I'd been wanting to check this one out ever since coming across a poster of it, as a double-bill with MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961), amongst a whole bunch of old newspaper cuttings of local releases from the 1950s and 1960s which my father used to collect and glue in scrapbook form in his teenage years!
It's never been shown on TV in my neck of the woods, so I had to wait until now to watch the film and it didn't disappoint: a familiar but undeniably vivid, indeed vigorous, action-packed adventure with no ounce of fat during its 87-minute length yet containing the expected Hammer touches of nastiness, particularly with its notorious piranha sequences (which is the reason why the river of the title is so named!). Casting is terrific all round: Kerwin Mathews (at his best in such surroundings) is a believable hero; Christopher Lee looks great with an eye-patch and even affects a more-or-less authentic French accent; his pirate entourage, then, includes the likes of Peter Arne, Oliver Reed and Michael Ripper (though his quaint pirate lingo begins to grate after a while); among the locals are Glenn Corbett, FIRST MAN INTO SPACE (1959)'s Marla Landi (as Mathews' sister and over whom Arne and Reed engage in a duel blindfolded!), and Andrew Keir (as the hero's stern father but who ultimately sacrifices himself for the good of the community). Incidentally, considering the piracy theme, one of the oddest aspects about this particular film is that the action takes place entirely on land!
When we first see Lee and company, they 'save' the life of Mathews who's just escaped from a penal colony (to which his own father had sentenced him after being caught red-handed in an adulterous liaison and whose partner ended up food for the killerfish!). They decide to accompany him to his people's settlement fugitive Huguenots who have established themselves in England because Lee believes them to be in possession of a fortune (even if Mathews himself tells the pirates there's no such thing). Soon, the buccaneers take over the village and start to exterminate the citizens (in twos) for the length of time that the location of the treasure isn't divulged!; eventually, Mathews is told it does exist and that, as community leader, his father is the only one who might be aware of the actual 'site' so he pleads with him to give up the gold for the sake of the people but the old man is still cross with his son and refuses! The sly Lee, observing the scene from afar, concludes that the plunder may be hidden behind the statue of the community's founder which he orders his men to pull down, only to reveal nothing; however, Mathews insists and decides to scrape off the paint on the statue, which turns out to be made of solid gold!
After this, the pirates are ready to leave but they take both Mathews and Keir for insurance especially since a small group of townsfolk, led by Corbett, have fled their control and are organizing raids against them and laying booby-traps in their path! Finally, the two bands meet head-on by the river (where the pirates have built a raft to transport both the loot and their own ever diminishing number); incidentally, the buccaneers themselves rise against their leader an opposition led by former lackey Ripper, whom Lee had earlier slighted. In any case, as is typical of such films, the prime members of each group are made to face off so that we get Arne fighting Corbett and Lee dueling with Mathews and, as always, however inexperienced, good triumphs over evil (though, in the meantime, as I said earlier, the burly Keir throws himself into the river to demolish the raft before both he and the pirates on board once more attract the attention of the piranhas).
From what I've read since this film's DVD release as part of Columbia/Hammer's "Icons Of Adventure" set, it seems to be the one getting the least consideration; I beg to differ and find it perhaps the most purely enjoyable of the lot if, for nothing else, due to the stalwart cast but also the sure-fire elements of hidden loot and underwater menace. Finally, it's worth noting that co-writer/director Gilling (here working from a Jimmy Sangster story which he would himself rehash into another Hammer/Lee/Ripper adventure outing, THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES [1964], conveniently also included on the Columbia set and which I actually watched soon after!) made quite a few films in similar vein: THE BANDIT OF ZHOBE (1959) with Victor Mature; FURY AT SMUGGLERS' BAY (1961), a non-Hammer effort with Peter Cushing; and, for the famed horror company, THE SCARLET BLADE (1963) and THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR (1965) both with Oliver Reed. For the record, out of all of these, only the Cushing title is available on DVD and a Region 2 exclusive at that!
It's never been shown on TV in my neck of the woods, so I had to wait until now to watch the film and it didn't disappoint: a familiar but undeniably vivid, indeed vigorous, action-packed adventure with no ounce of fat during its 87-minute length yet containing the expected Hammer touches of nastiness, particularly with its notorious piranha sequences (which is the reason why the river of the title is so named!). Casting is terrific all round: Kerwin Mathews (at his best in such surroundings) is a believable hero; Christopher Lee looks great with an eye-patch and even affects a more-or-less authentic French accent; his pirate entourage, then, includes the likes of Peter Arne, Oliver Reed and Michael Ripper (though his quaint pirate lingo begins to grate after a while); among the locals are Glenn Corbett, FIRST MAN INTO SPACE (1959)'s Marla Landi (as Mathews' sister and over whom Arne and Reed engage in a duel blindfolded!), and Andrew Keir (as the hero's stern father but who ultimately sacrifices himself for the good of the community). Incidentally, considering the piracy theme, one of the oddest aspects about this particular film is that the action takes place entirely on land!
When we first see Lee and company, they 'save' the life of Mathews who's just escaped from a penal colony (to which his own father had sentenced him after being caught red-handed in an adulterous liaison and whose partner ended up food for the killerfish!). They decide to accompany him to his people's settlement fugitive Huguenots who have established themselves in England because Lee believes them to be in possession of a fortune (even if Mathews himself tells the pirates there's no such thing). Soon, the buccaneers take over the village and start to exterminate the citizens (in twos) for the length of time that the location of the treasure isn't divulged!; eventually, Mathews is told it does exist and that, as community leader, his father is the only one who might be aware of the actual 'site' so he pleads with him to give up the gold for the sake of the people but the old man is still cross with his son and refuses! The sly Lee, observing the scene from afar, concludes that the plunder may be hidden behind the statue of the community's founder which he orders his men to pull down, only to reveal nothing; however, Mathews insists and decides to scrape off the paint on the statue, which turns out to be made of solid gold!
After this, the pirates are ready to leave but they take both Mathews and Keir for insurance especially since a small group of townsfolk, led by Corbett, have fled their control and are organizing raids against them and laying booby-traps in their path! Finally, the two bands meet head-on by the river (where the pirates have built a raft to transport both the loot and their own ever diminishing number); incidentally, the buccaneers themselves rise against their leader an opposition led by former lackey Ripper, whom Lee had earlier slighted. In any case, as is typical of such films, the prime members of each group are made to face off so that we get Arne fighting Corbett and Lee dueling with Mathews and, as always, however inexperienced, good triumphs over evil (though, in the meantime, as I said earlier, the burly Keir throws himself into the river to demolish the raft before both he and the pirates on board once more attract the attention of the piranhas).
From what I've read since this film's DVD release as part of Columbia/Hammer's "Icons Of Adventure" set, it seems to be the one getting the least consideration; I beg to differ and find it perhaps the most purely enjoyable of the lot if, for nothing else, due to the stalwart cast but also the sure-fire elements of hidden loot and underwater menace. Finally, it's worth noting that co-writer/director Gilling (here working from a Jimmy Sangster story which he would himself rehash into another Hammer/Lee/Ripper adventure outing, THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES [1964], conveniently also included on the Columbia set and which I actually watched soon after!) made quite a few films in similar vein: THE BANDIT OF ZHOBE (1959) with Victor Mature; FURY AT SMUGGLERS' BAY (1961), a non-Hammer effort with Peter Cushing; and, for the famed horror company, THE SCARLET BLADE (1963) and THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR (1965) both with Oliver Reed. For the record, out of all of these, only the Cushing title is available on DVD and a Region 2 exclusive at that!