Ghost in the Noonday Sun 1973

In the seventeenth century, pirate captain Ras Mohammed, accompanied by his incompetent Irish cook Dick Scratcher and three crewmen, bury three chests of treasure on an unnamed island. Scratcher then kills the captain and the three crewmen, seizing the ship and proclaiming himself the new captain, convinced that only he knows where the riches lie. He soon discovers the treasure map from his predecessor was drawn in disappearing ink, making the location a secret he alone holds. Fourteen years pass, and the pirate ship finally makes landfall near Ireland, though Scratcher stubbornly believes they have reached a Greek island. The crew revels in feasting and excess, with the exception of the debonair and cerebral Pierre Rodriguez, whose calm wit and intelligence stand out amid the chaos.

They abduct an Irish boy, Jeremiah, whom Scratcher believes can see ghosts and, by contacting Ras Mohammed’s ghost, guide them toward the treasure. After fooling the Royal Navy by posing as Portuguese fishermen suffering the “red plague,” the pirates sail on to Algiers, where Jeremiah is captured. Along the way they encounter Scratcher’s old friend Billy Bombay and later release Jeremiah.

Mutiny threats by a pirate named Abdullah set the crew moving again, and they return to the island where the treasure lies. They exhume Billy Bombay’s treasure chest of silver cannonballs and unleash them at Billy Bombay and his six brothers, leaving only Billy alive. Separately, Pierre Rodriguez and Abdullah uncover Ras Mohammed’s treasure. The film closes with Scratcher buried up to his neck in sand, while Billy Bombay is tied to a tree, and the two exchange insult-heavy taunts.