Barbary Pirate (film)

Barbary Pirate is a 1949 American adventure film directed by Lew Landers and starring Donald Woods and Trudy Marshall.

Barbary Pirate
Film poster
Directed by	Lew Landers
Written by	Robert Libott Frank Burt
Produced by	Sam Katzman
Starring	Trudy Marshall Donald Woods
Cinematography	Ira H. Morgan
Edited by	James Sweeney
Production company	Sam Katzman Productions
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	November 10, 1949 (1949-11-10)
Running time	65 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

Major Tom Blake of the United States Army is assigned by the first United States Secretary of State - Thomas Jefferson to go undercover and discover who has been attacking American merchant ships after the American Revolutionary War has come to an end. Blake, calling himself "Brighton," boards a vessel and alienates two patriotic passengers, Anne Ridgeway and her brother Sam, who believe he possesses disloyal pro-British sentiments.

Men who serve Yusof, the Bey of Tripoli, of the Barbary states in North Africa are behind the raids at sea. Blake ingratiates himself by saving the Bey from an assassin's attack, then locates the knife thrower, Zoltah, and confides his true identity to her. To his surprise, Anne is taken captive by the Bey and offered to him as a personal servant, a reward for his heroism. Blake privately reassures Anne he will not take advantage of the situation.

Jefferson is later elected third President of the United States in 1800 and sends a second agent, Tobias Sharpe, to the scene, unaware that Sharpe is a traitor. Blake is captured and sentenced to death, but escapes in time to take part in a battle that eliminates the threat to America, winning the admiration and affection of Anne.

Cast

• Donald Woods as Major Blake
• Trudy Marshall as Anne Ridgeway
• Lenore Aubert as Zoltah
• Ross Ford as Sam
• Stefan Schnabel as Yusof, the Bey
• John Dehner as Murad Reis
• Matthew Boulton as Sharpe

Production

Writers Jack Pollexen and Aubrey Wisenberg later sued Katzman for $100,000 on the grounds of plagiarism, saying the film was based on a script they had submitted to him in 1948 called Pirate and the Slave Girl.

See also

• Slave Girl (1947)
• Tripoli (1950)

External links

• Barbary Pirate at IMDb
• Barbary Pirate at TCMDB
• Review of film at Variety