Fury at Smugglers' Bay
In 18th century Cornwall, Squire Trevenyan a magistrate to a sleepy fishing village, is blackmailed by a vicious smuggler, Black John, into keeping quiet about his murderous gang’s shipwrecking racket.The daughter engages the help of a local highwayman, an honourable thief who watches over those he has robbed to ensure their safe return home, to stop Black John once and for all.[3] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Untidily plotted but roistering variation on the Jamaica Inn theme, distinguished by attractive colour photography (Harry Waxman), one or two imaginative moments of direction (John Gilling), and a splendid sword fight in which the previously overglamorous hero (John Fraser) proves he is capable of better things than getting his tights wet spurring his horse through the breakers.Peter Cushing is a shade headmistressy as the lip-pursing squire, and William Franklyn an uncommonly sophisticated highwayman, but Bernard Lee provides ample compensation as the ruffianly, hirsute Black John"[4] In the Radio Times, David Parkinson gave the film three out of five stars, and noted, "as Cushing suggested in his memoirs, this 1790s adventure is tantamount to an English western, with a saloon brawl, sword-wielding showdowns and a last-minute rescue.However, the peripheral characters are more subtly shaded, with Miles Malleson's comic nobleman and George Coulouris's abused outsider being particularly well realised.