That becomes very clear when ships Captain Ken Scott finds temperamental stowaway Letícia Román aboard his ship, hired by the British navy to find and stop Captain Henry Morgan (Robert Stephens) from interfering in their efforts to land at trading posts. She's furious every time she's locked below, not realizing that every time that happens, he's doing it for her safety. She's even more furious that he barely gives her the time of day, considering her a nuisance for having that left the ship when she was supposed to. Scott knows what they are up against, but Román needs a few lessons before she can find the bravery and know-how of what to do when the ship and everybody's life aboard is in danger.

This is less taming of the shrew and more training of the shrew, showing that when a woman like Román is put in a situation that requires brains and bravery, she really can make a difference. In that retrospect, this is unique for a film of its time because she seems like a nuisance at first, but eventually, she begins to prove her value for being in a situation otherwise would have not been wise.

Colorful photography, believable costumes and scenery aids this into becoming a pleasant, jovial atmosphere, making this action adventure film well worth a trip down to Jolly Roger territory. Under the thumb of B grade programmer producer Sam Katzman, this looks pretty lavish, yet outside of its advanced view of a woman in a man's world being quite able, it seems like it could have been a film with Maureen O'Hara or Yvonne De Carlo from the 1940's. Those women you couldn't imagine being as flighty as Román starts off to be here, and it took me sometime to see that she wasn't going to be your typical pretty distraction and nuisance. It's also far to clean to really represent the time in which it is set. So enjoy it as a decent time filler but don't expect it to be up-to-date with the time that it was made in.

Pirates Of Tortuga has Captain Ken Scott who is a privateer on a special mission from the Admiralty. He's been told that Henry Morgan the pirate king with whom they had a deal with when Great Britain was at war with Spain has gone rogue again and set himself in grand style living on Tortuga Island as a pirate king. His living of course is the commerce of the merchant fleet of the West Indies. He's been so good at it that Jamaica is close to starvation.

Scott's mission is relieve Jamaica first then get Morgan. Not so easy, but with his picked crew of buccaneers he's confident that they'll get the job done.

Going along for the ride is stowaway Leticia Roman, a cut purse from London who Scott feels sorry for. She's trouble at first, but proves her worth.

Olympic track star Rafer Johnson has a small part in Pirates Of Tortuga and Robert Stephens plays a dastardly Morgan.

Pirates Of Tortuga was done on the cheap with ample stock footage from such 20th Century Fox classics as the Black Swan and Anne Of The Indies.

Pleasant afternoon viewing for action/adventure fans.

Ken Scott and a mass of little-known actors perform in a Sam Katzman sea-faring fest, with never an eyepatch, arrgh or yo-heave-ho among them. They've been ordered to head to the Caribbean Sea, to deal with Henry Morgan, who's exceeding his authority or something. Letícia Román has snuck onboard for reasons that are never clear.

It's actually a visually handsome movie, thanks to cinematographer Ellis Carter, and handsome sets and costumes. It definitely falls into the seen-one-seen-them-all category, and several screenwriters, including Jesse Lasky Jr. never produce anything interesting. However, Hortense Petra is credited down the cast list, and for a name like that, I'll pronounce this a decent time-waster: a triumph for Katzman.