in various movies and television shows. Early years Welden was born in Toledo, Oh ...

as Tom *

Dewey Robinson Dewey Robinson (August 17, 1898 – December 11, 1950) was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 250 films made between 1931 and 1952. Career Dewey Robinson was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1898, and made his B ...

as Kryl * Peggie Castle as Cleo

Production

The film was originally known as ''Mademoiselle McCoy and the Pirates''. In May 1949 Joseph Hoffman was hired to work on the script. It appears to have always been considered a vehicle for

. Paul Christian was originally announced as her co-star. Christian ended up being replaced by Philip Friend, who was cast on the basis of his performance in another Universal film, '' Sword in the Desert'' (1949). Robert Douglas was cast as the lead villain in the film, the first of a three-picture contract he made with Universal. Filming began July 1949. The supporting cast included Ethel Ince, widow of John Ince, playing her first role in thirty years. When asked about the film, De Carlo said, "What a dilly! I had six knock down, drag out fights in that one. And I was just recuperating from an operation."

Reception

De Carlo wrote in her memoirs that while she was touring Argentina, she got a phone call from Eva Perón praising her movies, particularly ''Buccaneer's Girl''. De Carlo wrote, "It later dawned on me that she could identify with the character of Deborah McCoy, who capitalized on her position as a prostitute to move up into high society." Dudley Early of ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The distribution of the following ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', '' ...

'' said that " ..this highly improbable tale fails to click despite its presentation."

References

External links

*
''Buccaneer's Girl''
at

TCMDB Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie-oriented pay-TV network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasting campus in the Midtown business district of ...

{{Authority control 1950 films 1950s American films 1950s English-language films 1950s historical adventure films American historical adventure films Films directed by Frederick de Cordova Films scored by Walter Scharf Films set in New Orleans Films set in the 1800s Pirate films Universal Pictures films English-language historical adventure films