Given the title I expected this (which I had missed out years ago on a solitary Saturday morning screening on Italian TV) to be yet another of star Errol Flynn's swashbucklers, especially since he took it upon himself to pen its screenplay (perhaps following the example of his predecessor Douglas Fairbanks)! With this in mind, it is commendable that he opted for a change-of-pace vehicle (which has more of the Southern Gothic touch about it than anything else) and his character basically shares the protagonist role with co-star Micheline Presle (the film, in fact, is a French production shot in the English language and distributed in the U.S. by Republic Pictures!)!
The leading lady is a Creole girl serving (and mistreated by) an aristocratic family but still managing to attract the attention of lecherous prospective in-law Vincent Price. She swears revenge – with the help of batty sidekick Agnes Moorehead – and, in fact, the minute her masters are out of the house, the latter installs a load of beggars in their house (who would have thought that Flynn actually anticipated the most celebrated set-piece in Luis Bunuel's VIRIDIANA by 10 years?!). Anyway, Price's craving for the girl is too great to stay away for too long and, when he turns up unexpectedly, tragedy ensues – with Presle curtailing a drunken stable-boy's sinister intentions with repeated blows to the head courtesy of Price's walking-cane! The latter, however, proves typically diabolical and unceremoniously hands the heroine over to the Police (especially since her own mother had been convicted of a crime and was subsequently hanged for it!), while Moorehead promptly shows Price what she thinks of him by spitting in his face!
Thankfully, for Presle, docking seaman Flynn bears her accuser a grudge himself so, when he runs into the young Howard Vernon (a nervous clerk with the villain's firm) in a tavern, he manages to get wind of how things really went in the murder case and, consequently, turns up at the trial to literally blackmail the judge (Price's uncle no less) in dropping the charges and letting Presle go! Aware of her ambitions, he even buys the afore-mentioned establishment for her. The heroine, then, sees an opportunity to get even with Price when, unbeknownst to him, organizes his bachelor party at her pub and then leads him, tipsy as he is, back home and into his room, making sure another irascible uncle (Victor Francen, demeaning Price in much the same way he had the latter's future co-star Peter Lorre in THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS {1946}, coincidentally another Bunuel connection!) catches them in flagrante delicto! Once again, the situation escalates and Price strangles Francen to death (it is interesting how the mechanics of murder have been reversed from the previous crime) and, with Presle's complicity, buries the old man – the two, however, attempt to double-cross one another as, while she throws in his jacket in order to direct the finger of guilt towards him, he does the same with a watch in her possession but which had actually borne an inscription tracing it to the oblivious Flynn!
Jailed but eventually liberated by Moorehead's rallying of his shipmates, he discovers that Presle had wed Price in a marriage of convenience (by giving her what she wanted all along, he can rest assured she will not give him away) but, of course, she secretly pines for the hero. In any case, the actionful and fiery finale has a lynch-mob (led by Reggie Nalder who, like the afore-mentioned Vernon, is here several years away from acquiring a cult reputation in horror films!) attack first the prison and then the docks in an attempt to hasten Flynn's sentence – he finally gets the goods on Price but Presle herself perishes (with the closing shot depicting him carrying her lifeless body through the foggy streets, accompanied by a superimposed snippet from a previous scene wherein he asserts his undying love for her despite their obvious incompatibility). In the long run, the film – running a generous 100 minutes – is stylish and compelling (despite the production compromises and an unfamiliar 'official' director), not to mention a reasonably successful 'oddity' within the action/romantic star's canon that is entirely undeserving of Leonard Maltin's *1/2 rating.
The leading lady is a Creole girl serving (and mistreated by) an aristocratic family but still managing to attract the attention of lecherous prospective in-law Vincent Price. She swears revenge – with the help of batty sidekick Agnes Moorehead – and, in fact, the minute her masters are out of the house, the latter installs a load of beggars in their house (who would have thought that Flynn actually anticipated the most celebrated set-piece in Luis Bunuel's VIRIDIANA by 10 years?!). Anyway, Price's craving for the girl is too great to stay away for too long and, when he turns up unexpectedly, tragedy ensues – with Presle curtailing a drunken stable-boy's sinister intentions with repeated blows to the head courtesy of Price's walking-cane! The latter, however, proves typically diabolical and unceremoniously hands the heroine over to the Police (especially since her own mother had been convicted of a crime and was subsequently hanged for it!), while Moorehead promptly shows Price what she thinks of him by spitting in his face!
Thankfully, for Presle, docking seaman Flynn bears her accuser a grudge himself so, when he runs into the young Howard Vernon (a nervous clerk with the villain's firm) in a tavern, he manages to get wind of how things really went in the murder case and, consequently, turns up at the trial to literally blackmail the judge (Price's uncle no less) in dropping the charges and letting Presle go! Aware of her ambitions, he even buys the afore-mentioned establishment for her. The heroine, then, sees an opportunity to get even with Price when, unbeknownst to him, organizes his bachelor party at her pub and then leads him, tipsy as he is, back home and into his room, making sure another irascible uncle (Victor Francen, demeaning Price in much the same way he had the latter's future co-star Peter Lorre in THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS {1946}, coincidentally another Bunuel connection!) catches them in flagrante delicto! Once again, the situation escalates and Price strangles Francen to death (it is interesting how the mechanics of murder have been reversed from the previous crime) and, with Presle's complicity, buries the old man – the two, however, attempt to double-cross one another as, while she throws in his jacket in order to direct the finger of guilt towards him, he does the same with a watch in her possession but which had actually borne an inscription tracing it to the oblivious Flynn!
Jailed but eventually liberated by Moorehead's rallying of his shipmates, he discovers that Presle had wed Price in a marriage of convenience (by giving her what she wanted all along, he can rest assured she will not give him away) but, of course, she secretly pines for the hero. In any case, the actionful and fiery finale has a lynch-mob (led by Reggie Nalder who, like the afore-mentioned Vernon, is here several years away from acquiring a cult reputation in horror films!) attack first the prison and then the docks in an attempt to hasten Flynn's sentence – he finally gets the goods on Price but Presle herself perishes (with the closing shot depicting him carrying her lifeless body through the foggy streets, accompanied by a superimposed snippet from a previous scene wherein he asserts his undying love for her despite their obvious incompatibility). In the long run, the film – running a generous 100 minutes – is stylish and compelling (despite the production compromises and an unfamiliar 'official' director), not to mention a reasonably successful 'oddity' within the action/romantic star's canon that is entirely undeserving of Leonard Maltin's *1/2 rating.