 Nick Cravat (qv), who plays Piccolo, was an acrobat who was teamed  with Burt Lancaster (qv) before Lancaster became a star. He  appears in many of Lancasters movies. In this one, and in  _Crimson Pirate, The (1952)_ (qv), he plays a mute. The reason was  that his thick Brooklyn accent, which he could not lose, would have  been wildly out of place in such period pieces.