Lydia Bailey

Plot

Albion Hamlin, a farmer and lawyer from Maine, defends a Boston publisher from prosecution under the Alien and Sedition Acts and falls in love with his daughter Lydia after seeing a painting of her. He looks for her in revolution-torn Haiti and the two eventually become involved in the American action against the Barbary pirates.

Partial cast

Production

20th Century Fox first obtained the rights to Kenneth Robert's novel in 1946. Various plans were made to film the work, including one produced by Sol Siegel to be shot on location in England and Jamaica to take advantage of frozen profits. The film was originally to star Tyrone Power who went on suspension rather than film "another costume picture." Power said he had filmed five historical-period films in a row and wished to do a film where "people talk normally and not in stilted dialogue." The lead was therefore given to one of Fox's postwar contract players, Dale Robertson. With Fox's option on the novel running out, the film was shot at the 20th Century Fox Movie Ranch and backlot of Fox's California studios. This was also the film debut of William Marshall.