John Paul Jones

This late 50's technicolor film about the lesser known American Revolutionary Naval hero, John Paul Jones, is a dull patriotic puff piece perfect for your grandpa who's stuck inside the house this 4th of July weekend. While the film didn't quite leave me echoing the words of 'YouTube historian' "Oversimplified" by saying "keep on ripin' in heaven John Paul Jones, you're an angel now," however after reading his wiki, it's more like "keep on rapin' in hell?"...historical figures are complicated...

Main feature production values coupled with B-movie sensibility, it seems to have been made with television's Saturday afternoon movie in mind. Charles Coburn's Ben Franklin is rather fun, and Bette Davis's Catherine the Great liven things up a bit, though one has to wait until the very end for her one scene. I cannot hear Robert Stack's distinctive voice without thinking of "Unsolved Mysteries", so I was often distracted from his performance, which isn't bad.

A patriotic film about an American hero, that's just not very interesting.