The Buccaneer *** (1958, Yul Brynner, Claire Bloom, Charles Boyer, Inger Stevens, Henry Hull, Charlton Heston) – Classic Movie Review 13,844

Yul Brynner stars as Louisiana pirate Jean Lafitte, who helps the Americans to defend New Orleans against the attacking British war fleet, in the lavish and lusty 1958 adventure film The Buccaneer.

‘Piercing Drama of La Fitte – Man or Devil?’

Director Anthony Quinn’s lavish and lusty 1958 adventure film The Buccaneer stars Yul Brynner, Claire Bloom, Charles Boyer, Inger Stevens, Henry Hull, and Charlton Heston. It is a semi-fictional account of Louisiana pirate Jean Lafitte’s involvement in the War of 1812, when he helps the Americans to defend New Orleans against the attacking British war fleet.

Cecil B DeMille produced this lavish remake of his own 1938 swashbuckler The Buccaneer about the War of 1812 when President Andrew Jackson (Charlton Heston) got the help of buccaneer Jean Lafitte (Yul Brynner) against the British invasion.

The Buccaneer is most entertaining, with dashing performances, bright action sequences and gorgeous filming in Technicolor and VistaVision widescreen by loyal cinematographer Loyal Griggs.

It is Quinn’s sole stab at direction and DeMille’s final film, following his illness and the film’s disastrous financial failure. The budget was $6 million, with $1.2 million for promotion, but it took only $3.2 million at the North American box office. The film features five stars, 55 featured actors, 100 bit actors, 12,000 extras, 60,000 props and $100,000 worth of antique furniture, Spanish moss and cypress trees.

Heston played Jackson previously in the 1953 film The President’s Lady.

The screenplay by Jesse L Lasky Jr and Berenice Mosk is based on the original 1938 screenplay by Jeanie Macpherson, Edwin Justus Mayer, Harold Lamb and C Gardner Sullivan, and the book Lafitte the Pirate by Lyle Saxon.

Douglass Dumbrille is in both versions, this time as Collector of the Port, previously as Governor William C C Claiborne. Ty Hardin appears uncredited as Soldier.

The 1938 version was produced and directed by Cecil B DeMille but by 1958 he was seriously ill so he was only the executive producer of the remake, getting his son-in-law Anthony Quinn to direct and long-time actor friend Henry Wilcoxon to produce, with DeMille credited as ‘supervised by Cecil B DeMille’. DeMille does however make a personal appearance in the prologue to the film, as he did in The Ten Commandments two years earlier. 

Many of the events depicted are accurate but the romance with Lafitte is fiction.

In real life, by the time the Battle of New Orleans was fought, a treaty to end the War of 1812 had been signed in London but this vital news did not reach New Orleans until weeks later.

Release: December 1, 1958.

Cast: Yul Brynner, Claire Bloom, Charles Boyer, Inger Stevens, Henry Hull, Charlton Heston, E G Marshall, Douglass Dumbrille, Lorne Greene, Ted de Corsia, Robert F Simon, Woody Strode, Fran Jeffries, John Dierkes, Ken Miller, George Matthews, Leslie E Bradley, Bruce Gordon, Barry Kelley, Robert Warwick, Steven Marlo, Onslow Stevens, Iris Adrian, James Seay, Reginald Sheffield, Stephan Chase, Ty Hardin as Soldier.

The Buccaneer is directed by Anthony Quinn, runs 121 minutes, is made by Paramount Pictures, is released by Paramount Pictures, is written by Jesse L Lasky Jr and Bernice Mosk, is shot in Technicolor and VistaVision widescreen by Loyal Griggs, is produced by Cecil B DeMille and Henry Wilcoxon, and is scored by Elmer Bernstein.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,844

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