JOHN DEREK: HIS SWASHBUCKLER FILMS

Today, actor and director John Derek is remembered mostly because of his wives – Bo Derek, Ursula Andress, Linda Evans and Pati Behrs.

Some film fans remember him for his supporting roles in The Ten Commandments, All the King’s Men, Exodus and Knock on Any Door.

Surprisingly, most people have forgotten that Derek starred in a long list of B-movies, from westerns to war films as well as – for this blog post – a string of swashbuckler movies.

ROGUES OF SHERWOOD FOREST (1950) – John starred as Robin, Earl of Huntington, the son of Robin Hood. When Richard the Lionheart passes away in 1199 A.D. King John (George Macready) returns to his old ways of oppressing and heavily taxing the citizens. He also imports an army of foreign mercenaries faithful only to him, not England.

The villainous king even tries to have Robin, the son of his old enemy, slain during a rigged jousting match. Our hero survives but soon takes to Sherwood Forest to gather many of his father’s former Merry Men around him to rob from the rich and give to the poor. Alan Hale played Little John for the third time in his career, the first in 1922 in the Douglas Fairbanks Robin Hood and again in 1938 in Errol Flynn’s The Adventures of Robin Hood. 

Diana Lynn co-stars as Lady Marianne de Beaudray while John Dehner plays a character named Sir Baldric. He damn well better come up with “a cunning plan” or two. 79 minutes.

MASK OF THE AVENGER aka The Sword of Monte Cristo (1951) – In 1848, Casamare, Italy faces an impending invasion by the Austrian army. Viovanni Larocca (Anthony Quinn), the local military governor, holds a rally at the statue of the late Count of Monte Cristo to raise an army and money. Next, Larocca kills Count Dimorna, who deduced that Larocca was a traitor who is helping Austria.

Viovanni frames the late count for his own treachery and seizes Dimorna’s estate. Army Captain Renato Dimorna (John Derek), the count’s son, arrives from the front and is imprisoned in his own family’s estate by Larocca under the guise of “protecting him” from angry mobs who want him dead for his father’s alleged treachery.

Renato pretends to play along but secretly steals the sword of the original Count of Monte Cristo and dons a black mask and costume to strike at the evil Viovanni Larocca by night. Jody Lawrence plays Renato’s love interest Maria d’Orsini, who is also skilled with a sword, making her really stand out in a 1950s flick. 83 minutes.

PRINCE OF PIRATES (1953) – John Derek stars as Prince Roland of Haagen, one of the Netherlands states allied with France in a war against the Spanish Empire during the 1500s. Roland’s father dies and his brother Stephan is crowned king.

The brothers have a falling out when Stephan prefers to double-cross the French and join the Spanish in fighting them. France is more inclined toward independence for Haagen and other Dutch states, so Roland wants to remain allied with the French.

King Stephan throws Prince Roland in the dungeon, but he escapes to lead a rebellion against his brother on land and at sea. But mostly on land, despite the title. Barbara Rush plays Roland’s two-fisted, sword-fighting lady love Countess Nita Orde while Carla Balenda is the evil Princess Maria of Spain. 80 minutes.    

THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA (1954) – Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. starred in The Thief of Bagdad, his son Doug Jr. starred in Sinbad the Sailor, and John Derek portrayed the Persian hero Hajji Baba from a series of 1820s novels.

The Caliph wants to give his daughter Fawzia in marriage to a political ally, but she prefers the powerful and infamous Nur-El-Din. In disguise, Fawzia slips away with a warrior sent to escort her to Nur-El-Din. Hajji Baba encounters and kills the warrior, but Fawzia offers him her magnificent emerald ring to take her to Nur-El-Din rather than return her to her father.

The purely mercenary Hajji Baba agrees, and the pair have a series of adventures during their desert odyssey. Inevitably amid their bickering they fall in love.   

The Adventures of Hajji Baba is often called the greatest of John Derek’s swashbuckler films. It is far from cheap and presents Hajji Baba and Fawzia encountering traveling fairs, bandits, caravans, harems of dancing girls and more.

Among that “more” is a small army of Turcoman women led by Miss Kitty herself, Amanda Blake, as Banah. They are former harem girls who escaped over the years and banded together as a deadly gang of caravan robbers. NOTE: I admit to being surprised at finding a running theme of female warriors in three 1950s films of John Derek. 93 minutes.

PIRATE OF THE HALF MOON (1957) – In 1500s Italy, Paolo Di Valverde (John Derek) masquerades as a Barbary Corsair named Nadir El Krim – and sometimes as a wandering poet. Paolo is using his pose as a pirate to covertly retake his seaside ancestral castle from its usurpers, Baron Alfonso and his military chief Alonzo, who is really Ugo Van Berg, Paolo’s archenemy and murderer of his parents.     

The multiple false identities get eye-rolling at times, but as Paolo/ Nadir wars on the castle and its inhabitants, he also falls in love. The apple of his eye is the beautiful Angela (Ingeborg Schoner), mistaking her for Infanta Caterina (Gianna Maria Canale), sister of King Charles V.

Caterina is being held in the castle as protection against ruthless suitors but needs protection herself from the dastardly Ugo/ Alonzo and Baron Alfonso. Viewers get a nice variety of action scenes in the castle, on board ships and in the countryside during a chase involving a horsedrawn coach.  95 minutes. 

FOR THE SWASHBUCKLER FILMS OF SEAN FLYNN, ERROL’S SON, CLICK HERE.

FOR THE BEST SILENT FILMS OF DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS CLICK HERE.