ANNE OF THE INDIES
Posted: September 21st, 2009, 6:18 am
"We put our hands to a bargain. To make my hand good, I've been spread eagle, flogged. I've called red-handed cut-throats, my friends. I've stood by and watched murders and worst...and that's not all. With daily and nightly prospects of the plank at my back, I crawled; made myself agreeable in all ways to the vilest harshest she monster that ever came out of the sea!
And I think all the oceans never wash me clean again!"
”ANNE OF THE INDIES” (1951) Jean Peters, Louis Jordan, Thomas Gomez, Herbert Marshall DIRECTOR: Jacques Tourneur
I saw a movie I’ve been waiting to see for about thirty years. Now, there have been pirate movies in the recent past “Cutthroat Island” (1995) “Cabin Boy” (1994) and my personal favorite “Swashbuckler” (1976) which I saw four times at Radio City Music Hall. And of course, there’s Johnny Depp cornering the pirate market in his trilogy as Jack Sparrow. But an old college film classmate told me long ago of a female pirate movie called ”ANNE OF THE INDIES.” He told me this before DVDs, before VCRs, before cable tv. And I’ve been waiting ever since. http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi1525547545/
Like Kate Mulgrew in “Star Trek: Voyager” or Dame Judi Dench as 007’s ‘M’ -- the beautiful JEAN PETERS plays a woman at the helm. I’ve seen a couple of Jean Peters’ movies in succession recently: “Pick Up On South Street” “Niagara” and just introduced “A Blueprint for Murder” to my friends during my trip to Worcester, MA. We enjoyed the film becuz it kept us guessing. I know very little about Jean Peters other than ‘that man’ she married, so she’s a bit of a mystery to me: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0676492/
She wasn’t one of the those top 50’s femmes but I liked her. She’s different in each film I’ve seen her in. In ”Captain from Castile” she’s wild. In ”Pick-up...” she’s sullen. In ”Niagara” she’s playful; she’s a 50’s wife on a belated honeymoon. She plays down her dark fiery looks but then again in the face of Marilyn and that red dress... In ”Blueprint...” she is reserved, restrained in control (like a brunette Martha Hyer). In “Anne of the Indies” Jean is a little bit of everything...sexy, vulnerable, sullen and reserved. She even looks like a cross between Elizabeth Taylor and Mercedes McCambridge. I’m trying to think of other actresses of the time who could have gotten into this feminine tomboy role other than Maureen O’Hara.
I’m coming up blank. And no, I don't want to see Debbie Reynolds with a sword.
I hope Peters had fun making this movie ‘cuz she’s so danged serious most of the time. But I guess supervising a bunch of scurvy sea-faring sea scum is a serious job. And she had the chance to work with the great Jacques Tourneur of “Cat People” “I Walked With a Zombie” and “Out of the Past” fame. As Captain Anne Providence she’s no panty waist. When the movie opens she’s being tended by the ship’s doctor (HERBERT MARSHALL) for a wound. She doesn’t cry. Her education is spotty at best; she can read maps but not words. And she’s a bit defensive about it. (She needn’t have been. Education for women was not a top priority back then. But she did get to travel). She has closed off her emotions. But the capture of the handsome and dashing suspected spy played by LOUIS JOURDAN awakens a whole slew of feeling I don’t think Peters’ pirate bargained for.
Before Belmondo, Depardieu, Trintignant and (<whew>) Alain Delon, there was Louis Jourdan. (Yeah yeah, I know: Chevalier and Boyer but really...) He does well in this role as Captain Pierre Francois LaRochelle. Not every actor can seem believable in a puffy shirt and spouting pirate dialogue. He’s sincere in his lovemaking and sincere in his anger. Maybe it’s his continental accent. Jourdan appeared in “The Paradine Case” “Madame Bovary” and “Gigi” and let me tell you, in “Anne of the Indies” he is drop dead gorgeous in this film. No wonder Peters’ loses her heart. So of course, she has him whipped within an inch of his life. Then she tends to his wounds after. (You know, the old "I love you/I hate you: which means I LOVE you"). Peters is attracted to him and uses him for information AND to find out how Frenchmen make love. My impression is that she’s probably been dealing with some pretty rough trade in her travels on the high seas, and wants a taste of tenderness and being treated like a lady. Jealousy peaks out its little head when she sees a dress he has gotten for a lady. But he then gives the dress to her.
Admittedly Jean Peters is no Maureen O’Hara in the swordsplay department. (Who was? Boys got to have ALL the fun). No panache...not a lot of finesse either with the sword...but no matter. It’s Jean Peters and he looks good doing what she does. She mixes it up with the head pirate of pirates: Blackbeard. Blackbeard is played with gusto and zeal by the great THOMAS GOMEZ. Gomez’s Blackbeard mentored her - taught her everything he knows about the pirate business. She beats him in a duel (that I suspect he ”let” her win) and their good-natured fun turns serious when Blackbeard strikes Jourdan. In defense of Jourdan, Peters strikes Blackbeard...in front of all the pirates. Nah, not a good move.
