1954's "The Black Pirates" was a US-Mexican coproduction starring one time Valentino Anthony Dexter as pirate leader Zargo, his crew without a ship, seeking to recover buried treasure on the site of a 1777 Salvadoran community beneath the church presided over by Padre Felipe (Lon Chaney), confessing that he believed it a gift from God to be used to build his 'Village of Miracles.' These pirates are not the romanticized type represented by John Payne in 1953's "Raiders of the Seven Seas" (also with Chaney), but a ruthless, despicable lot whose climactic comeuppance is surprisingly bloody. Shot in the cheap Ansco color process at a genuine 350 year old church on location in Panchimalco, El Salvador (under hot and humid conditions such as muffled sound recording), a fairly unexceptional land-locked outing with few redeeming features, Chaney cast against type as a sympathetic priest, a part he wisely held out for as he was initially tabbed for one of the interchangeable pirates. Robert Clarke plays a lovelorn villager who gets whipped for his troubles before leading his people against the invaders, and Martha Roth makes the 'scarlet woman' more sympathetic in turning the tables on her employer to show her how to be subservient. Anthony Dexter was already a huge celebrity in Central America due to his starring role as "Valentino" in 1951, but quickly settled into lesser features such as "Fire Maidens of Outer Space," "The Story of Mankind," "12 to the Moon," and "The Phantom Planet." Lon Chaney's decade-long collaborations with producer Robert L. Lippert began in 1953 with "Bandit Island" and "The Big Chase," followed by "The Silver Star," "The Alligator People," and 1964's "Witchcraft."
