[3] In 1670, freeborn Welshman, Henry Morgan, is enslaved by the Spaniards in Panama and sold to Doña Inez, daughter of Governor Don José Guzmán.

Morgan leads his fellow slaves in mutiny, takes command of the ship, and becomes a pirate, without knowing that Doña Inez was on board, on her way to Spain.

[1] Turner Classic Movies' Jeff Stafford writes, "Largely due to de Toth's direction, Morgan the Pirate is a lively, fast-paced entertainment with moments of tongue-in-cheek humor that is several notches in quality above the usual turgid, Italian-made spectacle.

The striking cinematography, filmed in garish Eastmancolor, is by the award-winning Tonino Delli Colli who has lensed such art house classics as Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), Marco Bellocchio's China Is Near (1967), and Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

Among the more memorable set pieces are an exotic voodoo dance performed by Cuban sex bomb Chelo Alonso (a former dancer at the Folies Bergère in Paris), a battle at sea in which Morgan's men, disguised as women, storm a Spanish galleon in full drag, and the bloody, climactic sacking of Panama with shootings, stabbings and explosions galore.