Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

ma-cortes Fun silent pirate movie , plenty of action , thrills , exciting sword-play , luxurious costumes , athletic feats , fabulous scenarios ; all meld together under Albert Parker's right direction . This exciting swashbuckling deals with the love story of a bold Buccaneer (Douglas Fairbanks) and a gorgeous princess (Billie Dove) and a subsequent vengeance . As a shipwrecked mariner vows vendetta on the pirates who destroyed his father's ship .As he writes on his father's tomb : ¨My father I solemnly vow¨. Seeking revenge, the athletic young man joins the pirate band led by a nasty captain (Randolf) responsible for his father's death . As Fairbanks uses all kind of shrewdness in order to penetrate a well-defended ship and take the command . Amusing pirate movie , plenty of emotion , astounding adventures , realistic miniature work , evocative cinematography in black and white and luxurious costumes ; this is the quintaessential pirate movie . This classic story of romantic adventure come to life enriched by fabulous scenarios and adapted rightly to the screen . Overwhelming battle ships , sword-play and full of villainy , romance , swashbuckler and heroism . The picture is fast-moving , exciting and thrilling right up to the climatic confrontation between Douglas Fairbanks and his villain enemies . Big budgeted film by United Artists Pictures , using appropriate ship shots and miniature sets when possible . ¨Black pirate¨ results to be Douglas Fairbanks's swashbuckling best and has achieved a classic status . Charming Douglas Fairbanks steals the show when he bounds and leaps , flies and run ; in addition he is the screenwriter of this rollicking adventure . Fairbanks executes athletic feats , moving sword-play and spectacular acrobatics similarly he demonstrated in other classics such as The Mark of Zorro (1920), Robin Hood (1922), Three musketeers , Don Q Son of Zorro , The gaucho , The iron mask , The Taming of the Shrew , Don Juan , Mr Robinson , among others . Douglas performed most of the stunts in his films himself. He was an excellent athlete and used his physical abilities to his best advantage. Douglas was king of Hollywood by that time and he formed his own production company ; during a Liberty Bond tour with Charles Chaplin he fell in love with Mary Pickford with whom he, Chaplin and Griffith had formed United Artists in 1919. In fact, there is a cameo appearance by Mary Pickford as Princess Isobel in Final Embrace . Furthermore , there appears Nino Cochise, grandson of the famous Apache chief Cochise as an extra in this movie , it was his second extra job in Hollywood, his first one being in Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood . The crew of Douglas Fairbanks' longboat in the climactic chase and battle were members of the crew of the USS Arizona .Bright black and white cinematography , though also available in color .This silent version was accompanied with an appropriate piano musical score . The motion picture was professionally realized by Albert Parker who directed some vehicles for Douglas Fairbanks . However , Donald Crisp -who plays a secondary role- was the original director, but after a few days of filming had a falling-out with star Douglas Fairbanks and was replaced by Parker.

GJValent I saw The Black Pirate during the first season(?) of Silents Please, before the Ernie Kovacs hosted episodes. Of course, it was a truncated 20 or so black and white minutes of a 90 minute color film. Still, the two scenes that stuck in my mind were the 'sword ride down the sail', and the underwater swimming sequence. I saw this episode once, and at 9 or 10 years old, didn't pay much attention to the actors. Once after that, I asked my father if that was the, 'pirate from the silent movie', while we were watching something with Gilbert Roland. My father had no idea what I was talking about. Now, sometime in the 1990s, I caught a cable documentary about silent films, (there are ****loads of docs about them), and one featured a short color sequence of The Black Pirate. OMG, I saw that 40 years ago ! Now I knew the flick, the star, the format. A quick Google and I ordered a Kino video, (pre DVD), of The Black Pirate. Everything I remembered was there, and, a LOT more. Like 70 minutes more, and, in COLOR. I don't know how big a hit this was, but, it should have been the Titanic of its day. A fast moving story, lots of action, sex(sort of), violence, revenge, and COLOR ! Also, you only had to sit still for 90 minutes instead of 4 hours. Anyway, Doug shows again why he was the King of Hollywood. Great stunts, good looking, able to do ANYTHING. BTW, the additional features on the video/DVD show you how he was able to do anything. If you haven't seen it, this 'footnote' to the history of 'silent, color film', is a must see/have.

