Film Review: Yellowbeard - Breaking it all Down

Sometimes a comedy film is well conceived, but ill executed. Thus is the case with Yellowbeard, a film that almost works, but keeps finding ways to not stick the landing.

Yellowbeard is born out of a conversation between Graham Chapman, Peter Cook, Keith Moon, and Sam Peckinpah were having a conversation at Trader Vic’s, where they decided to make a pirate movie. Four drafts later, Moon had passed, Peckinpah had passed, but they had a script, and eventually funding, and later a cast and director.

Speaking of which, this film’s cast is stacked. All of Monty Python, Madeline Kahn, Cheech and Chong, and Marty Feldman in his last role. All of them put in great performances. The problem lies with the material they’re given. In short, the film’s tone veers all over from Monty Python absurdity to something on par with the later Pirates of Caribbean films – except with a bunch of gratuitous rape jokes, and the titular Yellowbeard (who is functionally our Captain Jack Sparrow figure – played by Chapman) being an actual rapist.

To the film’s (limited) credit, all the rapes (plural) are off camera. The bad news is that they’re set off by Yellowbeard physically picking up a woman, hoisting her over his shoulder, and then taking her off camera to be raped. This happens repeatedly, ranging in tone from “gross” to “just really dumb”. Madeline Kahn probably has the best form of these jokes, such as Yellowbeard saying he’s previously raped her, and her describing it as “more of a cuddle,” with the delivery all making it work.

A lot of other jokes just don’t land, or are too subtle and are paired with material that is played straight enough that it’s not clear if it’s a joke. Is the abusive treatment received by Yellowbeard’s son Dan supposed to be comedy? Does that even work when the ship also has an officer who is definitely a sexy woman wearing a man’s uniform with a wax moustache and is named “Mister Prostitute”? Are Marty Feldman and Peter Boyle doing any jokes, or are they just played straight as the main villain and the heavy?

That said, there are jokes that absolutely work. Cheech and Chong have some of the best jokes of the movie, as does Madeline Kahn. The other performers at least get a sensible chuckle or two. Is there a lot of missed potential in this film? Absolutely. I never found it boring though.

That said, it’s not good. If I’d paid full price to see it in a theater, I’d probably have been disappointed. However, on streaming, for the equivalent of seeing it on Cable, or renting it from a video store? That made for a nice fun little evening. It’s not what the cast wanted, but it’s better than other similarly stacked comedies (like Casino Royale) fared.

Yellowbeard is available for streaming on: