The Black Pirate (1926)

Excellent adaptation.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

. . . otherwise known as Oompah Loompah Frogmen & the Princess Who Must Not Be Named, as well as the Nobility of ARNOLDO and 2 pirate Leaders each Dumber THAN the Next + What It looks like when SPARTACUS Scuttles his ship & why NOT include the Ride of Paul Revere and a Dying Dad and a Treasure Grotto and a Human Elevator or HOW ABOUT shredded sails or pointy alarm clocks or lumbering sun dials AND DON'T FORGET TO SEE a man carve a sticky NOTE to himself without the aid of PAPER or STICKUM not to mention THE GIRL who will not give it up to just ANYONE with an ancient Crony Godmother CAN you solve the riddle of just HOW many arms does the steward have if woodchucks could chuck would Douglas Fairbanks have been so quick to build Pickfair if he had an OPTION on Fordbanks first you MAY wonder why Pirates would blow UP merchant ships within swimming distance of their TREASURE ISLAND the prize for MIMICRY regarding the endless subtitle for THE BLACK PIRATE as seen here

THE BLACK PIRATE (1926) tells the story of a mysterious figure (Douglas Fairbanks) who survives a pirate raid. Sworn to avenge his dead father, he takes command of the pirates responsible, and secretly strives to free the princess whom they have kidnapped. A power-hungry lieutenant who tries to incite the men against him complicates his plans. Directed by Albert Parker.The script is quite interesting, following The Black Pirate's skillful command of his pirate band, as well as his resourcefulness and ingenuity. The scenario offers plenty of action – pirate raids, duels, underwater photography – as well as a little bit of rather unlikely romance that always seems to pop up in films like these. Perhaps the greatest cinematographic interest is provided by the film's use of two-strip Technicolor. There are some lovely sweeping shots of the ocean and the ships at sea. The film could benefit from more dynamic editing and variety between close-ups and long shots during the other scenes, though. The camera work feels very restrained for much of the film's running time, as if the crew were aiming to evoke the tableaux style of earlier films. In my opinion this diluted the impact of the action scenes and caused the film to feel somewhat detached. The direction of the movie was competent rather than brilliant, and greater use of the cinematographic resources available at the time would have given the film more impact. After all, this was made in 1926, after such pioneering classics as THE LAST LAUGH and BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN. However, there were very dynamic moments as well, mostly due to the stunt work.THE BLACK PIRATE boasts fine performances, particularly by the charismatic and athletic Fairbanks, as well as by Sam de Grasse, the lieutenant who chafes under The Black Pirate's leadership. There's a scene where the Black Pirate takes over a ship by himself, and the athleticism shown by Fairbanks is astounding. Billie Dove plays a fairly typical damsel in distress type as the Princess.Overall, THE BLACK PIRATE is entertaining, but it could have packed more of a punch with more imaginative direction. However, the color cinematography is generally lovely to look at, and Fairbanks gives a splendid performance. SCORE: 7/10

I'm not sure if The Black Pirate (1926) is Douglas Fairbanks' best film, but I certainly prefer it to his artsier films, Robin Hood (1922) and The Thief of Bagdad (1924), which were as overlong and poorly paced as they were beautiful to look at. TBP has both pretty Technicolor visuals and a lean story which shows off its star's athletic prowess and charm, so to date, it ranks with The Mark of Zorro (1920) as my favorite Fairbanks adventure.The supporting cast is fine. Donald Crisp is funny as the pirate who befriends Fairbanks. Sam De Grasse is a delicious and cunning adversary, one of the best Fairbanks villains. Billie Dove's role as the imperiled "princess" is limited to looking pretty and swooning at the right moments, unfortunately, but that is the case with most of the female leads in Fairbanks' work.This is a good old-fashioned adventure, proof that a film doesn't need CG-rendered explosions and "stunts" to be a grand time.

I saw The Black Pirate during the first season(?) of Silents Please, before the Ernie Kovacs hosted episodes. Of course, it was a truncated 20 or so black and white minutes of a 90 minute color film. Still, the two scenes that stuck in my mind were the 'sword ride down the sail', and the underwater swimming sequence. I saw this episode once, and at 9 or 10 years old, didn't pay much attention to the actors. Once after that, I asked my father if that was the, 'pirate from the silent movie', while we were watching something with Gilbert Roland. My father had no idea what I was talking about. Now, sometime in the 1990s, I caught a cable documentary about silent films, (there are ****loads of docs about them), and one featured a short color sequence of The Black Pirate. OMG, I saw that 40 years ago ! Now I knew the flick, the star, the format. A quick Google and I ordered a Kino video, (pre DVD), of The Black Pirate. Everything I remembered was there, and, a LOT more. Like 70 minutes more, and, in COLOR. I don't know how big a hit this was, but, it should have been the Titanic of its day. A fast moving story, lots of action, sex(sort of), violence, revenge, and COLOR ! Also, you only had to sit still for 90 minutes instead of 4 hours. Anyway, Doug shows again why he was the King of Hollywood. Great stunts, good looking, able to do ANYTHING. BTW, the additional features on the video/DVD show you how he was able to do anything. If you haven't seen it, this 'footnote' to the history of 'silent, color film', is a must see/have.