The Black Pirate
About The Black Pirate
Pirates kill a nobleman's father. He joins the crew as the Black Pirate and takes a merchant ship by himself. A young woman of royal blood is aboard. He keeps the disguise and tries to protect her. Douglas Fairbanks plays the pirate. Billie Dove plays the woman.
Cast & crew
More about The Black Pirate
Albert Parker directed. Jack Cunningham wrote it. Fairbanks produced it and United Artists released it on 8 March 1926. Henry Sharp photographed it. Mortimer Wilson wrote the music. It runs 94 minutes. Fairbanks waited until 1925, after the first natural-color features of 1922, so Technicolor could print a two-strip picture. He held the palette down, after tests of sets, costumes, and a studio ocean, because he thought saturated color would fight the story. The release used Technicolor Process No. 2, a laminated two-strip film, with a black-and-white camera beside the color camera. The laminated prints were fragile. Technicolor later moved to a single strip.
Themes
Look
Henry Sharp shot in two-strip Technicolor, with a second black-and-white camera running beside the color camera. The ocean was built in the studio.
Music
Mortimer Wilson composed the score for the silent picture.
Preservation
The laminated two-strip prints were fragile. Copies are on the Internet Archive and Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Donald Crisp, Anders Randolf, Tempe Pigott, and Sam De Grasse are billed.
- Fairbanks slides down a sail on his knife and stops the ship.
- Mary Pickford is on the Wikidata cast.
- Copies are on the Internet Archive and on Wikimedia Commons.
Scenes
- Fairbanks takes the merchant ship alone, then finds the royal passenger.
- He slides down the sail on a knife and stops the boat.
Also available
- Internet Archive (TheBlackPirate1926DouglasFairbanksSRAndy)
