The Black Pirate (1926)
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The Black Pirate Movie Review
The Black Pirate is a 1926 silent action adventure film directed by Albert Parker and starring Douglas Fairbanks. It’s a perfectly solid, entertaining genre film.
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“A sound enough lad but he seems to be suffering
from an affliction of the heart“
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A father, who is killed by a pirate gang, hands over his ring to his son just before he dies. At this point, the son vows to seek vengeance by joining the pirate gang. My main issue with this movie is the plot itself. Firstly, it is far from memorable, but it’s also not all that interesting in retrospect.
It must have been fine for the audiences of the time, but today the story seems silly and not at all sophisticated. It’s a fun movie, but a better screenplay was missing. The dialogue is also only serviceable, though some of the more humorous elements worked for me. The intertitles were used sparingly, which was a great choice as it led to the movie being a visual experience first and foremost.
What the movie lacks in terms of storytelling it more than compensates with the technical aspects and the genre elements that are uniformly excellent. The movie is just a fun romp that is particularly effective in transporting you the high seas. The action is also fantastic and Fairbanks superbly portrays the main character.
The other characters are less memorable, though the central romance worked for me and it was quite endearing. But Douglas Fairbanks is so magnetic, charismatic and just wonderful in the main role that it’s easy to see why he was such a tremendous star back in the twenties. This isn’t his most iconic role, but it’s not far from his best works, that’s for sure.
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The Black Pirate was filmed in this very strange two-tone Technicolor and it was the first major movie filmed in that process. I personally find it somewhat subdued and monotone, but for the time it must have looked incredible. The colors do not matter when the sets are this gorgeous, though. Everything looked so real and meticulously crafted here while the score was lovely and the directing and editing were also very strong.
