Blackbeard the Pirate (RKO, 1952)
Robert Newton exhibits absolutely no shame in his portrayal of the title character in Blackbeard the Pirate. If you thought that Newton’s “Arr, matey“s got out of hand in Treasure Island, wait til you see this one. +
Newton is best remembered for portraying the feverish-eyed Long John Silver in the Walt Disney version of Treasure Island, which became the standard for screen portrayals of pirates.
Robert Newton & Linda Darnell in Blackbeard the Pirate
Hailing from the West Country that was also the birthplace of many famous English pirates, Newton is credited with popularising the stereotypical West Country “pirate voice” by exaggerating his native accent. Newton has become the “patron saint” of the annual International Talk Like a Pirate Day on 19 September. +
During World War II, Newton served in the Royal Navy on board HMS Britomart, which served as an escort ship on several Russian convoys. His film career was cut short by chronic alcoholism, which led to his death from a heart attack in Beverly Hills, California, in 1956 at the age of 50. Years later Nicholas Newton scattered his father’s ashes in the sea in Mount’s Bay, Cornwall, where he had grown up.
Peter Ustinov also portrayed Blackbeard in a 1968 live-action fantasy/comedy from Disney called Blackbeard’s Ghost
The Black Pirate (United Artists, 1926)
1926 Silent adventure film shot entirely in two-strip Technicolor. The story involves a young nobleman (Douglas Fairbanks) whose father is killed by pirates. He vows to avenge his dad’s death by becoming a buccaneer himself and routing out the villains. Along the way, he rescues a damsel-in-distress and engages in a few bloody duels.
Fairbank’s athletic abilities would gain him wide popularity among theatre audiences. Fairbanks spared no expense and effort in these films, which established the standard for all future costume dramas and swashbuckling films.
The script was adapted by Jack Cunningham from a story by Fairbanks, who used his middle names “Elton Thomas” as a pseudonym. The film was directed by Albert Parker and has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. +
The Black Pirate is available for free download at the Internet Archive
The Buccaneer (Paramount, 1938)
From the novel Lafitte the Pirate by Lyle Saxon.
Cecil B. DeMille’s The Buccaneer stars Fredric March, complete with curly hair, pencil moustache and florid “Sacre Bleu!” French accent, as 18th century pirate Jean Lafitte. Operating out of a “buccaneer’s haven” of the coast of New Orleans, Lafitte plunders all passing ships for their wealth, but refuses to attack any vessel flying the American flag.
During the War of 1812, Lafitte is offered a pardon by Andrew Jackson (Hugh Sothern) if he and his pirates will fight on the American side. As good as his word, Lafitte stands shoulder to shoulder with Jackson as they ward off the British at the Battle of New Orleans.
Cecil B. DeMille remade the film in 1958 in Technicolor and VistaVision with the same title, directed by Anthony Quinn. The remake stars Yul Brynner, Charles Boyer, and Charlton Heston as Andrew Jackson. +
Critical response was generally unfavorable, despite some impressive battle scenes. +
The Buccaneer (Paramount, 1958)
“Get your filthy paws off me, you goddamn dirty swashbuckler”
The Pirate (MGM, 1948)
Vincente Minnelli directed his then-wife Judy Garland and Gene Kelly (who also co-choreographed with the Nicholas Brothers) in this very colorful love story of a woman who fantasizes about life on the high seas with the legendary pirate, Mack “the Black” Macoco.
The score, by Lennie Hayton, featured the song “Be a Clown” by Cole Porter. This dance sequence was omitted when shown in some cities in the South, such as Memphis, because it featured black performers The Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold, dancing with Kelly. (It was the first time they had danced onscreen with a Caucasian, and while it was Kelly’s insistence that they perform with him, they were the ones who were punished. Essentially blackballed, they moved to Europe and did not return until the mid-60s.) +
Gene Kelly in The Pirate
The Crimson Pirate (Warner Brothers, 1952)
Half affectionate parody and half enthusiastic tribute to the swashbuckling pirate epics of the 1930′s and 40′s, The Crimson Pirate stars Burt Lancaster as Captain Vallo, the smiling leader of a pack of unscrupulous pirates. While on the high seas, Vallo and his men spy a well-stocked merchant ship, and waste no time in relieving it of its contents. +
While the film is set in the Caribbean, it was filmed at Teddington Studios in England and on the island of Ischia in Italy. About 10 minutes from the end of film, Lancaster is in a hot-air balloon and about to recapture his pirate ship. The movie shows a wide shot broadside view of the pirate ship as they are approaching. In the background, is a modern luxury liner/cruise ship; quite out of place in the eighteenth century.
