After already having played Zorro, Robin Hood, D'Artagnan and the Thief
of Bagdad, Douglas Fairbanks continued his series of adventure tales as The
Black Pirate. It has a less epic scope than those films and comes in at a
relative - for him - short running time of 90 minutes. But Fairbanks
throws it all in there. It has all the pirate stuff you would expect and
lots of Fairbanks stunts and athleticism. But the first title card of the
film lays it all out.
"Being an account of the Buccaneers and the Spanish Main, The Jolly Roger,
Golden Galleons, bleached skulls, buried treasure, the plank, dirks and cutlasses,
scuttled ships, marooning, desperate deeds, desperate men and even on this
dark soil - romance".
Yup. I can testify it has all that as well as lechery, loyalty and Billy
Dove's perfect rosebud mouth. It is a fine swashbuckling tale. Fairbanks
is on a merchant ship that is captured by pirates. After looting it they
blow it up and kill everyone on it other than Fairbanks and his father who
manage to swim to a small deserted island. The father soon dies and his son
swears vengeance and even raises his fist and shakes it at them so you know
he means business. Turns out he doesn't have to wait long. This is where
the captain and his chiefs bury their goodies. Fairbanks pops out, says he
wants to join the pirate crew - because you know . ..
Oh, better far to live and die
Under the brave black flag I fly,
Than play a sanctimonious part,
With a pirate head and a pirate heart.
Away to the cheating world go you,
Where pirates all are well-to-do;
But I'll be true to the song I sing,
And live and die a Pirate King.
For I am a Pirate King!
And it is, it is a glorious thing
To be a Pirate King!
They tell Fairbanks he has to prove himself and so he duels the captain and
kills him at the end of his sword. And the other pirates all cheer. Not a
popular captain. Then Fairbanks tells them he can capture a ship single-handedly.
They scoff, they joke. And then he does it in a wonderful set piece of derring-do.
One bit being the famous slide down the main mast using his sword to cut
through the canvass to slow his velocity. But then he realizes - oops - I
captured this ship in order to get my revenge but now they are going to blow
it up. Which gets worse when he realizes a Lady is aboard - Princess Isobel.
The lovely Billy Dove of the rose bud mouth.
This film made her a star though in truth she does little but look lovely
and look frightened. But it was the Silent movies and that was enough. I
have heard her name for years but this is the first film I have seen her
in. She had been in the Ziegfeld Follies and had an affair with Mr. Ziegfeld
that got his wife Billie Burke to send Billy to Hollywood. Fairbanks earlier
romantic leads were honestly not that attractive - perhaps at the insistence
of his wife Mary Pickford and in the end of the film there is a big kiss
between Fairbanks and the Princess and people say it was actually Pickford
on the receiving end. Smart lady.
A number of other terrific scenes follow - the best being when Fairbanks
after walking the plank swims to an island, rides for help and returns with
a large number of Natives in these giant canoes that can be made to look
like they are sinking by knocking out the bottoms - and then they all swim
underwater and ascend the ship. It is simply wonderful. I also loved the
moment when the Princess discovers that Fairbanks is a Duke and breaks out
in a radiant smile that this man is not some commoner who saved her life.
But that isn't all. The technology in the film is equally astonishing. It
was shot in two-tone Technicolor - one of the first feature length films
to do so. It presented enormous challenges to the filmmakers. Trying to keep
the colors consistent from scene to scene - and very expensive which is why
the running time is shorter than normal for him. It also forced them to shoot
nearly all the film in the studio using models of ships, a huge container
of water and a fabulous ship that at times looks larger than a cruise ship.
The ship is a work of art. Now I sadly did not know this and so watched a
black and white version on YouTube. When I read about this I found a good
quality colored version also on YT and watched that as well. Quite lovely.
The film was restored in the 1970s at the urging of his son. Douglas Fairbanks
Jr.
