Buccaneer's Girl is directed by Frederick De Cordova and jointly written by Samuel Golding, Joseph Hoffman, Joe May and Harold Shumate. It stars Yvonne De Carlo, Philip Friend, Robert Douglas, Elsa Lanchester and Henry Daniell. Music is scored by Walter Scharf and Technicolor cinematography is by Russell Metty.

Avast yee lubbers on the Universal lot as the radiant De Carlo plays a spitfire gal finding her man amongst much jollification on the piratical high seas.

Budget is cut close to the cloth, editing is C grade and the ending is so quick in coming you have to rewind just to check you didn't press the skip function on the remote control by mistake! While it's true, also, to say that the song and dance numbers inserted into the mix are badly choreographed and borderline embarrassing. This is one of those films where the trailer gives no real indication of just how jolly and cheap it is, a film that if I had paid at the cinema to see back on its release I would have been most annoyed. But many years later, with a pristine DVD transfer to sample along with a bottle of ice cold Chardonay? It's a pretty fun way to spend an hour and twenty minutes. On proviso, that is, you happen to be a fan of Technicolor swashbucklers made in knockabout fashion.

Russell Metty's colour photography is gorgeous, so much so it deserves a better movie, while costuming (Yvonne Wood) is of a high standard, particularly for the ladies. The cast, a mixed set of performers for sure, make the light weight material work, with the likes of Lanchester, Daniell & Douglas seriously knowing what is required. Friend cuts a handsome figure with his immaculate ruff's and pencil moustache, and in supporting slots Jay C. Flippen and Norman Lloyd leave favourable impressions. Scharf scores it with standard skull and crossbones flavours, which in turn sits easily with the frothy nature of the beast, and the fight sequences, resplendent with cheapo weapon props, are far from the worst in the genre.

With interesting twists and a good old sense of fun about it, there's enough here for the undemanding pirate fan to enjoy. Just don't expect the drama suggested by the trailer is all! 6/10

Buccaneer's Girl stars Yvonne DeCarlo as a stowaway entertainer and Philip Friend as the pirate who nabs her in a 76 lighthearted minute romp. It's a bit too lighthearted however and after Buccaneer's Girl is over you're scratching your head, wondering what you saw.

Friend it seems is having one long practical joke on Robert Douglas. As a pirate he only robs ships that are sailing with merchant Douglas's cargoes. Friend in is other Clark Kent guise as a privateer commissioned by Douglas to clean out those pirates robbing him takes his profits and puts them to a Seaman's Fund which goes to build merchant ships for all of Douglas's rivals. We're never given a reason why all this started, but the two of them are in heat over French Cajun princess Andrea King. That is until DeCarlo comes into Friend's life and discovers his dual identity.

During the course of the film, Yvonne sings a few songs and gets into a nice chick fight with Andrea King. Not as good as what Marlene Dietrich and Una Merkel had in Destry Rides Again, but it has its moments.

Still it's a below par film all around except when Elsa Lanchester playing the part of a combination finishing school mistress and madam is on screen. Those moments are too few in Buccaneer's Girl.

Sultry Yvonne De Carlo is the entire show in this colorful adventure that shows that women could be as tough as men when they needed to be, yet soft and feminine when it was time to return to being a woman. She stows away on a passenger ship, is taken to New Orleans by pirates, goes to work for a bordello madam, slaps a few society dames silly, ends up back on a pirate ship and ultimately gets a sword in her hand. It's all pretty silly stuff, and Yvonne, a more talented rival to Maria Montez, saves the day.

Only rivaled perhaps by Maureen O'Hara when it comes to sultry female masculinity, is not going to be treated with disrespect. She stands up to madam Elsa Lanchaster, beats the crap out of disrespectful snob Andrea King, and wins the love of a handsome hero, Philip Friendly. A ton of familiar character actors make nice additions, including Douglas Dumbrille, Henry Daniell, Connie Gilchrist, Verna Felton and lesser known black character actress Hattie Noel, briefly singing a song about pralines.

Ms. Noel had me in stitches as Joan Blondell's companion in the camp classic "Lady For a Night", and did a neat little shimmy to "Alice Blue Gown" in a film version of "Irene". De Carlo sings a few songs here, although I didn't recognize her voice as being the same as she did when she sang "I'm Still Here!" in "Follies". The film succeeds mainly on her personality, a delightfully manipulative ploy to make it appear better than it is.