A colorful bit of silliness takes the viewer to the 1820's old south as it most likely never existed, and dealing with piracy, gamblers, sword fights and little of what resembles history. Looking like a more masculine version of Rita Hayworth with a little bit of Maureen O'Hara thrown in, hot tempered gambling ship proprietor Patricia Medina accepts the services of handsome Lex Barker who wants to prevent his father, John Dehner, from going to debtor's prison.

As her servant, Barker puts up with all sorts of humiliations, mainly from her jealous foreman Warren Stevens, but it's obvious that the rugged Tarzan to be has won this part of the stubborn Medina. It's revealed that pirates are raiding plantation sugar crops, and Barker is determined to catch the culprit, at first suspecting Medina who has ties with Mississippi pirates.

Filled with hokum but enjoyable, this colorful Columbia B adventure was produced by legendary Sam Katzman who tossed out dozens of movies a year and was directed by William Castle several years before he became the master of macabre and the guider of the gimmick, hemming camp classics like "The Tingler" and "13 Ghosts". It's probably more relevant of a film because of that reason than anything that is seen on screen although the cast is handsome and the production striking. But there's hardly anything in the film to make it a classic, so I guess I'll just have to settle for fun but forgettable as my description of what it has to offer.

I've never been a great fan of Lex Barker Westerns, but DOTM pleasantly surprised me, though I overlook the curiosity of Patricia Medina leading a gang of robbers and the unlikelihood of her relationship with Barker; and there were no surprises about the ending.

But the cinematography was excellent and colourful, and there were a couple of good duels. Barker performed better than in those of his other Westerns that I've seen. It was good to see the dependable John Dehner, aged 40 at the time of the film's release, playing a much older patriarch.

Well, I have had to go back on my word one more time with respect to non-Horror films by the director incorporated both as part of my centenary tribute to him and my Epic Easter marathon; given its riverboat/gambling/Old South backdrop, I had mentally classified this as more of a Western but, looking at stills from it and checking out its plot line, the sight of swordfights and the mention of piracy sure changed my mind! Anyway, the addition of the film to my schedule had its downside as well, as the gorgeous-looking (albeit TV-sourced) print I watched proved problematic – with the image getting scrambled every once in a while!

The film, then, was a mere 68 minutes in length: indeed, I must say that, had Castle not subsequently embarked upon his Horror career, his reputation would probably never have been made – despite his prolific pre-1958 output; that is not to say that it is bad, but it certainly had routine, journeyman, even cheap (produced by Sam Katzman: enough said!) written all over it – with this in mind, this early phase of his work has not been pursued by avid fans of his Horror efforts nearly enough.

This, again, co-stars Patricia Medina who unsurprisingly begins as an antagonist to hero Lex Barker, only to eventually reform (she is the spirited daughter of the leader of a gang of raiders stealing the sugar from various plantations, one of which is owned by Barker's father John Dehner) and fall for him; interestingly, when the old man is threatened with bankruptcy and a spell in debtors' prison, Barker offers his services as a personal slave to Medina…but also contrives to challenge her hot-headed foreman Warren Stevens (who prides himself on his lethal abilities with a rapier) to a duel which, if killed in, would effectively discharge Dehner from all obligations to Medina! Obviously, he survives (even wounding Stevens himself) – but the two men ultimately settle their score via another face-off, albeit fought by way of a machete!

The film is colourful and enjoyable, but also ordinary and forgettable; the cast helps, with Ian Keith (as Medina's brandy-loving father) relishing his roguish part, as opposed to the humourless villains he was often relegated to playing, a role here filled – quite ably, I might add – by Stevens. As for leading man Barker (who numbered actresses Lana Turner and Arlene Dahl among his five spouses!),he had a pretty continental and varied filmography – which saw him going from Hollywood Tarzan to German Winnetou (aka Old Shatterhand) and various other adventures and thrillers along the way, before prematurely expiring from a heart attack in 1973. Incidentally, thanks to this viewing, I have just added a quintet of the star's vehicles (3 of them Italian costumers!) to my collection...