Swashbuckler (film)
Encyclopedia
Swashbuckler is a romantic
adventure film
produced in the U.S. by Universal Studios
and released in 1976. It is a story that takes place in Jamaica
in 1718 about a band of buccaneer
pirates, led by Captain “Red” Ned Lynch, pitted against a greedy overlord, evil Lord Durant. Durant has ruthlessly imprisoned his Lord High Justice and mercilessly evicted his wife and daughter Jane Barnet who eventually attempts a rescue with Lynch’s help. The film stars Robert Shaw
as Lynch, Peter Boyle
as Durant, Geneviève Bujold
as Barnet as well as James Earl Jones
, Beau Bridges
, Geoffrey Holder
, Anjelica Huston
and Avery Schreiber
. The film is based on the story “The Scarlet Buccaneer”, written by Paul Wheeler and adapted for the screen by Jeffery Bloom. It was directed by James Goldstone
and rated PG
.
The film was shot in Mexico
and on the galleon
Golden Hinde, a replica of the Golden Hinde captained by Francis Drake
from 1577 to 1580. In the film it was called the Blarney Cock and actually received a movie credit. According to the Special Feature section of the DVD, it was the only pirate movie filmed aboard an actual ship of that era.
in 1973 and its sequel The Four Musketeers
in 1974. Indeed, adventure and disaster films were all the rage in the seventies with films like The Towering Inferno
(1974), Earthquake
(1974) and Jaws
(1975), which also starred Shaw, and Swashbuckler was capitalizing on that and his success, albeit formulaic and budget minded. It also tapped into the trend of a revival of classic genres; other examples of this are Chinatown (Film noir
) and Star Wars
(serial
/sci-fi). It was a hit or a miss with audiences and a film that was not very serious – more a sequence of comedic skits and sword play than a cohesive story as a whole. It was nonetheless a film that was well suited to the matinée set and younger audiences alike. Besides the tropical allure of its film locales, the film was memorable for its wonderful, light hearted score by John Addison
, which included the uplifting "Blarney Cock" theme at the beginning and end of the picture.
Romantic comedy film
Romantic comedy films are films with light-hearted, humorous plotlines, centered on romantic ideals such as that true love is able to surmount most obstacles. One dictionary definition is "a funny movie, play, or television program about a love story that ends happily"...
adventure film
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
produced in the U.S. by Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
and released in 1976. It is a story that takes place in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
in 1718 about a band of buccaneer
Buccaneer
The buccaneers were privateers who attacked Spanish shipping in the Caribbean Sea during the late 17th century.The term buccaneer is now used generally as a synonym for pirate...
pirates, led by Captain “Red” Ned Lynch, pitted against a greedy overlord, evil Lord Durant. Durant has ruthlessly imprisoned his Lord High Justice and mercilessly evicted his wife and daughter Jane Barnet who eventually attempts a rescue with Lynch’s help. The film stars Robert Shaw
Robert Shaw (actor)
Robert Archibald Shaw was an English actor and novelist, remembered for his performances in The Sting , From Russia with Love , A Man for All Seasons , the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three , Black Sunday , The Deep and Jaws , where he played the shark hunter Quint.-Early life...
as Lynch, Peter Boyle
Peter Boyle
Peter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....
as Durant, Geneviève Bujold
Geneviève Bujold
Geneviève Bujold is a Canadian actress best known for her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in the 1969 film Anne of the Thousand Days, for which she won a Golden Globe Award for best actress and was nominated for an Academy Award....
as Barnet as well as James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...
, Beau Bridges
Beau Bridges
Lloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
, Geoffrey Holder
Geoffrey Holder
Geoffrey Richard Holder is a Trinidadian actor, choreographer, director, dancer, painter, costume designer, singer and voice-over artist.-Early life:...
, Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston
Anjelica Huston is an American actress. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston. She later was nominated in 1989 and 1990 for her acting in...
and Avery Schreiber
Avery Schreiber
Avery Lawrence Schreiber was an American comedian and actor. He was a veteran of stage, TV, and film.-Biography:...
. The film is based on the story “The Scarlet Buccaneer”, written by Paul Wheeler and adapted for the screen by Jeffery Bloom. It was directed by James Goldstone
James Goldstone
James Goldstone was an American director of both television and theatrical films during the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s....
and rated PG
MPAA film rating system
The Motion Picture Association of America's film-rating system is used in the U.S. and its territories to rate a film's thematic and content suitability for certain audiences. The MPAA system applies only to motion pictures that are submitted for rating. Other media may be rated by other entities...
.
The film was shot in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and on the galleon
Galleon
A galleon was a large, multi-decked sailing ship used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries. Whether used for war or commerce, they were generally armed with the demi-culverin type of cannon.-Etymology:...
Golden Hinde, a replica of the Golden Hinde captained by Francis Drake
Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, Vice Admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era. Elizabeth I of England awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581. He was second-in-command of the English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He also carried out the...
from 1577 to 1580. In the film it was called the Blarney Cock and actually received a movie credit. According to the Special Feature section of the DVD, it was the only pirate movie filmed aboard an actual ship of that era.
