the film was based on a short story published in the "saturday evening post" in 1947 by charleston's historical fiction author, herbert sass. sass was asked by new york publishers and los angeles studios to write a movie treatment of the story. in 1948 he offered up a fictionalized version of the true story of anne bonny, including a 10-page "factual basis" for the story. studios seemed responsive, but in the end sass was left out of the loop until the movie came out in 1951. what ended up on the screen was very different from the original story. without writer credit to sass, it would be difficult to convince anyone it was the same story.