”You’re Captain because I made you Captain. I was a fool to think a wench could be other than a wench. What I made I can blast!!”
Now they are enemies.
Plot direction shifts quickly in “Anne of the Indies” and I like that. There’s more betrayal to go around when Jourdan is revealed to have made a bargain with the Devil (the British) which leads him to become an enemy of Captain Anne. Jourdan does a good job; he’s handsome and masculine and fits in with the time period. He looks good in the puffy shirt too. He’s convincing as a paramour of Captain Anne...so it stands to reason that Peters has a good reason to be a woman scorned when the lovely Debra Paget arrives on the scene and is introduced in the film. It sends Peters over the edge.
The fifties belonged to a few stars: Elvis, Debbie, Kim and of course, Marilyn. But one that’s not talked of too much but was definitely one of the princesses of the time was DEBRA PAGET. (”The Ten Commandments” “ Love Me Tender” “Demetrius and the Gladiator” “Broken Arrow” “Prince Valiant” and her start in 1948’s ”Cry of the City.”) I walked into my favorite City Hall pen shop and talked to my salesman/friend. He, too, is a movie buff. When I mention Debra Paget, his face lights up and he smiles: "Awww Debra Paget.” That’s probably the standard male reaction for her. It seems like Paget was the sweet young thing in EVERYthing in the fifties. Just the sort of girl men want to marry. Paget and Peters are two opposite ideals in “Anne of the Indies.”
One is your typical fifties wife: soft, compliant, soft-voiced, not too many serious thoughts in her head other than how to please a man; the other is strong, independent, edgy...speaks her mind, travels to exotic locales and is in charge (though being in control and being in charge are two different things). Seeing Peters in the role of Captain Queen doesn’t seem odd to me. I was a teenager during the bra-burning, Women’s Libber, Gloria Steinham, Ms. Generation. But really, should she look too strange to 1951 audiences if they were used to the strong women of the forties like Stanwyck and Davis and Crawford and Hepburn? She didn’t really look strange to me but I have to admit, Peters’ Otherness is definitely accentuated next to Paget.
These two have a nice face-off that is worthy of Crawford & Blythe and Davis and Hopkins. There was a bit of tension between the two that my own 21st century imagination allowed a bit of departure to what Tourneur put on the screen...but back to the movie at hand. Paget doesn’t cower and back down in the face of Peters. She’s no wallflower. And the two women have a wonderfully spirited exchange:
PETERS: So you’re his notion of a mate for life.”
PAGET: If you intend to cut my throat, cut it now and be done with...
PETERS: Cut your throat? What do you take me for?
PAGET: A disgrace to our sex.
PETERS: His words?
PAGET: No, mine. He spoke no ill of you. He pitied you.
PETERS: PITY? He dared to pity me, the treacherous scum!
PAGET: Before you blackguard him, I ask you to remember he is my husband.
PETERS: The best you could get for yourself?
PAGET: You couldn’t get him.
SLAP!!!!
PETERS: And you’ll never have him again.
It’s here where Peters reveals her plan to pimp out Paget; she’ll get a pretty penny for this princess from each and every man in all the Carribbean. I have to tell you, when I heard Peters go there I howled becuz I didn’t expect it. I thought it was a perfect bold move worthy of any pirate captain but moreso as a woman scorned. Paget could only ask: ”Were you born in the gutter or did you choose it?!”
Peters may have the power but down deep (or not so deep) she’s hurt by the man she trusted (which sometimes happens to us girls especially if he's French) the dashing Frenchman who made unkept promises. I was kind of stunned when Paget was actually taken to the slave market and put on the block!! Whoa! Peters plays the role perfectly showing pride, bravado, hurt, defensiveness and wearing pirate togs very well. When I saw Jourdan come on the scene I wondered...how long will it be before Peters gets into a dress. (When she does...it serves to remind us of her beauty).
Peters holds all the cards at the point when she and Jourdan meet again. He asks for her to spare Paget’s life. Uh-unh.
”Why should I spare her? Why shouldn’t I give myself the pleasure watching your face while I...I let the men of my company throw dice for her.”
And when Jourdan think he’s insulting her, Peters’ retort is a zinger:
JOURDAN: ”You like to play the man, then act one.”
PETERS: ”But I’m a woman as you’re so fond of reminding me. You should have thought of that when you betrayed me. Now I’m making sure that your last thoughts will be of me.”
Oh there’s more to the story but I’ll let it unfold for you; I haven’t given it all away. And my words can’t do enough justice to you actually seeing this rousing adventure. Check out the link at HULU. And if you dare...this link will show you some screencaps captured by a poster at TCM City: http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.j ... 1�
As I said, she’s no Maureen O’Hara, but you know what...Jean Peters doesn’t have to be. Being Jean Peters was alllllright, me hearty!
