Anne of the Indies 1951

After seizing a British ship, pirate captain Anne Providence, Jean Peters, spares LaRochelle, Louis Jourdan, a Frenchman captured by the British, from walking the plank. He agrees to join Providence’s crew, and soon she begins to fall for the handsome officer.

They travel to an island where they meet with her pirate mentor Captain Blackbeard, Thomas Gomez, who takes an instant dislike to LaRochelle although he at first holds back as he can see Anne is attracted to him. Blackbeard eventually realises he has seen LaRochelle before in the French navy when a pirate was hanged. When he reveals this, LaRochelle claims he was dismissed from the French navy. Anne believes him, but when Blackbeard attacks him she defends him and sends Blackbeard and his men away, making an enemy of Blackbeard.

It eventually transpires that LaRochelle is working for the British as they have captured his ship, and he has a wife. He betrays Anne Providence to the British, who attack her ship. She manages to escape and takes his wife hostage. The British do not return LaRochelle’s ship to him, having failed to capture Anne as planned, so he acquires a ship of his own to go after Anne. In the confrontation that follows, LaRochelle’s ship is destroyed and he is captured.

Taking her revenge Anne Providence maroons him and his wife on a remote island to die. She sails away, but a few days later her conscience compels her to return with provisions and a small boat. As she does so she is attacked by Blackbeard; instead of fleeing she stays and fights to stop Blackbeard from finding LaRochelle, even though her ship is no match. As Anne Providence, the last survivor of her crew, challenges Blackbeard to a final personal duel, she is blown away by a final, deadly salvo from the enemy ship before Blackbeard can stop his cannoneers. Watching the disaster unfold, LaRochelle and his wife pay tribute to Anne’s sacrifice.