Tiger of the Seven Seas (1962)

Original title: La Tigre dei Sette Mari

Director: Nino Battiferri, Luigi Capuano, Arpad DeRiso, Ottavio Poggi

Composer: Carlo Rustichelli

Starring: Gianna Maria Canale, Anthony Steel, Maria Grazia Spina, Andrea Aureli, Carlo Ninchi, John Kitzmiller, Ernesto Calindri, Carlo Pisacane, Nazzareno Zamperla, Pasquale De Filippo, Giulio Battiferri, Renato Giomini, Renato Izzo, Bruno Arie, Piero Pastore

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A pirate's daughter takes on the entire Spanish fleet in a tale of heroism and treachery.

Plot: Tigre is the skipper of the Santa Maria, a pirate-ship, but he feels tired and decides to leave the command of the ship. Unfortunately he has only a daughter, Consuelo. So he will leave the command and the ship to the winner of a challenge among his men. Unexpectedly Consuelo wins. The same night Tigre is killed, William is charged with the killing and is sentenced to death. But before the sentence could be executed the Spaniards of Grand Duke Inigo arrives. Consuelo escapes, however this is only the first move of Indigo's wife to get to the pirates treasure.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

There's one thing you can't deny and that's that this flick looks outstanding.  The location shooting is gorgeous.  The color, cinematography, costumes and so on pop out of the screen like a classic painting.  The story has enough going on to keep things busy enough without getting too bogged down in filler but it does drag a little.   Fortunately there are little bits of action sprinkled in that try to alleviate any boredom.  The English dub was well done.  I'm not sure where I have an issue with this movie.  It's hard not to like on a base level because it includes a lot of what you'd expect and want in a high seas adventure pirate movie and it looks amazing. The swordplay runs the gamut from sloppy hack and slash to skilled and impressive.  I'd figure it out if I watched it a second time but that's not going to happen.  I really admire the Italian film industry from the 60s.  They focused a lot on high adventure between these types of pictures, the Sword & Sandal (Peplum) and Spaghetti Westerns.  I recommend this one but don't expect a hidden gem.  It's good but not great.