JEFF CHANDLER’S SWASHBUCKLER FILMS

Actor Jeff Chandler starred in a variety of roles, and happily he appeared in a few swashbuckler movies. 

YANKEE BUCCANEER (1952) – An enjoyable movie but one which throws history out the window in the mind-boggling way that only Hollywood could manage! The real-life American naval heroes David Porter (Jeff Chandler) and David Farragut (Scott Brady) are presented fighting Caribbean pirates during the early 1820s.

The men and their crew are ordered to pose as pirates in order to infiltrate and bring down the real pirates menacing trade in the Caribbean. While undertaking that flashy, daring mission they get caught up in a plot involving Portugal and its colony Brazil against American interests.

Our heroes become romantic rivals for Countess Margarita La Raguna (Suzan Ball, Lucille’s cousin) as the movie ignores the fascinating REAL relationships between the Porter and Farragut families. Still, Yankee Buccaneer is fun, and naturally the good guys win. David Janssen, Michael Ansara and Tonto himself, Jay Silverheels, co-star. 86 minutes.

NOTE: While Commander Porter and Lieutenant Farragut really did take on pirates during that time period they never served on the same ship like this movie pretends. Farragut was on one of the smaller “mosquito” ships in Porter’s fleet. 

FLAME OF ARABY (1951) – Maureen O’Hara insisted on having Jeff Chandler as her leading man in this adventure film which skewers history even more thoroughly than Yankee Buccaneer did.

Chandler stars as the one and only Tamerlane, depicted here as a warrior in northern Africa instead of what is now Iran and Afghanistan, where he really lived. This movie’s Tamerlane is a swashbuckling Bedouin chief who, among his other activities, hunts the legendary black stallion Shahzada.

Another party interested in Shahzada is the Tunisian Princess Tanya (O’Hara), a butt-kicking woman warrior who wants to ride the black stallion in a race. Tanya feels the horse will let her win that race against two sleazy Barbary Corsair leaders (Lon Chaney, Jr. and Buddy Baer), one of whom she’ll be forced to marry if she loses the race.

Tamerlane and the princess clash, bicker, then fall in love. They join forces to tame Shahzada and bring down the evil Barbary Corsair lords who lust after Tanya. 77 minutes. 

YANKEE PASHA (1954) – This actioner was adapted from the 1947 novel of the same title. In a story that begins in 1800 Massachusetts, Jeff Chandler plays American frontiersman Jason Starbuck. He and the beautiful Roxana Reil (Rhonda Fleming) fall in love just before she and her father set sail for France, where Jason promises to join them and marry Roxana.

During their voyage, Barbary Corsairs attack their ship, killing Roxana’s father and selling her to Pasha Omar Id-Din (Bart Roberts) as one of his harem slaves. Starbuck vows to rescue the woman he loves, and with the help of an American Consul, he becomes a foreign mercenary for a Sultan (Lee J. Cobb), training his army in the use of rifles while learning swordplay himself. 

Jason is given Lilith (Mamie Van Doren) as part of his pay and eventually learns Roxana’s location in Omar Id-Din’s harem. Conveniently, Omar is plotting against the Sultan, so Starbuck becomes a hero by taking him down and “winning” Roxana as his own. 

The jealous Lilith betrays Jason and his true love, causing them to be imprisoned by Omar. Starbuck leads a mass prisoner escape, kills Omar and returns to America with Roxana so they can marry. 84 minutes.