And I think all the oceans never wash me clean again!"
”ANNE OF THE INDIES” (1951) Jean Peters, Louis Jordan, Thomas Gomez, Herbert Marshall DIRECTOR: Jacques Tourneur
I saw a movie I’ve been waiting to see for about thirty years. Now, there have been pirate movies in the recent past “Cutthroat Island” (1995) “Cabin Boy” (1994) and my personal favorite “Swashbuckler” (1976) which I saw four times at Radio City Music Hall. And of course, there’s Johnny Depp cornering the pirate market in his trilogy as Jack Sparrow. But an old college film classmate told me long ago of a female pirate movie called ”ANNE OF THE INDIES.” He told me this before DVDs, before VCRs, before cable tv. And I’ve been waiting ever since. http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi1525547545/
Like Kate Mulgrew in “Star Trek: Voyager” or Dame Judi Dench as 007’s ‘M’ -- the beautiful JEAN PETERS plays a woman at the helm. I’ve seen a couple of Jean Peters’ movies in succession recently: “Pick Up On South Street” “Niagara” and just introduced “A Blueprint for Murder” to my friends during my trip to Worcester, MA. We enjoyed the film becuz it kept us guessing. I know very little about Jean Peters other than ‘that man’ she married, so she’s a bit of a mystery to me: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0676492/
She wasn’t one of the those top 50’s femmes but I liked her. She’s different in each film I’ve seen her in. In ”Captain from Castile” she’s wild. In ”Pick-up...” she’s sullen. In ”Niagara” she’s playful; she’s a 50’s wife on a belated honeymoon. She plays down her dark fiery looks but then again in the face of Marilyn and that red dress... In ”Blueprint...” she is reserved, restrained in control (like a brunette Martha Hyer). In “Anne of the Indies” Jean is a little bit of everything...sexy, vulnerable, sullen and reserved. She even looks like a cross between Elizabeth Taylor and Mercedes McCambridge. I’m trying to think of other actresses of the time who could have gotten into this feminine tomboy role other than Maureen O’Hara.
I’m coming up blank. And no, I don't want to see Debbie Reynolds with a sword.
I hope Peters had fun making this movie ‘cuz she’s so danged serious most of the time. But I guess supervising a bunch of scurvy sea-faring sea scum is a serious job. And she had the chance to work with the great Jacques Tourneur of “Cat People” “I Walked With a Zombie” and “Out of the Past” fame. As Captain Anne Providence she’s no panty waist. When the movie opens she’s being tended by the ship’s doctor (HERBERT MARSHALL) for a wound. She doesn’t cry. Her education is spotty at best; she can read maps but not words. And she’s a bit defensive about it. (She needn’t have been. Education for women was not a top priority back then. But she did get to travel). She has closed off her emotions. But the capture of the handsome and dashing suspected spy played by LOUIS JOURDAN awakens a whole slew of feeling I don’t think Peters’ pirate bargained for.
Before Belmondo, Depardieu, Trintignant and (<whew>) Alain Delon, there was Louis Jourdan. (Yeah yeah, I know: Chevalier and Boyer but really...) He does well in this role as Captain Pierre Francois LaRochelle. Not every actor can seem believable in a puffy shirt and spouting pirate dialogue. He’s sincere in his lovemaking and sincere in his anger. Maybe it’s his continental accent. Jourdan appeared in “The Paradine Case” “Madame Bovary” and “Gigi” and let me tell you, in “Anne of the Indies” he is drop dead gorgeous in this film. No wonder Peters’ loses her heart. So of course, she has him whipped within an inch of his life. Then she tends to his wounds after. (You know, the old "I love you/I hate you: which means I LOVE you"). Peters is attracted to him and uses him for information AND to find out how Frenchmen make love. My impression is that she’s probably been dealing with some pretty rough trade in her travels on the high seas, and wants a taste of tenderness and being treated like a lady. Jealousy peaks out its little head when she sees a dress he has gotten for a lady. But he then gives the dress to her.
Admittedly Jean Peters is no Maureen O’Hara in the swordsplay department. (Who was? Boys got to have ALL the fun). No panache...not a lot of finesse either with the sword...but no matter. It’s Jean Peters and he looks good doing what she does. She mixes it up with the head pirate of pirates: Blackbeard. Blackbeard is played with gusto and zeal by the great THOMAS GOMEZ. Gomez’s Blackbeard mentored her - taught her everything he knows about the pirate business. She beats him in a duel (that I suspect he ”let” her win) and their good-natured fun turns serious when Blackbeard strikes Jourdan. In defense of Jourdan, Peters strikes Blackbeard...in front of all the pirates. Nah, not a good move.
