It takes very high winds in Jamaica to have English ranchers Nigel Hawthorne and Isabel Dean to decide to send their children back to England. This hurricane literally rips their ranch apart, and mother Dean is upset by the presence of voodoo in the native servants attempts to stop the storm from increasing. But what the parents don't know is that pirates, disguised as women from a supposedly capsized ship, have taken over, and this puts their children into an uncertain danger, but the pirates become their caretakers, showing that even members of the jolly Roger can have a soft spot. In fact, the pirates seem more civilized than the original crew of the ship who tried to get a monkey drunk so they could cut off his tail.

With a cast lead by Anthony Quinn and James Coburn as the pirate leaders, this is an exciting adventure from start to finish, beginning with a really scary hurricane. Lila Kedrova is reunited with her "Zorba the Greek" co-star, but her role is really a cameo, playing a saloon keeper where the children witness a cock fight. This doesn't have the silliness of "The Pirates of Penzance" or exaggerated special effects like "The Pirates of the Caribbean" series. It's just a very direct adventure, filled with fun for the whole family, a great musical score, fantastic photography and very detailed attention on everything going on. The tale turns dark at the end when the older girl is attacked and ends up on trial. The opening segment of the hurricane is visually horrific as the father struggles to get one daughter (stupidly chasing a frightened cat) back in the house, then their descent into an underground shelter where the voodoo spells are already in progress. Quinn and Coburn make a fantastic team. It's a shame that they only worked in one other movie together, a forgotten 1981 film called "High Risk".

Anthony Quinn is the captain of a pirate ship in the middle 1600s. The ship and its crew loot a British passenger ship. Half a dozen young kids, mostly British, board the victim ship accidentally sail away aboard the pirate ship. Quinn, a drunken and pediculous lout, comes eventually to care about the children in his own crude way, before a British Naval steamship capture him and his superstitious crew and rescue the kids, who are by this time wearing tattered clothing and are filthy.

The two central roles are those of Anthony Quinn and Deborah Baxter as one of the children. Quinn does his usual reliable number -- Zorba the Greek with edginess. He's dashing around the deck in his bare feet shouting orders in Spanish, slapping impertinent seamen about the head.

But Deborah Baxter's role is important. And she's magnetic. It's worth speculating why this should be so, but the answer isn't too flattering to the gentlemen in the audience. She was nine years old when this film was released. She's not striking beautiful -- no porcelain doll like Brooke Shields in "Pretty Baby." There is nevertheless something extremely appealing about her appearance and demeanor. Please, I'm no pedophile. I find older women more likable, for all the reasons given by Benjamin Franklin.

But Deborah Baxter, prepubescent though she may be, combines her juvenile vulnerability with a clearly seductive quality, which Quinn's character, the writers, and director Alexander MacKendrick all recognize and put to use in the story. It mocks our sensibilities to deny it. Jenny Agutter was about fourteen when she made "Walkabout" and Sue Lyon fourteen when she was Kubrick's "Lolita." Not that Quinn's pirate captain necessarily realizes what's up. He's clearly embarrassed at one point, at which he finds himself having to pin Baxter down to the deck, hovering above her, the crew chuckling because the position is suggestive. It's also clear that by the end, Quinn's desire to help and protect her has eclipsed any sexual feelings he might have felt.

She's a decent actress too, for a young girl. Her confusion at the climactic trial puts a definite period at the end of Quinn's career. And she turned quite beautiful in the next few years. That's why she was cast as Teddy Roosevelt's daughter in "The Wind and the Lion." Her character in that film, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, was a no-nonsense woman who lived into a candid late old age and died just one or two decades ago. You know the song, "Alice Blue Gown"? She's the "Alice."

I loved Quinn. People accuse him of overacting, yet it fits the part of a self-indulgent, not-too-bright pirate captain, huffing and puffing, always on the edge of hysteria. It's not really Zorba we see on the screen. It's Zampano from Fellini's "La Strada." A brute, but one who comes to have civilized feelings after all.

Anthony Quinn stars in A High Wind In Jamaica where he and first mate James Coburn preside over an unruly crew of pirates. This is a beautifully photographed film which I had a lot of problems with. It's a bit of a homage to Treasure Island with Captain Quinn bonding with several children who have been sent to the United Kingdom by their parents Nigel Davenport and Isabella Dean from Jamaica where the parents have become colonizers. It's for the kid's educations but they get quite the education when during a raid on their ship they wind up on the pirate ship.

In many ways A High Wind In Jamaica is Disney like, but there are too many grim scenes for this to ever be Disney type material. And in the end those kids, especially the oldest girl do not prove to be Jim Hawkins like.

I see the film got a lot of positive reviews, but I'm afraid I can't be one of them.