The film is based on the story "The Scarlet Buccaneer", written by Paul Wheeler and adapted for the screen by Jeffrey Bloom.

In Jamaica in 1718, a band of pirates led by Captain "Red" Ned Lynch oppose the greedy acting Governor, the evil Lord Durant.

Durant has ruthlessly imprisoned his Lord High Justice (taking over the role himself) and mercilessly evicted the judge's wife and daughter.

The daughter, Jane Barnet, attempts to assassinate Durant by paying Lynch to ambush him at the port.

Pirate films had gone out of fashion with major Hollywood studios since the 1950s, due in part to their high cost.

The success of The Three Musketeers (1973) showed that there was still an appetite for swashbucklers, so original producer Eliot Kastner prepared a pirate script where most of the action took place on shore.

[2] "It was prepared to avoid all the hazards of filming on water and it could have been inexpensively made", said co-producer Jennings Lang.

"[2] The film was shot in Mexico and on the galleon Golden Hinde, a replica of the Golden Hind captained by English privateer, Francis Drake from 1577 to 1580, which had been moored in San Francisco harbor after a five-month journey to California from England.

[3] According to the Special Feature section of the DVD, it was the only pirate movie filmed aboard an actual ship of that era.

[4] Robert Morgan, a stuntman who lost his leg making How the West Was Won (1963), played a one-legged pirate.

What I know about life is a fair bit, but it is not contained in sword fights or running up and down the masts of a ship or taking a punch.

[2]Costume director Burton Miller said: Instead of researching the period, I took on producer Jennings Lang's challenge for a non-historical approach and started walking along the [Sunset] Strip.

"[2] Before release, however, Universal had a change of heart about the suggestive nature of the title and it was reverted to Swashbuckler.