”You’re Captain because I made you Captain. I was a fool to think a wench could be other than a wench. What I made I can blast!!”
Now they are enemies.
Plot direction shifts quickly in “Anne of the Indies” and I like that. There’s more betrayal to go around when Jourdan is revealed to have made a bargain with the Devil (the British) which leads him to become an enemy of Captain Anne. Jourdan does a good job; he’s handsome and masculine and fits in with the time period. He looks good in the puffy shirt too. He’s convincing as a paramour of Captain Anne...so it stands to reason that Peters has a good reason to be a woman scorned when the lovely Debra Paget arrives on the scene and is introduced in the film. It sends Peters over the edge.
The fifties belonged to a few stars: Elvis, Debbie, Kim and of course, Marilyn. But one that’s not talked of too much but was definitely one of the princesses of the time was DEBRA PAGET. (”The Ten Commandments” “ Love Me Tender” “Demetrius and the Gladiator” “Broken Arrow” “Prince Valiant” and her start in 1948’s ”Cry of the City.”) I walked into my favorite City Hall pen shop and talked to my salesman/friend. He, too, is a movie buff. When I mention Debra Paget, his face lights up and he smiles: "Awww Debra Paget.” That’s probably the standard male reaction for her. It seems like Paget was the sweet young thing in EVERYthing in the fifties. Just the sort of girl men want to marry. Paget and Peters are two opposite ideals in “Anne of the Indies.”
One is your typical fifties wife: soft, compliant, soft-voiced, not too many serious thoughts in her head other than how to please a man; the other is strong, independent, edgy...speaks her mind, travels to exotic locales and is in charge (though being in control and being in charge are two different things). Seeing Peters in the role of Captain Queen doesn’t seem odd to me. I was a teenager during the bra-burning, Women’s Libber, Gloria Steinham, Ms. Generation. But really, should she look too strange to 1951 audiences if they were used to the strong women of the forties like Stanwyck and Davis and Crawford and Hepburn? She didn’t really look strange to me but I have to admit, Peters’ Otherness is definitely accentuated next to Paget.
These two have a nice face-off that is worthy of Crawford & Blythe and Davis and Hopkins. There was a bit of tension between the two that my own 21st century imagination allowed a bit of departure to what Tourneur put on the screen...but back to the movie at hand. Paget doesn’t cower and back down in the face of Peters. She’s no wallflower. And the two women have a wonderfully spirited exchange:
PETERS: So you’re his notion of a mate for life.”
PAGET: If you intend to cut my throat, cut it now and be done with...
PETERS: Cut your throat? What do you take me for?
PAGET: A disgrace to our sex.
PETERS: His words?
PAGET: No, mine. He spoke no ill of you. He pitied you.
PETERS: PITY? He dared to pity me, the treacherous scum!
PAGET: Before you blackguard him, I ask you to remember he is my husband.
PETERS: The best you could get for yourself?
PAGET: You couldn’t get him.
SLAP!!!!
PETERS: And you’ll never have him again.
It’s here where Peters reveals her plan to pimp out Paget; she’ll get a pretty penny for this princess from each and every man in all the Carribbean. I have to tell you, when I heard Peters go there I howled becuz I didn’t expect it. I thought it was a perfect bold move worthy of any pirate captain but moreso as a woman scorned. Paget could only ask: ”Were you born in the gutter or did you choose it?!”
Peters may have the power but down deep (or not so deep) she’s hurt by the man she trusted (which sometimes happens to us girls especially if he's French) the dashing Frenchman who made unkept promises. I was kind of stunned when Paget was actually taken to the slave market and put on the block!! Whoa! Peters plays the role perfectly showing pride, bravado, hurt, defensiveness and wearing pirate togs very well. When I saw Jourdan come on the scene I wondered...how long will it be before Peters gets into a dress. (When she does...it serves to remind us of her beauty).
Peters holds all the cards at the point when she and Jourdan meet again. He asks for her to spare Paget’s life. Uh-unh.
”Why should I spare her? Why shouldn’t I give myself the pleasure watching your face while I...I let the men of my company throw dice for her.”
And when Jourdan think he’s insulting her, Peters’ retort is a zinger:
JOURDAN: ”You like to play the man, then act one.”
PETERS: ”But I’m a woman as you’re so fond of reminding me. You should have thought of that when you betrayed me. Now I’m making sure that your last thoughts will be of me.”
Oh there’s more to the story but I’ll let it unfold for you; I haven’t given it all away. And my words can’t do enough justice to you actually seeing this rousing adventure. Check out the link at HULU. And if you dare...this link will show you some screencaps captured by a poster at TCM City: http://forums.tcm.com/jive/tcm/thread.j ... 1�
As I said, she’s no Maureen O’Hara, but you know what...Jean Peters doesn’t have to be. Being Jean Peters was alllllright, me hearty!