Anne of the Indies (1951)

Anne of the Indies is a 1951 Twentieth Century Fox pirate adventure movie directed by Jacques Tourneur. It belongs to the small sub-genre of movies about lady pirates. It may have been inspired by the adventures of the real-life woman pirate Anne Bonny (the time period is exactly right) but in fact the story has little connection with that lady’s career. The main similarity is that the pirate in the film is, like Anne Bonny, Irish.

The pirate Captain Providence has been preying, very successfully, on English shipping. He’s a mystery man. No-one has set eyes on him and lived to tell the tale. When he captures a merchant ship he has the whole crew put to death. As a result no-one knows that Captain Providence is a woman. She is Captain Anne Providence (Jean Peters).

Captain Providence has captured another merchantman. As her men are feeding the luckless merchantman’s crew to the sharks she notices a man in irons. This interests her. He is a Frenchman who claims to be a prisoner of the English. Anne hates the English but her attitude is that this Frenchman is an enemy of the English and that makes him an OK guy. No member of her crew would dare to suggest that she may have spared his life because he’s young and very handsome.

The Frenchman (played by Louis Jourdan who was a major heart-throb at the time) calls himself Pierre François. Anne isn’t a total fool. She has his cabin searched. A map is found. Or at least it’s half a map, a map showing the location of fabulous treasure buried by the famous buccaneer Henry Morgan. Anne is extremely interested when Pierre reveals that he knows how to find the other half of the map.

The lust for gold is not the only lust consuming Captain Anne Providence. This Frenchman excites her in a strange and unfamiliar way. The way a woman can be excited by a very good-looking very masculine man who knows how to romance women.

This causes a falling out with Anne’s mentor, the notorious pirate Blackbeard.

Blackbeard is fond of Anne but he’s not a forgiving man.

Whether you’re seeking treasure or love you always have to look out for hidden reefs and other hazards of the sea and that’s the case here. In fact seeking for love is a lot more dangerous than seeking for gold.

Of course there are many complications and twists to come. There is only one member of her crew whom Anne might be able to consider a friend and confidant, the drunken cynical ship’s doctor, Jameson (Herbert Marshall). He is worried about the situation. Her boisterous Scottish first mate Red Dougal (James Robertson Justice) doesn’t trust Pierre. But Anne can’t keep her hands off the handsome Frenchman.

Betrayal could come from any number of sources. It’s doubtful whether any of the characters in this tale could be described as honest upstanding citizens.

Of course there’s another woman, Molly (Debra Paget). I won’t spoil things by revealing where she fits into the plot but you’re probably going to guess that she and Anne are not going to get along.

There’s an extraordinary anti-English bias to this movie. Anne considers the English to be treacherous, cruel and wholly untrustworthy and she turns out to be right.

Anne Providence makes an interesting heroine. She’s brave, sexy, daring and quite sympathetic but there is the minor point that we have already seen her commit mass murder. I like the spirited performance of Jean Peters and she’s able to make Anne both wicked and sympathetic. Anne is a ruthless pirate but she’s a woman and Pierre has made her very much aware of that. Peters makes Anne a real woman who reacts in a believable way to emotional betrayal. Peters also makes us aware that Anne is a woman with sexual feelings.

Louis Jourdan, James Robertson Justice and Debra Paget are fine in their roles but Herbert Marshall is the standout among the supporting players, giving a subtle performance as a man with divided loyalties and a conflicted sense of duty.

There are plenty of nicely executed action scenes and the movie (shot in Technicolor) looks great. I believe some of the sea battle scenes were lifted from earlier Twentieth Century Fox pirate movies.

Anne of the Indies is a surprisingly nuanced pirate adventure with a complex protagonist who doesn’t always do what we expect her to do. The movie as a whole doesn’t adhere rigidly to the conventions of the pirate movie. It’s much more interesting than one expects it to be. In fact this is a terrific pirate movie and certainly the best lady pirate movie ever made. Very highly recommended.

The French Blu-Ray from BQHL offers a lovely transfer and includes the film in English with removable French subtitles, and it includes the movie on DVD as well. A very worthwhile buy.

If you’re interested in lady pirates you might also want to check out the rather entertaining Buccaneer’s Girl (1950).