The pirate (1926)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The pirate |
| Original title | The Black Pirate |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1926 |
| length | 94 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Albert Parker |
| script | Jack Cunningham based on a story by Douglas Fairbanks |
| production | Douglas Fairbanks |
| camera |
Henry Sharp (general photography) Arthur Ball (color sequences only) George Cave (color sequences only) |
| occupation | |
| |
The Seeräuber is an American two-color silent film from 1926 with Douglas Fairbanks in the title role, which is only available on DVD and Blu-ray in a dubbed version.
action
A band of pirates hijacks a Spanish ship, kills all crew members and blows it up and all its occupants. Almost all passengers are killed. One of the passengers survived this cruel act at the side of his seriously injured father and was stranded on an island. There he has to bury his dying father quickly. The survivor swears bloody revenge on the pirates who have killed his father's conscience and decides to join the pirates. One day he wants to become their leader himself in order to extinguish this murderous gang from within. And so it happens. It comes to a duel for life and death in which the previous pirate captain is defeated and killed. The simple passenger has now become a true pirate, who from now on is only called the "black pirate". But he can still take over the leadership of the ship, which is being disputed by the next high-ranking officer, the pirate lieutenant.
When another ship was hijacked while he was being carried, a beautiful young lady named Isobel was found on board. The sexually starved men, first and foremost the pirate lieutenant, want to attack the maiden right away, but the black pirate protects her, on the grounds that she is really a real princess and that he wants to protect her because that High Misses would promise a fat ransom - and only if they were undamaged. But one of his pirate buddies, the pirate lieutenant, who watches him suspiciously, sees through the black pirate game and takes him prisoner. Now they want to send him over the plank , an execution the pirate way. When the ransom for Isobel does not arrive, the pirate lieutenant wants to take what he thinks he deserves: the woman! In the meantime, with the help of an ally on board, the one-armed MacTavish, the black pirate managed to escape and jump overboard to bring soldiers to rescue the female hostage. Back on board, there is a long hand-to-hand battle. Eventually the pirates are defeated, and Isobel, in truth a noblewoman, can sink into the arms of the "black pirate", in truth a veritable Duke of Arnoldo.
Production notes
The pirate , originally The Black Pirate , was made on or off Santa Catalina Island in California and was premiered on March 8, 1926 in the United States. In Germany, Der Seeräuber started in December of the same year, in Austria the premiere was scheduled for January 6, 1928.
Fairbanks provided the idea and the story template for this film under the pseudonym "Elton Thomas". The cost was $ 1.3 million, an enormous amount for the time.
From 1970 to 1972, the British National Film Archive sought a full restoration of the film at the request of Fairbanks' son Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The Black Pirate was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1993.
MacTavish actor Donald Crisp had directed Fairbanks' previous film The Man with the Whip .
Reviews
In the March 9, 1926 issue of the New York Times , Mordaunt Hall wrote : “The film is a series of robust scenes thrown onto the gossamer thread of a story. There are a lot of clever ideas in it that are guaranteed to please every reader of ' Treasure Island '. (...) There is a buried treasure, exploding sailing ships, a romance with a beautiful girl, the casual use of cutlass and knives, the dramatic episode where the hero has to go on the plank and the subsequent capture of the greedy robbers. (…) This production is another step forward on screen, one that both the boy and his mother will enjoy and is healthy entertainment for men of all ages. "
Paimann's Filmlisten calls the film an “adventure drama” and judged: “Douglas Fairbanks plays the leading role in this film, excellent as always. That means his success. Color photography carried out according to the technikolor process will also contribute a lot to this, but it is used with reason and avoids the all-too-colorful. (...) As always, the subject is adventurous, but nonetheless appealing, the directing initially at the usual Fairbanks pace, which, however, comes into its own in the last acts. "
"A cheerful coat-and-sword film with the star in top form."
Jeffrey Vance recalled in his biography of Fairbanks that The Black Pirate was "arguably the most carefully prepared film in Fairbanks' entire career." The result, according to Vance, was an attempt to create “a dazzling new presentation of the producer and actor's most important production assets, himself”. He also writes: "Fairbanks is brilliant as a daredevil buccaneer and gets a boost from a production that is overflowing with a great adventure, spiced with extraordinary stunts and sword fencing, including the much-vaunted gliding down the canvas."
Web links
- The pirates in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ The Black Pirate in The New York Times
- ↑ Der Seeräuber ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in Paimann's film lists
- ↑ Jeffrey Vance: Douglas Fairbanks. Berkeley 2008. University of California Press. 203. ISBN 978-0520256675