full plot description on wikipedia
Morgan the Pirate (MGM, 1961)
As the real-life Sir Henry Morgan, Reeves is sold into slavery and forced to work on a Panama plantation. He is purchased by haughty Valerie Lagrange; they fall in love, and as punishment Reeves is condemned to toil in the galley of a Spanish vessel. He leads an escape, overtakes the ship, and establishes himself as a pirate captain. In true Captain Blood fashion, he eventually catches up with his former amour, and lays waste to most of Panama in the process. +
Sir Henry Morgan (1635 – 1688) was a Welsh privateer, pirate and admiral of the English Royal Navy. He earned a reputation as one of the most notorious and successful privateers in history, and one of the most ruthless among those active along the Spanish Main. (image rt)
An account of Morgan’s disreputable exploits was published by Alexandre Exquemelin, who once had been his confidante, (probably as a barber-surgeon) in a Dutch volume entitled De Americaensche Zee-Roovers (About the Buccaneers of America).
Morgan took steps to discredit the book and successfully brought a libel suit against the book’s publishers. The book nonetheless contributed much to Morgan’s reputed fame as a bloodthirsty pirate. Morgan died on 25 August 1688. He is buried in Palisadoes cemetery, which sank beneath the sea after a 1692 earthquake.
On 4 August 2011 archaeologists from Texas State University reported having found what may be one of Morgan’s ships off the coast of Panama. The dive was conducted off the Lajas Reef; some sources are stating it was at the mouth of Panama’s Chagres River, where a 52-by-22-foot (16 by 7 m) section from the starboard side of a wooden ship’s hull was found, and is thought to be Morgan’s flagship, Satisfaction.
And yeah, he’s that Captain Morgan, in production since 1944.
The Mighty Diamonds – Morgan The Pirate
Captain Blood (Warner Brothers, 1935) Spanish poster
The 1935 film Captain Blood, starring Errol Flynn, adapted from Rafael Sabatini‘s novel, was loosely based on Morgan’s life.
John Steinbeck‘s first novel, Cup of Gold (1929), is also about Henry Morgan’s life.
The Black Swan (20th Century Fox, 1942) French poster
The 1942 film, The Black Swan, based on the novel of the same name by Rafael Sabatini, details the life of Henry Morgan after he became the governor of Jamaica.
Tyrone Power in The Black Swan
After England and Spain make peace, notorious pirate Henry Morgan decides to reform. As a reward, he is made Governor of Jamaica, with a mandate to rid the Caribbean of his former comrades. more
Perhaps unintentionally, the 1942 Technicolor swashbuckler The Black Swan is a bondage fetishist’s dream, with hero and heroine Tyrone Power and Maureen O’Hara taking turns being tied up and imprisoned throughout the film’s brisk 85-minute running time.
Before the final obligatory sail into the sunset, however, Margaret is kidnapped and manhandled on a seemingly hourly basis, while Jamie is subjected to even more abuse at the hands of pirates and officials alike. +
Power and O’Hara in the trailer for The Black Swan (1942)
Scaramouche, released in 1921, was Rafael Sabatini‘s first best seller in the swashbuckling genre.
The novel, a historical romantic set during the French Revolution, became an international best-seller.It was followed by the equally successful Captain Blood in 1922.
All of his earlier books were rushed into reprints, the most popular of which was The Sea Hawk from 1915.
Sabatini (image right) was a prolific writer; he produced a new book approximately every year, and maintained a great deal of popularity with the reading public through the decades that followed. +
The Sea Hawk (Warner Brothers, 1940)
In the 1580s, the Sea Hawks — the name given to the bold privateers who prowl the oceans taking ships and treasure on behalf the British crown — are the most dedicated defenders of British interests in the face of the expanding power of Philip of Spain. Captain Geoffrey Thorpe (Errol Flynn) is the boldest of the Sea Hawks, responsible for capturing and destroying more than 50 Spanish ships and ten Spanish cities. +
Originally planned as an adaptation of the novel, the film utilized an entirely different story inspired by the exploits of Sir Francis Drake,unlike the 1924 silent film adaptation, which was fairly faithful to Sabatini’s plot.
The speech the Queen (Flora Robson) gives at the close of the film was meant to inspire the viewing British audience, which was already in the grip of the Second World War. Suggestions that it was the duty of all free men to defend liberty, and that the world did not belong to any one man, roused audiences.
more on wikipedia
Captain Pirate (Columbia, 1952)
This above-average Louis Hayward swashbuckler was sumptuously produced by Columbia’s resident western specialist Harry Joe Brown. Adapted from Rafael Sabatini’s Captain Blood Returns, the film stars Hayward as physician-turned-buccaneer Peter Blood. Now respectably retired in the West Indies. Or is he? +
Queen of the Pirates (Columbia, 1961)
Italian swashbuckler “La Venere dei pirati” features a father & daughter team of pirates. more
The Princess and the Pirate (RKO, 1944)
Bob Hope plays Sylvester the Great, a two-bit entertainer “touring” the West Indies in the 18th century. Mayo is Princess Margaret, who is kidnapped by a rough, tough buccaneer known only as The Hook (Victor McLaglen).
