Anne of the Indies

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Pirate captain Anne Providence finds a French prisoner on board a British ship she has captured. Pierre François La Rochelle says he has been shanghaied by Anne’s archenemies and the lady pirate eventually makes him her sailing master. Yet even as she unexpectedly lands in the arms of the Frenchman, she is unsure she can trust him. The plot thickens even further when her father figure, pirate captain Blackbeard, recognizes La Rochelle as a French naval officer and possible spy … As the dust from the swashbuckling fighting lifts, this treasure chest of a film offers any manner of circus-style attractions. While the Jolly Roger flying atop the mast makes for a black-and-white film cameo of sorts, the spectacular colours below it have license to rampage like buccaneers. Colour is even used to signify gender-bending in this proto-feminist flick – while Anne’s red bandanna worn with otherwise plain clothing signals her willingness to engage in erotic gameplay, her rival is adorned with the gift of a gold lamé dress, downgrading her to a mere sex object, a bit of “booty”.

details

  • Runtime

    81 min
  • Country

    United States
  • Year of Presentation

    2015
  • Year of Production

    1951
  • Director

    Jacques Tourneur
  • Cast

    Jean Peters, Louis Jourdan, Debra Paget
  • Production Company

  • Berlinale Section

    Retrospective
  • Berlinale Category

Biography Jacques Tourneur

Born in Paris, Tourneur went to Hollywood with his father, director Maurice Tourneur around 1913. He started out as a script clerk and editor for his father, then graduated to such jobs as directing shorts (often with the pseudonym Jack Turner), both in France and America. He was hired to run the second unit for David O. Selznick's "A Tale of Two Cities" (1935), where he first met Val Lewton. In 1942, when Lewton was named to head the new horror unit at RKO, he asked Tourneur to be his first director. The result was the highly artistic (and comercially successfull) "Cat Person" (1942). Tourneur went on to direct masterpieces in many different genres, all showing a great command of mood and atmosphere.
source: imdb.com

Filmography Jacques Tourneur

1942 Cat People | 1947 Out of the past | 1956 Nightfall | 1957 Curse of the Demon