This swashbuckling adventure romp, which I hadn't seen in over thirty years, best confirmed my level of enjoyment for it. Better known as Savage Islands, this less known film, is an Indiana Jones at sea, with Tommy Lee Jones, again in top form, as a notorious pirate, misinterpreted as a bad guy by many. With an old score to settle, once a friend and partner, now a sworn and ruthless enemy (Oz's Max Phipps, a late great Aussie acting import) has Jones locked up where he reflects on his memoirs and his lucrative profitable past, to a biographer and we're taken back in time to a young couple (O Keefe, a reverend, and his lovely bride to be Seagrove) who Jones helped to exact revenge, on Phipps, after wiping out a village and taking his bride to be, but of course reclaims her, only Phipps had survived. There are some beautiful sunny sea island shots, and the film is rich on atmosphere, filmed in he Pacific, where Seagrove is one fine treasure herself, where she also, clearly has the hots for Jones. Jones has never been hotter in a film, actually, the bearded look really suits him. Phipps is fun as the villain, and there's great choreographed action and scenery, in this very overlooked film. O Keefe's performance is too stiff, or some would say comically overdone, as a reverend, though I've never really thought much of him as an actor, except for Split Image, etc. A treasure of a viewing, with the scariest flying fox you'll ever see.
Review of Nate and Hayes