Through a series of unbelievable circumstances, Sylvester rescues Margaret, and the two of them pose as travelling troubadors in a treacherous Pirate colony, where people are stabbed and dumped in the ocean for nonpayment of rent and other such offenses.
Disguising himself as The Hook, Sylvester is befriended by corrupt colonial governor La Roche (Walter Slesak), but only until the real Hook shows up. Things look bleak for Sylvester and Margaret… +
Bob Hope describes the length of his cutlass to Virginia Mayo
The film was nominated two Academy Awards; for Best Score and Best Art Direction. +
Captain Kidd (United Artists, (1945)
It’s every man for himself when Charles Laughton bites into the role of infamous 17th century pirate captain William Kidd (1645 – 1701). The film portrays Kidd as a savvy and manipulative sociopath, ultimately undone by the son of a man whom he had killed.
detailed plot description on wikipedia
Captain Kidd Starring Charles Laughton and Randolph Scott
Charles Laughton later reprised his part in the 1952 farce Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (Warner Brothers, 1953
Captain Kidd’s Kids (Pathe, 1919) silent comedy
The Great Adventures of Captain Kidd (Columbia, 1953)
The British Admirality assigns two officers, Richard Dale and Alan Duncan, to gather evidence to convict Captain Kidd of piracy in the English courts. They sail for New York to learn the whereabouts of Kid, and posing as ordinary seamen, they join his crew. They learn that Kidd, the legendary swashbuckler of the seven seas, is not a a villain who scourges and plunders at will, but a man whose loyalty to England knows no bounds, a maritime adventurer who attacks only enemy French vessels and those of the pirates that sail against the British Empire. (imdb)
Captain Kidd and the Slave Girl (United Artists, 1954)
Eva Gabor, who would later costar with Arnold the Pig on TV’s Green Acres, is the slave girl. Gabor has been dispatched by the villains to seduce Kidd and determine the whereabouts of the pirate’s legendary buried treasure. She falls in love with him instead, standing by his side as he fights his way through reels and reels of stock footage from old Hollywood swashbucklers. +
Against All Flags (Universal International, 1952)
Against All Flags is a 1952 American pirate film starring Errol Flynn as Brian Hawke, Maureen O’Hara as Prudence “Spitfire” Stevens and Anthony Quinn as Roc Brasiliano. In 1700, British officer Brian Hawke infiltrates a group of pirates located on Libertatia on the coast of Madagascar, and falls in love with pirate captain Stevens.
This was to be Flynn’s last Hollywood swashbuckler. By this point, Flynn was drinking heavily and was usually too intoxicated to continue shooting by late afternoon. Flynn broke his ankle during filming in February, delaying the last few days filming for two months. Detailed plot summary on wikipedia
King’s Pirate (Universal, 1967)
This very economical remake of the 1952 Errol Flynn vehicle Against All Flags stars Doug McClure in the Flynn role. Cashiered from the royal navy in disgrace, McClure becomes a buccaneer, guiding his loyal crew to an island completely populated by cutthroats. Here he links up with pirate-captain Guy Stockwell and lady-swashbuckler Jill St. John. (allmovie)
The Spanish Main (RKO, 1945) French poster
Paul Henried is his usual stoic self as Laurent Van Horn, a Dutch sea captain shipwrecked on the coast of Cartagena, a Spanish-held island. Sentenced to be hanged, Van Horn and his crew escape from jail and take up piracy as revenge against Spain.
The script is a cynical melange of pirate-movie cliches and the performances are generally routine, but it pleased crowds in 1945, posting a profit of nearly $1.5 million. The film is largely forgotten today. (allmovie)
Binnie Barnes (right) steals the show as feisty female buccaneer Anne Bonney (1702 – 1782) and who in real life looked less like Barnes and more like Walter Slezak. The character of Anne Bonny will be featured in the upcoming pirate-themed Starz TV series Black Sails
Anne of the Indies (20th Century Fox, 1951)
Jean Peters is at her feisty best in Anne of the Indies. Harboring a grudge against all men (and not without reason), Anne becomes “Captain Providence,” one of the most notorious pirate leaders of the Spanish Main. Anne is pursued by French captain Pierre la Rochelle (Louis Jourdan), who intends to bring her to justice.
After leaving her victims to die on a desert island, Anne relents and rescues them. She later fully redeems herself (at great personal cost) during a battle with her fiercest rival, Blackbeard. (allmovie)
- Pirates in popular culture -
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