WHAT A YARN!
1926-12-06
N/A
114 min
An embellished account of the 1803 expedition by famed frigate U.S.S. Constitution--a.k.a. "Old Ironsides"--against the Barbary pirates then terrorizing American shipping, focusing on the crew and passengers of a fictional merchant ship, The Esther, who fall afoul of the same pirates and thus become involved with the Constitution's mission.
There is some grand cinematography in this telling of the early US Navy's attempts to combat the Corsair pirates from North Africa who demanded tribute from all who would sail the seas upon pain of terrible retribution from their well equipped and terrifying fleet should any default. The cast - Wallace Beery, lively as ever, and George Bancroft as his gunner mate, work well together, as do the appearances from the hunky, lovestruck Charles Farrell (rather inappropriately named "The Commodore") and the rather butter-wouldn't melt Esther Ralston ("Esther" - perhaps she had trouble remembering her own name?). To be honest, this isn't a great film, from a narrative perspective, for much of the first half - it really does take a while to get underway. When it does, however, we get some cracking maritime battle scenarios with loads of action, gun battles and technically impressive cinematography that captures some of the genuine jeopardy faced by those sailors from all nations who had to deal with this Tripolitan scourge. From an historical perspective, the fairly embryonic US Navy wasn't quite so successful as this would suggest, but success they had - and the old USS Constitution certainly played her part in arresting these terrors of the Mediterranean and beyond. It's a good watch, this - especially if you like your stories encrusted with salt and a cat 'o nine tails, but maybe the first half hour could have been condensed just a bit better by James Cruze (no puns intended).
