Contro tutte le bandiere

In his one and only film done for Universal Studios Errol Flynn plays a king's spy, an officer in the British navy sent to infiltrate the pirate lair on Madagascar and put their harbor guns out of commission. The head pirate Anthony Quinn doesn't trust him as far as he can throw a yardarm. But he does interest lady pirate Maureen O'Hara who is letting her hormones get control of her judgment.

This was probably a script that was meant for Jeff Chandler and possibly Rock Hudson or Tony Curtis, but they were all probably occupied so Flynn got the nod, loaned out from Warner Brothers by Jack Warner.

The story of Against All Flags has Flynn and two other crewman pretending to be deserters from a merchant ship and eager to join Quinn and fight as he put it Against All Flags, save the Jolly Roger. On one of the pirate raids the daughter of the Mogul of India played by Alice Kelley and her Scottish nursemaid Mildred Natwick. Only Flynn realizes who she is and that knowledge adds to his mission as he tries to keep her from harm's way. Kelley is a bit of a dim bulb and her failure to forget she's a princess puts the whole enterprise in danger.

No one will ever mistake this pirate film for Flynn's screen triumphs in Captain Blood or my favorite Errol Flynn film, The Sea Hawk. No great production values went into this film, you can really recognize the phoniness of the sets to easily.

As this was done tongue in cheek it gave the players a chance to indulge in a bit scenery chewing. Especially Anthony Quinn who digests a whole dining room set. Flynn gets by on his usual charm and O'Hara looks like a dominatrix in those skin tight thigh high boots she had to wear.

Still Against All Flags is entertaining and the fans of the principal players will enjoy it.