Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I'll tell you why so serious

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Technicolor swashbuckler with ample doses of humor. I wasn't expecting much from this film. The only classic swashbucklers I've ever really enjoyed were the Errol Flynn ones. This one always seemed very "kiddy" to me and in some ways it is. It does have an all ages appeal to it. But I tried it out because it has a great reputation and was directed by one of the premiere directors of the 1940's, Robert Siodmak. Needless to say I wasn't disappointed.The star of the film is Burt Lancaster but he's helped throughout by his real-life friend and former circus partner Nick Cravat. The two do many of their own stunts and it's very enjoyable to watch. Unusual opening where Lancaster talks to the camera seems like something that might have been shot for a trailer but then left in the movie. Rousing score and upbeat tempo throughout. Just a fun movie I would recommend to anybody who isn't a snob about the genre.

I've watched this film so many times, as a child and just now in 2012 and it held up so well for incredible fun. Its pure entertainment. Better than so many movies made even nowadays, its an awesome, huge spectacle of rollicking adventure.Burt Lancaster shows off his incredible acrobatic skills and delivers a great performance as the Skipper with his The film just never stops being incredibly fun, with ingenious new twists populating every new corner.Oh and one more thing: it has some of the most memorable music in any film, especially the theme that plays in the climax showdown. Overall, a damn good ride!

I can watch this movie over and over and never get tired of it. Once you have seen this movie you understand where a lot of the later pirate movies got some of their stuff from.The plot is classic movie writing at it's best with just the right amount of everything. One of the other reviewer's mentioned that if they showed this on TV it would probably appeal to all ages and in fact it does. I had loaned my copy to a friend with young children (about 5 years old) and his children loved it.It has all the elements that make movie going worth going. I hope that one day they remake this one but it would be really hard to fill Bert Lancaster's shoes. He was the perfect pirate.With his team of new found allies he sets out on a mission to get what he really wants. The girl! It's an adventure and a love story. What could be better, right?

Before the languid Johnny Depp feminised buccaneers, there was effervescent Burt Lancaster to show how it should be done.You've only got to see him in action here to realise what a discovery Lancaster was to the movie business. Strong, fit, athletic, and well-muscled without looking like a steroid-queen, whilst with a drop-dead handsome face, a smile that made wide-screen essential, and teeth to give dentists wet-dreams. Dare I say it; he was a beautiful man? And he could ACT. Just check him out in 'Seven Days In May'.Here he's at his outlandish best. More visceral than the whey-faced Erol Flynn, a rip-roaring champion of the underclass, a pirate touched with humanity. As a one-time professional tumbler and acrobat, he scorned the use of stuntmen and what you see here is largely what you get; Burtie jumping, leaping, somersaulting and swinging in a way that would leave young Depp in need of resuscitation. Even by middle-age in the later 'The Train' he hurt his leg during a jump, but just bashed-on, limping his way through the movie. What a geezer!Our hero has a perfect foil in the form of small mixed-race mute Oyo - played for laughs by diminutive Nick Cravat - and despite a mutiny, imprisonment and every kind of escapade he comes out on top, defeating the tyrant and winning the girl - a not-so-comely Eva Bartok.This is an action comedy par-excellence. It is certainly contender for No.1 in the genre. It's as worthy a watch today as it was on its first release almost 60 years ago. Surely never bettered.I defy anyone, whatever their age, not to enjoy this movie.Highly recommended.