Space_Mafune Douglas Fairbanks Sr. stars in this exciting, action-packed swashbuckling pirate adventure yarn, as a young man seeking revenge on a band of pirates after they ransacked and destroyed his ship, killing his father. In trying to achieve his goal, he tricks the pirates into thinking he wants to join their band. Will this ruse work?This delivers all the thrills and cutthroat pirate action anyone could ever hope for and even more. It has all the elements one looks for and wants from today's big blockbusters: impressive stunts mostly performed by Fairbanks himself, sword fights, pirate treachery, explosions, daring underwater scenes, a damsel in distress, the works. There's a few plot holes and questionable plot twists here and there but it all holds up incredibly well after all these years although in today's world lead actress Billie Dove would have been given more to do. That's a minor nitpick at best. If you like pirate yarns, check this out. Believe me, they just don't get much better than this.

rdjeffers It beats selling soap!Douglas Fairbanks stood alone at the top in 1920. He was the original action hero, and a bona fide movie star. His smiling face appeared on newspapers from coast to coast. The happy-go-lucky upstart of filmdom, clean-cut American destined for danger, was a proved commodity. Why then would he fuss with his formula to produce a costume drama? The Mollycoddle (1920) was the story of a citified dude in the Wild West who foils a gang of diamond smugglers. It was standard fare for 'Doug'. The Mark of Zorro (1920) was a radical departure, starring Fairbanks as a mysterious masked avenger, and the first in a string of films still considered the model for action-adventure. Next came D'Artagnan in The Three Musketeers (1921) and an epidemic broomstick dueling schoolboys. Fairbanks' exploration of storybook legends coincided with the development of feature films, and what was seen as an obligation to increase their length and complexity. In order to produce longer films he diluted his stories, slowing the pace by spreading the action over more time and an increasingly complex production design. The Mollycoddle was a reasonable 86 minutes. The Son of Zorro increased to 107, The Three Musketeers (1921) to 119, Robin Hood (1922) to 133 and The Thief of Bagdad (1924) to a whopping 155 minutes!All were great films, better than great, but they suffered progressively from momentum-killing longevity. William K. Everson described the cost of this elaborate expansion as a loss of "the essentially Fairbanksian qualities, enthusiasm, pace, wit, good humor, and the ability to make points quickly and pungently." Don Q Son of Zorro (1925) while still a bit long at 111 minutes showed a degree of moderation, and played very fast.The Black Pirate (1926)Thursday, July 5, 3:30 & 7:00 p.m., The Lynwood, Bainbridge IslandThe Black Pirate (1926) was lightning in a bottle, set on the high seas with relentless action, energetic humor and the absence of a pointlessly convoluted plot, held to a sensible 88 minutes. Fairbanks developed fantastic stunts while dazzling his audience with two-strip Technicolor throughout the film. The notable absence of women (much to the delight of Fairbanks' target audience there were only two) was largely due to a storyline occupied by bloodthirsty cutthroats, noble mariners and 'Doug', somewhere in the middle. Billie Dove was cast as the love interest and obligatory damsel in distress, Princess Isobel, based on Fairbanks' belief that she photograph well in color. Donald Crisp was memorable as MacTavish, a one-armed Scottish buccaneer and first mate of sorts, while Fairbanks' mascot Charles Stevens played the powder man, who gleefully encircled captive sailors with a trail of black powder before blowing them up with their ship.The essence of fairytale Hollywood, The Black Pirate was filmed at Fairbanks/Pickford Studios while Mary was making Sparrows (1926). The story is told that Pickford forbade her husband from kissing another woman, including any actress in any of his films. The final scene of The Black Pirate called for Fairbanks to kiss the Princess. Mary was suitably costumed and facing away from the camera, performed the clincher herself. Another well known story, fact or fable, tells of Fairbanks dashing across the lot to unleash a verbal attack on director William Beaudine after hearing he had placed Mary mere feet from the snapping jaws and razor sharp teeth of ferocious alligators. Other sources claim photographer Charles Rosher employed a 'masked' shot to achieve the effect, with the actors and animals separated by a considerable distance. The animals were also tied down, but 'Doug's' tirade is a far better story.