The film may seem uneven and confusing to the first-time viewer, "moving from inappropriate comedy to tragedy to whatever is in between", as Mr.Chabot puts it, but contrary to that reviewer's opinion I think that having adapted Richard Hughes' novel (which itself is a superb achievement, something special in the world literature canon) Mackendrick succeeded in preserving at least some of its key qualities and creating a highly satisfactory piece of cinematic life. The story is funny when funny things happen in it, and it's tragic when it comes to tragedy. What's in between is both psychologically compelling/interesting and cinematographically attractive. As for me, with every new viewing I like the film a bit more : a light, colourful adventure pic with strongly subversive undertones echoing Freud, Piaget, Frazer etc., climaxing in an unforgettable ending where even the otherwise tasteless song has its appropriate place. Well-known British writer Martin Amis in the role of little John.Compared to British edition (Eureka) the German one(Carol Media - a Fox port?)with both English and German subtitles has a brighter image, more into red (Eureka is rather greenish), slightly cut on both sides (and minutely horizontally stretched ?).

I saw this movie as a child and it had made such an impact on me that I never forgot it, or the haunting theme song. I'd long since forgotten the title, so I was utterly thrilled when I happened to turn the AMC channel on and they were playing it - 30+ years after it was in theaters! It wasn't until after the two main actors passed away that this movie was FINALLY released to the public - around 40 years AFTER it was made. I do not know if it was due to some rights conflict, or that maybe they didn't want it released due to the original story that dealt with a very 'inappropriate relationship' between the child-character Emily, and the Captain. This relationship is displayed far more subtly in the movie, most likely to make it a bit more family-friendly, however, the book was far from being a family-friendly novel. The book and movie are thankfully and EXTREMELY different in demeanor and focus. The author's focus appeared to be more with a notion of an innate evil within children, where he presents them as being cunning, manipulative, knowledge-filled, demon-like creatures, rather then innocent-minded youths. A couple of examples of the differences in demeanor between the book and the movie; In the book, it is the Captains right-hand man, Zac, who takes the eldest dark-haired girl by brutal force and keeps her as his - uh - female. When she becomes a lifeless, emotionless shell, he simply throws her overboard into the sea. In the movie, it is the girl who takes notice to a crew member and no one is taken by force or repeatedly raped or thrown to the sharks. At the end of the movie, Emily is confused by what occurred on board with the battle they were involved with, where the other ships Captain was murdered in Captain Chavez's quarters, where Emily was. She very innocently, grievously, and mistakenly says something that sends her beloved Captain, and his crew, to the gallows. In the book, she did it on purpose with malicious intent. It's like two completely different stories.I would much rather watch this wonderful and exciting movie, then to ever again read the dark novel that this came from. The acting is completely superb, even among the children. I have watched it several times and I will again.

Superb adaptation of Richard Hughes' novel about a group of British children being sent home to England from Jamaica, and inadvertently ending up as uninvited guests aboard a pirate ship. Set in the period of about 1880, much humor arises from the proper Victorian English children's fascination with their reluctant babysitters. The crew of scalawags is made up of various Latin American and African men, with most of their conversation in untranslated Spanish. The irony of the unexpected situation is due to two factors: the kids' parents had sent them home because their mother was appalled at the way they were growing up wild and uncivilized, absorbing the voodoo superstitions and folk tales of the islanders, instead of being raised as proper English children. The other factor was that the inept pirates had not realized that the children had snuck on board the pirate ship, seeing it as a great adventure, and the buccaneers had sailed away, with no idea that the kids were shut in the ship's hold, having totally forgotten about them.Anthony Quinn is marvelous in a great comic role, as the unwilling father figure to the curious and innocent bunch of kids he's been stuck with. The sight of Quinn chasing some young English children around the ship, hollering " Hey, give me back my hat!", while his crew laughs uproariously, is truly funny. James Coburn is the voice of reason as a sly ,articulate pirate, who stands between the bumbling captain and his restless crew. The presence of the children on the ship becomes more and more problematic, as they inadvertently cause all kinds of problems just by being around, and the men begin to see them as bad luck.SPOILERS AHEAD: A little girl puts a man's coat on backwards, and covers her face with her hair, and stalks toward the terrified sailors, declaring in a spooky voice that she's a Duppy, an evil spirit with its head on backwards. The grown men look scared, and try to hide from this small child, who is fully aware of what she's doing, until Quinn orders her to stop fooling around, because it's bad luck for the ship. An already complicated situation turns deadly ,when the pirates think they will be able to finally safely rid themselves of the kids, by leaving them with a friendly brothel madam in Tampico. One of the older boys sneaks ashore,and is enjoying the sight of rowdy behavior in the street from the vantage point of a high window, but he suddenly falls, and is killed. The tragic situation is made worse by the news that English patrol vessels are looking for them, because it is mistakenly believed that they murdered the children, after the kids didn't return to their outward bound ship, and the English captain and crew assumed the worst.No more of the plot will be revealed here, except to say that an unpredictable series of events causes disaster for all involved. The very ending is one of the most poignant scenes I've ever seen in any film.Direction, acting, shipboard scenes, period detail, script,cinematography ,are all excellent. The children are totally believable, with a standout performance by Deborah Baxter as Emily. This is a wonderful film that should be watched over and over again. Heartbreak and hilarity have seldom been better matched.

As many times before, the IMDb has proven to be such a valuable resource. Like others who have written their comments here, I also saw this movie as a child and could never forget it. Besides, I fell completely in love with the little girl's character and somehow retained the actress's name in my memory for over 20 years: Deborah Baxter. In fact, that is how I found the movie again, because I had completely forgotten its title. The only other actor I remembered for sure was Anthony Quinn, so I began looking at the casts of all of his films whose title suggested pirates or ocean, until I arrived here and --to my own astonishment-- discovered that my memory had not failed me: the girl's name actually is Deborah Baxter! It seems that she only ever acted in two movies; what became of her? Anyway, I am happy to announce here that the movie has finally been released on DVD. I'm definitely buying it.