"The Light at the Edge of the World" was based on a novel by Jules Verne. It is set in 1865 and centres upon an isolated lighthouse at the southernmost tip of Chile, near Cape Horn. (At least, that's where the lighthouse is supposed to be, but the film was actually shot in Spain). A crew of pirates show up and murder two of the three lighthouse keepers. The only survivor is an American, Will Denton, and he only survives because he is not at the lighthouse when the pirates arrive.
Before the opening of the Panama Canal, the Straits of Magellan off Cape Horn were one of the world's most important shipping routes, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The pirates intend to plunder ships using this route, but not by the traditional pirate expedient of boarding them and killing or intimidating the crew. Their plan is to extinguish the light from the lighthouse and then to use false lights to lure ships to their doom on the rocky shore. (There is no evidence, in fact, that wreckers ever used such a tactic, even though they are often depicted as doing so in fiction). Denton, however, decides to fight back, and although he is only one man against a whole crew he manages to wage a surprisingly effective guerrilla campaign.
There are good performances in the two leading roles, from Kirk Douglas as Denton, showing that he could still play action roles even though he was well into his fifties, and from Yul Brynner as Jonathan Kongre, the leader of the pirates. Denton is something of a rough diamond, whereas Kongre is obviously a well-spoken and educated man. For all his veneer of culture, however, he shows himself to be every bit as brutal and sadistic as the men under his command. Kongre does most of the talking for the pirates; his crew only speak a few words between them, preferring to communicate by bestial howls and peals maniacal laughter.
The plot, however, is rather untidy. (I have never read Verne's novel so do not know how it compares in this respect). We learn that Denton had a colourful past during the California Gold Rush when he killed an old lover's new husband in a gunfight. The killing was adjudged to be in self-defence, but Denton is clearly still haunted by this incident. This part of the plot, however, is only narrated in retrospect, and is not well integrated with the main story. At one point Denton believes that a young woman captured by the pirates is his former lover, but it turns out that this is not the case.
Despite a large budget and the services of two major stars in Douglas and Brynner, the film was not a box office success when it came out in 1971, and it has largely remained under the radar ever since. I caught it when it recently received a rare airing on British television; I had never heard of it before, and I am a Kirk Douglas fan. It is a reasonably good adventure film, but there is nothing beyond an unusual plot and setting that would really lift it out of the ordinary. 6/10.
Before the opening of the Panama Canal, the Straits of Magellan off Cape Horn were one of the world's most important shipping routes, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The pirates intend to plunder ships using this route, but not by the traditional pirate expedient of boarding them and killing or intimidating the crew. Their plan is to extinguish the light from the lighthouse and then to use false lights to lure ships to their doom on the rocky shore. (There is no evidence, in fact, that wreckers ever used such a tactic, even though they are often depicted as doing so in fiction). Denton, however, decides to fight back, and although he is only one man against a whole crew he manages to wage a surprisingly effective guerrilla campaign.
There are good performances in the two leading roles, from Kirk Douglas as Denton, showing that he could still play action roles even though he was well into his fifties, and from Yul Brynner as Jonathan Kongre, the leader of the pirates. Denton is something of a rough diamond, whereas Kongre is obviously a well-spoken and educated man. For all his veneer of culture, however, he shows himself to be every bit as brutal and sadistic as the men under his command. Kongre does most of the talking for the pirates; his crew only speak a few words between them, preferring to communicate by bestial howls and peals maniacal laughter.
The plot, however, is rather untidy. (I have never read Verne's novel so do not know how it compares in this respect). We learn that Denton had a colourful past during the California Gold Rush when he killed an old lover's new husband in a gunfight. The killing was adjudged to be in self-defence, but Denton is clearly still haunted by this incident. This part of the plot, however, is only narrated in retrospect, and is not well integrated with the main story. At one point Denton believes that a young woman captured by the pirates is his former lover, but it turns out that this is not the case.
Despite a large budget and the services of two major stars in Douglas and Brynner, the film was not a box office success when it came out in 1971, and it has largely remained under the radar ever since. I caught it when it recently received a rare airing on British television; I had never heard of it before, and I am a Kirk Douglas fan. It is a reasonably good adventure film, but there is nothing beyond an unusual plot and setting that would really lift it out of the ordinary. 6/10.