Review of The Black Pirate (1926) by Art S — 04 Jan 2016

Doug Fairbanks leaps and bounds and slides down the rigging in this early two-strip Technicolor swashbuckler. Sure, it has a bunch of pirate clichés (buried treasure, walking the plank) and lots of swordplay but it also seems to lag sometimes.

The early color processing leaves things a bit more red and green than we are used to - especially in the outdoor shots. Doug swears to defeat the pirates after they capture his ship and kill his father, so he does what anyone would do - he joins up to defeat them from the inside.

In the process, he also has to rescue Billie Dove who is on the next ship they capture - of course, he marries her in the end (when they are both revealed to be royalty). A bit of fun for Doug's fans but nowhere near as good as The Thief of Bagdad (1924).