Blackbeard, the Pirate (1952)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Sadly Over-hyped

Best movie of this year hands down!

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

If you thought Robert Newton had created the original pirate in 1950's Treasure Island, technically you're right. But you should watch Blackbeard, the Pirate to see his pirate character on steroids. If every ten sentences in Treasure Island, he added an "Aarr!", in Blackbeard, the Pirate, his imitable, incomparable sound was included every ten words. As the famous villainous Blackbeard, Bobbie cackles, sings, and is even more disheveled than he was as Long John Silver.If you're familiar with pirate legends, you probably know Blackbeard had a rivalry with Captain Morgan, and in this film, a woman comes between them. Linda Darnell-who has an irrational lack of fear of the lusty, crusty pirates and continually prances around in very revealing dresses-comes aboard, but she's hiding treasure in her luggage that both famous pirates are after. She falls in love with Keith Andes, but their romance isn't the interesting part of the movie. Robert Newton captures everyone's attention, and he manages to turn the despicable villain into an incredibly likable, jolly character. His cohorts, led by William Bendix and Skelton Knaggs, who bears an eerie resemblance to Frances McDormand, are much more wicked than he is.While there's no topping Treasure Island, I really enjoyed Blackbeard, the Pirate. Bobbie Newton is a fantastically energetic and magnetic actor, and he was constantly making me laugh without really trying to. While I didn't care for the ending, I'm glad I got to see one of his most famous roles.

Robert Newton does his pirate schtick in this not-so-true-to-life story about Edward Teach, AKA 'Blackbeard'.Boarders on Blackbeard's ship try to escape at the first opportunity, but get dragged into the inevitable search for treasure when Blackbeard reaches the island where his stash is hidden away. Linda Darnell is beautiful as the token damsel-in-distress, Irene Ryan is funny as a matronly drunk, and Skelton Knaggs is excellent as a derelict pirate, but 'leading man' Keith Andes and deckhand Bill Bendix are less impressive. As for Newton, he looks the part and delivers the "shiver-me-timbers" dialogue, but you've seen his act before in 'Treasure Island' (1950) and he did it again in 'Long John Silver' (1954).OK 50's adventure movie, in color, too. Would have been much better with someone else in the Andes role.

Blackbeard is essentially a story of a reformed pirate Henry Morgan becoming the Governor in the West Indies to get rid off other pirates especially Blackbeard (Robert Newton.)A young ship's surgeon Edward Maynard is tasked to become part of Blackbeard's crew to deal with both Blackbeard and Morgan who he also suspects of still being a villain.Blackbeard manages to kidnap Morgan's adopted daughter which leads to a romance subplot with Maynard. At all times Blackbeard shows ruthless cunning and double dealing.Newton hams it up nicely as Blackbeard who has set the pirate standard. William Bendix provides fine support, Linda Darnell is very nice eye candy but the whole thing is just too silly even though its a bit risqué here and there and rather strong in some of its violence.The film ranges from daft to dull, the final fight scenes with Blackbeard and the rest of the crew is dumb but his drowning scene is rather startling.

Hollywood turned out dozens of pirate adventures in its heyday, most, such as The Black Swan, The Spanish Main, Captain Kidd etc etc, were flat and routine swashbucklers that lacked the kind of acting presence, story, and edge that made MGM's 1934 version of Treasure Island, and Warner's Captain Blood from 1935 standards of the genre. The pirate movie throughout the 40's, much like the western, was in need of something fresh.In 1950, Robert Newton made a stalwart impression as Long John Silver in the British remake of Treasure Island, released through Disney. Though the film was not nearly as good as the '34 MGM version, Newton managed to surpass the performance of Wallace Beery's Silver, which was no easy feat as Beery was exceptional in that role.Coming off of that success, RKO paired Newton with hit and miss director Raoul Walsh to make Blackbeard the Pirate. Newton's performance in the title role was even better than his turn in Treasure Island - a definitive portrayal of the pirate captain that continues to predominate the genre. Not a single actor from Wallace Beery to Victor McLaglen to Charles Laughton to Peter Ustinov to Dustin Hoffman to even Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Depp have managed to usurp the pure overbearing sea scenery chewing double-dealing rapscallion that is Robert Newton as Blackbeard. His performance, as brutal as it is humorous, is a joy to behold, and elevates the film to a higher level.The film itself is not as routine as one might expect either. There is a plot going on here (albeit not exactly an airtight one), and some fine supporting performances from William Bendix (always watchable), Linda Darnell, and Keith Andes, a mostly forgotten actor who apparently could do it all in show business from sing and dance to swordfight. His cutlass battles in Blackbeard are of Flynn/Rathbone quality, but actually remind one more of the kind of swordfighting seen in Lester's The Three Musketeers 20 years later. For a film made in 1952, there is a surprising amount of gore in this as well.Not a great story, but a good one, and entertaining throughout. Everything you'd expect from a 50's adventure on the high seas is delivered here - action, romance, blood and treachery. One of the best pirate movies of all time.