The Black Pirate Review

• 19th Apr 2011

The Black Pirate (as played by the inimitable Douglas Fairbanks) is a rip-snorting classic of the silent era. The supremely athletic Fairbanks was famed for doing his own stunts and this enjoyable romp features perhaps his finest and best known, when he uses his dagger to ride down the sails of a galleon. Most of the fun to be had here consists of knowing that there’s no CGI involved, though that is tempered somewhat when the motley crew begin a tug-o-war over a monkey. Sorry about that, little feller.

The story itself is simply there to provide as much action as possible and the title cards read like a pre-Google key word search:

“A page from the History and Lives of the most Bloodthirsty PIRATES who ever infested THE SOUTHERN SEAS. Being an account of BUCCANEERS & the Spanish MAIN, the Jolly Roger, Golden Galleons, bleached skulls, BURIED TREASURE, the Plank, dirks & cutlasses, SCUTTLED SHIPS, marooning, DESPERATE DEEDS, DESPERATE MEN, and – even on this dark soil – ROMANCE.”

Marvellous, me hearties. There are also grotesque prosthetic teeth (at least, I hope they’re false), amputees and acres of Fairbanks’ well-developed chest on display. Alas, there is no rum-swilling and seas of whisky are sadly absent: this gem dates from slap bang in the middle of the Prohibition era. What they lack in booze, the pirates make up for with gunpowder and ferocious ogling of leading lady Billie Dove.

These corsairs are suitably vicious and murderous – given the strict mores of the time, you really do fear for Dove’s safety when the leery gargoyles catch sight of her – and the gore factor is heightened rather than lessened by the odd tints of the Technicolor film. (The Black Pirate was the first movie to be shot using this technology.)

Across the distance of 85 years, Fairbanks’ mega-watt smile and charisma have lost none of their knee-weakening power. Silent films, what with all the incessant piano music and over the top mugging, are not everyone’s bag. That said you’d really be missing a trick if you didn’t lower your gangway for this dashing corsair.

The DVD is beautifully restored (lucky you if you’ve got a big plasma screen) and the extras include a black and white talkie version with commentary from Fairbanks’ equally swoonarific son, the late Douglas Fairbanks Jnr.

Fairbanks Snr was a true Hollywood great, one of those stars who just never stopped shining – his last words were “I’ve never felt better in my life” – and this release does much to keep that flame burning. One for the true romantics.

Also, swashbuckling. There. I said it.

Clare Moody