This is an entertaining swashbuckling, full of action, naval battles, desert fights, thrills , romance, and of course , a lot of sword-play. Bianca (Graciella Granata) , the beautiful daughter of Rhodes military governor, travels in the San Luca from the Venice Republic to her home in Rhodes, and without her knowledge, the ship also brings secret orders for her father to attack the Mediterranean ports dominated by the Sultan Selim. Roberto Diego (Massimo Serato) is going in the trial by spent a night with a married woman. When a ship carrying the daughter of Rhodes' governor and secret documents is captured by Mediterranean pirate Dragut (Lex Barker) , the governor tasks captain Diego with their recovery before they can be sold to Sultan Selim. The sad knews reach the Governor of Rhodes when he was expelling Diego, and free the girl. Without alternatives, the Governor accepts, and Diego enlists as a pirate under the service of Dragut. In his devious mind, once he gets his hands on the plans, he will sell them for good price to Suliman, whom he knows to pay in gold, rather than a polite thank you, as the Governor would do. After a number of adventures, escaping the wooing of beautiful and mean Arab Princess Miriam (Chelo Alonso) who falls for Diego, they are captured. He Took By Force... what he could have had for love!
The film is a nice pirate-adventure movie , being produced in limited budget. The picture contains rousing action, romantic adventure , mayhem and a fine cast doing a fine job. Lex Barker is cool as Dragut, the terrific Mediterranean pirate hero who attacks and conquers the Sun Luca and encounters dangerous situations along the way. This is one of Lex Barker's many Italian adventures, after his exile from the United States to Europe where he starred in all kinds of genres, excelling in Westerns such as the Karl May films: The highbrow Lex Barker played the most part of series : ¨Apache gold (1963)¨ by Harald Reinl , ¨Apaches last Battle (1964)¨ by Hugo Fregonese, ¨Last of renegades (1964)¨, ¨The desperate trail¨, ¨Old Surehand¨ (1965) directed by Alfred Vohrer, ¨Old Shatterland(1966)¨ by Harald Philipp , ¨In the valley of death (1968)¨ by Harald Reinl . And being the starring of adventure films, such as: ¨Robin Hood and the Pirates¨, ¨The Secret of the Blue Men¨, ¨The Executioner of Venice¨, ¨Tales of the Vikings¨, ¨El capitán Fuego¨, ¨La scimitarra del saraceno¨, ¨Il figlio del corsaro rosso¨. Barker married 5 times, his fifth wife, Carmen Cervera, (who later married Baron Tyssen), a former Miss Spain. Barker was very known for his role as Tarzan, normally quite hairy-chested, Barker was forced to submit to a full body wax in order to play the buffed version of Tarzan demanded by the producers. This entertaining adventure film has Lex Barker as its absolute protagonist. However, the real protagonist turns out to be Massimo Serato, since the latter spends more time on the screen, he plays an unscrupulous captain, who immediately offers his services to retake the ship, to recover his daughter and the message in exchange of his release. This classic story of romantic adventure come to life enriched by Technicolor cinematography in charge of cameraman Augusto Tiezzi adapted magnificently to screen .Therea are battle ships and sword-play and full of villainy , romance , swashbuckler, heroism and a decisive sword duel to the death. Usual dancing scenes in charge of a gorgeous and always erotic Chelo Alonso. And accompanying some secondaries usuals in B-Italian films , such as: Daniele Vargas, Gianni Rizzo, Luigi Tosi, Michele Malaspina and Graziella Granata's film debut.
The motion picture was middlingly but professionally directed by Piero Pierotti . He was an artisan who wrote and directed a lot of adventure movies , Peplum and Historical films , such as : The Black Archer ,Marco Polo , Fury of the Vikings , Rome versus Rome , Pedro El Cruel, Hercules against Corsaire Noir , Hercules versus Rome, Robin Hood , Maciste in Hell , Hercules and the Masked Rider .
