Director: LEW LANDERS. Original screenplay: Robert E. Kent. Photographed in Technicolor by Vincent Farrar. Film editor: Henry Batiste. Art director: Paul Palmentola. Set decorator: Sidney Clifford. Music director: Mischa Bakaleinikoff. Technicolor color consultant: Francis Cugat. Unit manager: Herbert Leonard. RCA Sound System. Producer: Sam Katzman.Songs: "A Pirate from Kentucky" (Oakie); "I Wish I Were Single Again" (guard); "Annie Laurie" (orchestral).Copyright 1 October 1950 by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Palace: 14 December 1950. U.S. release: October 1950. U.K. release: 5 February 1951. Australian release: 26 October 1951. 79 minutes. U.K. length: 7,081 feet.SYNOPSIS: New Orleans, 1812. Pirate Jean Lafitte attacks Spanish ships from a stronghold on the island of Galveston.COMMENT: John Dehner (straight man): "Someone tell me you play ziss piano by ear." Jack Oakie (comic sidekick): "Yeah." John Dehner: "How can you get boss ears on zee piano at zee same time?"A tedious amalgam of patriotic jingo ("Oh, say can you see ... We'll see to it that Spain is defeated.") and Boys' Own juvenilia. Henreid makes a glumly uninteresting hero, while Oakie swaggers around like a wet pillow. However, the picture does have a certain perverse B-picture charm for those of us nostalgic for the Saturday matinee. Whatever else, there's plenty of valiant attempts at action, what with Indians attacking on the studio stage, lots of fights and special effects explosions. The producer has done marvels on an obviously limited budget.And it must be admitted that our thespic interest perks up considerably when the effervescent Mary Anderson comes on as the acrobatic Swallow. Hard to recognize the same girl who played the deranged survivor in Lifeboat and the equally possessive foster mother in To Each His Own! But it's Mary all right, looking most attractive in Technicolor, dazzling us with her energy and using her husky voice to invest even the most clichéd and humdrum of her lines with such a convincing veneer of histrionic gold as to easily outshine the rest of the cast: John Dehner stumbling over a drongo accent, Eugene Borden blustering with eye-rolling ham as a put-upon captain, Pierre Watkin trilling his lines measuredly as a penny-ante governor, Edgar Barrier as the blandest of cut-price villains ("A man who sells guns to Indians!"), and Karin Booth as the doll-like pretty but dull-like heroine. Among this assembly, Miss Anderson glows like a cough-drop in a bag of licorice. Single-handed, she makes The Last of the Buccaneers worth seeing.Landers has directed with pace but little style. Still, there's more than enough action to compensate for the ploddingly pedestrian stretches of dialogue. And by B-picture budgets even the most pneumatic proceedings are colorfully mounted and set.

"Last of the Buccaneers" concerns Jean Lafitte (1776-1823), a French pirate and privateer who is best known for having fought in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. The film begins after the Battle of New Orleans.Austrian born Paul Henreid (1905-92) plays Lafitte, but he's no Burt Lancaster or Errol Flynn. Henreid was well past his prime (e.g., Victor Laszlo from "Casablanca" or Jerry Durrance from "Now Voyager"), and it shows. Shortly after this film Henried was a victim of the communist scare and was blacklisted as an actor, turning his attentions to directing and work on stage.Jack Oakie and John Dehner plays pirate sidekicks, and this may be the worst acting for either of them. Oakie is just plain out of his element and Dehner's accent is downright embarrassing.The special effects are cheesy and the fighting scenes look like a high school play.IMO the best pirate films are - Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) with Charles Laughton and Clark Gable, The Sea Hawk (1940) and Captain Blood (1935) with Errol Flynn, Treasure Island (1934) Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper, Peter Pan (1953) Disney's animated version, The Crimson Pirate (1952) with Burt Lancaster, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), The Black Swan (1942) with Tyronne Power and Maureen O'Hara, and Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kid (1952) with Charles Laughton as Captain Kidd.

Starting with THE Spanish MAIN (RKO/1945) and continuing too the mid 1950s Paul Henried made a series of discount SwashBucklers. LAST OF THE BUCCANEERS is his effort for 1950 from Columbia. Henried plays JEAN LAFITTE a Pirate whose main claim to fame was his participation in the 'Battle of New Orleans' during the 'War of 1812'. This movie purports to show his adventures after that event.The print of the film is in first class shape and filmed in brilliant TechniColor, this is its sole saving asset. By 1950 the days of glory for Henried (and Bette Davis) at Warner Brothers were long gone. Now middle aged he (and her) were no longer suited for those classic romances, made obsolete post WWII. Henried's accent though was useful and it slated him for these action epics. As long as they were 'B' films with a budget that reflected the same and made money he had a job. Another curious casting was in comedic song and dance man Jack Oakie, like Henried now obsolete, though we could never understand his appeal anyway. Today he is best remembered for playing 'Benzini Napaloni' in THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940). His favorite role for us was when Lloyd Nolan made him eat lead in THE Texas RANGERS (1936) a fate he truly deserved.LAST OF THE BUCCANEERS is one of those films that if you are channel surfing and nothing else appeals to you is worth a look since it runs only 79 minutes. For real action on the high seas you are better off with Errol Flynn, THE SEA HAWK (1940) or Tyrone Power, THE BLACK SWAN (1942). For JEAN LAFITTE best to tune into THE BUCCANEER (1958). Yul Brynner does a commendable job and it features 'The Battle of New Orleans'.

I've always been a sucker for a swashbuckler, and this is one of many standard Saturday Matinée films made to babysit the kiddies while the parents took part of the day off. Paul Henreid was a very fine actor but he always seemed lost in these type of films. Actors like Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Cornell Wilde, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and even Louis Hayward were much better at this swashbuckling business. Having said that, this is still an entertaining film about the pirate Jean Lafitte and his assistance to Andrew Jackson and the Americans. Once again the swashbuckling hero is pursued by two women who are competing for Henreid's affections ... Belle Summer (Karen Booth), a look alike Dortothy Malone, and a lady pirate named Swallow (Mary Anderson). Obviously, one of them always seems to win while the other one dies. During the plot of the film LaFitte is believed to have sunk an American Ship by another pirate...and he is left to his own devices to either vindicate himself or escape. Once again I was surprised to see some familiar old Western movie sets (possibly Iverson Ranch or Corriganville). I couldn't help but notice in one scene that an old Hollywood trick was employed i.e. a close up of some riders on fake horses with a moving film background behind them. Back in the old days that trick worked...now more sophisticated audiences will pick up on it. Another problem I had with the film was the costumes that the American soldiers were wearing....they looked more like Santa Anna's boys attacking the Alamo. Last but not least was Jack Oakie as much of a non pirate guy as could be singing a song about a pirate from of all places Kentucky. Believe me...I live in Kentucky...and we just don't have any pirates. Go figure. Still I liked this little Columbia gem because of it's color and it's theme, and the fact that it was what it was, a pirate movie. My take on this film is that it would be a good movie for kids that haven't been spoiled by much better films like "The Pirates of the Caribbean", in other words, accept it for what it is.... a "B" Saturday Matinnee swashbuckler.