Mary Read was an emancipated woman of an earlier day than ours. As a girl she kicked over the traces, went to the wars as a soldier and ended her days as a pirate on the Spanish Main. When Flora Robson played this part she had a far harder task than those actresses who play Shakespeare's girls-in-boys'-clothes. She had to find a make-up which would suggest that her companions-in-arms would in sober fact fail to see through her masquerade. Here is the result. Notice how the actress has destroyed everything in her appearance that is uncompromisingly feminine.
