Film Reviews

Posted: Thu., Dec. 31, 1925, 11:00pm PT

The Black Pirate

Elton/United Artists. Director Albert Parker; Producer Douglas Fairbanks; Screenplay Elton Thomas [= Douglas Fairbanks], Jack Cunningham; Camera Henry Sharp; Editor William Nolan; Art Director Karl Oscar Borg
Douglas Fairbanks Billie Dove Donald Crisp Anders Randolf Tempe Piggott Sam De Grasse
Douglas Fairbanks' initial feature shot completely in color. It's as great a boost for the Technicolor process as for Fairbanks.

In the tale that it spins it's the weakest Fairbanks has ever had. It's simply a matter of scores of pirates in color and the Fairbanks curriculum of stunts.

Fairbanks is up and down the screen with his acrobatics, the punch being his taking of a merchant vessel singlehanded as a pirate. His best athletic bit is the manner in which he rips the sails by mounting to the cross arms, piercing the wide sail with his sword, grabbing the hilt and descending to the deck, his momentum retarded by the sword ripping the canvas as he comes down.

Silent. (Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1926. Running time: 88 MIN.

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