It's interesting how film genres are born or peak in multiples. This movie exists in the same category as Mutiny on the Bounty in that it is a swashbuckler Romantic adventure film. Clearly this is a film made by studios who understand the recipe for success in the American film market during the 1930's. Take a handsome, leading man dress him up in period costume with some element of rebelliousness and danger and have him undergo an adventure in a foreign land or sea with lots of dangers, exotic locales, beautiful people and especially a love interest. This movie is extremely far away from the realities of life outside the theater and speaks to the peak of the escapist era of Great Depression cinema. People wanted to be swept off their feet by fantastic tales of great men getting women, money and breaking free of any yokes of oppression.
Note that most of these escapist films center on rebellious leading men who challenge authority and win the day through their creed of "True Independence in life or Death." This main character is a criminal, murderer, horrible person who is portrayed as a hero because of the fact that he is fighting the "man" so to speak during an era where the common man was furious at the Banks and big institutions for failing them and causing the Depression.