This has way more action now the 4th in the series, and just also the first to not be set in France anymore so the naval settings are something else, the character pirates are ruthless folks, but there is always one good guy amongst the evil that assists that is great, also great faces of the various people. Careful of topless smut in a scene of auctioning off the girls. Corsica mentioned definitely because of Napoleon, but like a century before this movie obvious for that addition.

Iread in other reviews that the last two movies were originally one but were broken into two parts for International release. I also read that these two films strayed a lot from the original books. All this might be true, but I really don't know about these aspects of the films--just what I just saw on DVD.

The first Angélique film was exceptional though I did notice that subsequent films were a bit of a letdown. Well, although this film still doesn't equal the first, at least it was better than several of the other films in the series. This time, Angélique has gone off to sea in search of her husband who she now is positive is still alive, as she caught a glimpse of him in the last film. However, her path to the man she loves is very brutal in this film and ends, naturally, with tragedy.

At the beginning of the film, our heroine accepts a ride on a galley commanded by a French admiral. However, when the ship is sunk by pirates (led, in fact, by Angélique's husband, Joffrey). He was unaware that she was on board, however, and when he later learns this he frantically goes in search of her. Unfortunately for Angélique, she is rescued by a sadistic pirate who delights in raping her as well as tormenting her. He also intends to sell her on the slave market, as because of her beauty and high birth, she'll command a fortune.

As the film nears the end, she is sold for an amazing amount by a stranger who happens to have bought her for Joffrey! However, although their reunion is at first joyous, the two soon begin arguing over nothing--a very odd twist thrown in by the writers. And, when the two realize the error of their ways and are about to kiss and make up, disaster strikes and she is kidnapped for a Muslim king--thus necessitating the next film, "Angélique and the Sultan".

Overall, this is pretty exciting stuff though I admit that the brutality of the film and nudity make it less family-friendly than most of the films in the series. Still, there are lots of plot twists and excitement to merit watching.

Angélique follows the trace of her former husband, count Peyrac, who is now living with pirates in a hiding-place somewhere on a Mediterranean island. He seems to turn into a kindred spirit of Captain Nemo, inventing a diving bell, hiding from the rest of the world, but with the political aim to do as much damage to the King's fleet as possible. Angélique, however, is captured by other pirates who intend to sell her at the slave-market...

This movie was cut down to 80 minutes in my country, which is 20 minutes shorter than each of the previous episodes and 15 minutes shorter than the original version. That might indicate that a little less care was spent by the distributors on the contents, as long as the money kept coming. I suppose it wasn't censorship, because even the edited version contains a rape scene on a pirate ship and some nudity in the slave-market scene; actually this is the only episode of the series which may seem to cross the border from historical fantasy to exploitation sometimes. Talking of exploitation, I spotted a familiar face from many Jess Franco movies: Paul Muller has an appearance as a Maltese Knight, uncredited. I voted 8/6/7/6/6 for the 5 movies of the series.