The Black Pirate stars the dashing Douglas Fairbanks, full of bravura and charm. The film’s spectacular feats of derring-do include exciting swordplay and breathtaking underwater choreography—all in dazzling two-color Technicolor. Fairbanks plays a nobleman who takes the identity of a pirate to infiltrate and take revenge on the cutthroats responsible for his father’s death. The Black Pirate is not the first pirate story put on film, but probably the most influential. Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance writes, “Fairbanks is resplendent as the bold buccaneer and buoyed by a production brimming with rip-roaring adventure and spiced with exceptional stunts and swordplay, including the celebrated ‘sliding down the sails’ sequence, arguably the most famous set piece of the entire Fairbanks treasure chest.”
1926, USA, Directed by Albert Parker, Cast: Douglas Fairbanks, Billie Dove, Tempe Pigott, Donald Crisp
Introduced by Tracey Goessel, author of The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks
Co-presented by the California Film Institute and 826 Valencia Pirate Supply Store
ASL interpretation provided