The Black Pirate (1926)
Directed by: Albert Parker
Starring: Douglas Fairbanks, Billie Dove, Donald Crisp
Length: 88 min
Genre: Adventure
A son (Douglas Fairbanks) vows vengence for his father's death. He joins the pirates that murdered his father and works his way into favor with everyone onboard and is refered to as the "Black Pirate". When the pirates take a ship, along with a young woman names Isobel (Billie Dove), he convinces the crew that they should ask for ransom (instead of giving her to one of the pirates). The pirate who was to get the girl is upset about this, and sabotages the ship set to get the ransom.
The Black Pirate tries to save Isobel but is caught. He walks the plank, but manages to escape with the help of one of the pirates and swims to shore. He returns with a group of armed men and saves the day.
This was the 3rd movie filmed entirely in two-tone technicolor (Toll of the Sea (1922) and Wanderer of the Wasteland (1924) were the first two), although it had been used several times before (Ben-Hur and Phantom of the Opera used it for a few scenes). Also known as "Process 2", it would only be used once more to film an entire movie due to the technical problems associated with it. To film in Process 2, you needed two cameras, and afterwards, the two film strips were cemented together. This would cause problems with the focus of the film and would cause the film to cup irregularly causing damage to the film.
The film was not treated kindly by some reviewers of the day, claiming the film to simply be a bunch of colorful pirates and an assortment of stunts. The story was as present as many other silent movies, but Fairbanks knew what his audience wanted, and he gave them a lot of his trademark stunts, including one of his most well-known stunts, sticking a dagger into the sail of the ship and riding it down.
It was a fun film to watch, and a bit weird. All these years, I always thought sound came before color, but that really wasn't the case, although they only were a few years apart. Of course, color film would remain quite an expensive luxery and was treated, as in this case, as more of an experiment. This would be Fairbanks' only color movie.
Entertainment Rating: 7/10
Historical Rating: 8/10