Public Opinion
Swashbuckler received a lukewarm reception from the critics, and was less popular than its similar contemporaries The Three MusketeersThe Three Musketeers (1973 film)
The Three Musketeers is a 1973 film based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. It was directed by Richard Lester and written by George MacDonald Fraser . It was originally proposed in the 1960s as a vehicle for The Beatles, whom Lester had directed in two other films...
in 1973 and its sequel The Four Musketeers
The Four Musketeers (film)
The Four Musketeers is a 1974 Richard Lester film that follows upon his film of the year before, The Three Musketeers, and covers the second half of Dumas' novel The Three Musketeers...
in 1974. Indeed, adventure and disaster films were all the rage in the seventies with films like The Towering Inferno
The Towering Inferno
The Towering Inferno is a 1974 American action disaster film produced by Irwin Allen featuring an all-star cast led by Steve McQueen and Paul Newman.A co-production between Twentieth Century-Fox and Warner Bros...
(1974), Earthquake
Earthquake (film)
Earthquake is a 1974 American disaster film that achieved huge box-office success, continuing the disaster film genre of the 1970s where recognizable all-star casts attempt to survive life or death situations...
(1974) and Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
(1975), which also starred Shaw, and Swashbuckler was capitalizing on that and his success, albeit formulaic and budget minded. It also tapped into the trend of a revival of classic genres; other examples of this are Chinatown (Film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
) and Star Wars
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, originally released as Star Wars, is a 1977 American epic space opera film, written and directed by George Lucas. It is the first of six films released in the Star Wars saga: two subsequent films complete the original trilogy, while a prequel trilogy completes the...
(serial
Serial (film)
Serials, more specifically known as Movie serials, Film serials or Chapter plays, were short subjects originally shown in theaters in conjunction with a feature film. They were related to pulp magazine serialized fiction...
/sci-fi). It was a hit or a miss with audiences and a film that was not very serious – more a sequence of comedic skits and sword play than a cohesive story as a whole. It was nonetheless a film that was well suited to the matinée set and younger audiences alike. Besides the tropical allure of its film locales, the film was memorable for its wonderful, light hearted score by John Addison
John Addison
John Mervyn Addison was a British composer best known for his film scores.Addison was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire and at the age of sixteen entered the Royal College of Music. He studied composition with Gordon Jacob, oboe with Léon Goossens, and clarinet with Frederick Thurston. ...
, which included the uplifting "Blarney Cock" theme at the beginning and end of the picture.
Cast
(in order of credits)- Robert ShawRobert Shaw (actor)Robert Archibald Shaw was an English actor and novelist, remembered for his performances in The Sting , From Russia with Love , A Man for All Seasons , the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three , Black Sunday , The Deep and Jaws , where he played the shark hunter Quint.-Early life...
as Captain "Red" Ned Lynch - James Earl JonesJames Earl JonesJames Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...
as Nick Debrett - Peter BoylePeter BoylePeter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....
as Lord Durant - Geneviève BujoldGeneviève BujoldGeneviève Bujold is a Canadian actress best known for her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in the 1969 film Anne of the Thousand Days, for which she won a Golden Globe Award for best actress and was nominated for an Academy Award....
as Jane Barnet - Beau BridgesBeau BridgesLloyd Vernet "Beau" Bridges III is an American actor and director.- Early life :Bridges was born in Los Angeles, the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his college sweetheart, Dorothy Bridges . He was nicknamed "Beau" by his mother and father after Ashley Wilkes's son in Gone with the Wind, the book...
as Major Folly - Geoffrey HolderGeoffrey HolderGeoffrey Richard Holder is a Trinidadian actor, choreographer, director, dancer, painter, costume designer, singer and voice-over artist.-Early life:...
as Cudjo Quadrill - Avery SchreiberAvery SchreiberAvery Lawrence Schreiber was an American comedian and actor. He was a veteran of stage, TV, and film.-Biography:...
as Pulaski - Tom Clancy as Mr. Moonbeam
- Anjelica HustonAnjelica HustonAnjelica Huston is an American actress. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston. She later was nominated in 1989 and 1990 for her acting in...
as Woman of Dark Visage - Bernard Behrens as Sir James Barnet
- Dorothy Tristan as Alice
- Mark BakerMark Baker (actor)Mark Baker is an American stage and film actor. He made his Broadway debut in the original production of Via Galactica, one of the most expensive flops in Broadway history.- Biography :...
as Lute player - Kip Niven as Willard Culverwell
- Tom Fitzsimmons as Corporal
- Louisa Horton as Lady Barnet
- Sid HaigSid HaigSid Haig is a American actor. His roles have included acting in Jack Hill's blaxploitation films of the 1970s as well as his role as Captain Spaulding in Rob Zombie's horror films House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects...
as Bald pirate - Robert Ruth as Bearded pirate
- Bob Morgan as Peg Legged Pirate (as Robert Morgan)
- Jon CedarJon CedarJon Cedar was an American character actor, screenwriter and producer. Cedar's best known roles included Corporal Karl Langenscheidt on the CBS television series, Hogan's Heroes, which aired from 1965 to 1971...
as Pirate gun captain - Diana Chesney as Landlady
- Manuel DePina as Barnet servant
- Tom Lacy as Chaplain
- Alfie Wise as Sailor
- Harry BaschHarry BaschHarry Basch is an American actor and author. In 1951 he appeared in "Mr. Roberts" at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. He is possibly best known for his role as Vince Caproni in the 1980s television series Falcon Crest. He appeared in the series from 1982 to 1984...
as Banana man - Rutanya AldaRutanya Alda-Life:Rutanya Alda was born as Rutanya Alda Skrastiņa in Riga, Latvia, the daughter of Vera , a businesswoman, and Jānis Skrastiņš, a poet...
as Bath Attendant