The Black Pirate

Matt J.4.5

To Whom It May ConcernMy name is The Duke of Arnoldo. You killed my father. Prepare to die.Regards,The Black Pirate

Karina Oliveira

Being an account of BUCCANEERS & 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.When you want a pirate movie, you want all the trimmings. 🏴‍☠️🪙💀⚔️I can't always recall my introduction to a particular actor, but I remember my first glimpse of Doug, Sr. - in all his chest-tastic, two-strip Technicolor glory - vividly. The Black Pirate was one of the first movies I purchased when I got my inaugural DVD player, and, sure, it's a straightforward hero-seeks-vengeance-and-rescues-damsel story. But it's brimming with spectacle, wonderfully choreographed fights, hiss-worthy villains in the form of Anders Randolf and Sam De Grasse (the latter having earlier served as Prince John to Doug's Robin Hood), unofficial Fairbanks mascot Charles Stevens blowing things up real good, future Academy Award winner Donald Crisp (who'd directed and played the baddie in Doug's Don Q, Son of Zorro) as the Black Pirate's one-armed, unconvincing facial hair-sporting Scottish pal, and - most crucially - the balletic athletic prowess that made Fairbanks cinema's first great swashbuckler. I don't care if Mythbusters debunked it, Doug capturing a ship single-handedly will always be magnificent. "There's more to our trade than sword tricks."Postscript - The film is responsible for my two favorite photos of Doug and Mary: 1) In their respective costumes (she was simultaneously making Sparrows) after a day's shooting.2) Ms. Pickford disguised as leading lady Billie Dove (incidentally, one of the few actresses to appear opposite both Dougs, Sr. and Jr.) for the obligatory kiss. Post-postscript - The semi-legible scrawl that appears onscreen seems to match Doug's actual handwriting. I recently picked up Richard Schickel's The Fairbanks Album, and there's a photo of one of Woodrow Wilson's private note cards - snatched by Sr. during a presidential visit amid a Liberty Bond-selling tour with Mary and Charlie Chaplin in 1918 and sent to his son - that I would be incapable of reading without the translation provided in Jr.'s memoir:"Dear Boy, this is written from the executive office of the White House while all around us they are settling some of the greatest questions in the history of the world - Daddy." He never signed himself Daddy before or since. Had it been typed, I would have thought someone else had signed it, but the card was in longhand. It is one of fewer than half a dozen handwritten notes or letters I received from him in his lifetime.

✯ Miloš⑬ 💀↯3.0

The Black Pirate had some cool sets, and that one shot, which we who watched know which, was really, really cool. Other than that, it just feels okay. It wasn’t something that hooked me right away, but it was fine.