BLACKBEARD THE PIRATE
US, 1952, 99 minutes, Colour.
Robert Newton, Linda Darnell, William Bendix, Keith Andes, Torin Thatcher, Alan Mowbray, Richard Egan.
Directed by Raoul Walsh.
Blackbeard the Pirate is a rollicking pirate adventure – popular in the late 40s and the early 1950s with such films as Sinbad the Sailor, Away All Flags, The Crimson Pirate.
Robert Newton had already played Long John Silver in the classic version of Treasure Island and was to reprise his role for Long John Silver in 1954. It is said that Daniel Day Lewis picked up his accent from Robert Newton in Blackbeard the Pirate for his role in Gangs of New York. Be that as it may, Robert Newton was one of the most eccentric of English actors, especially in his later brogue and rolling eye-rolls.
This is a Hollywood film, focusing on the reformed pirate Sir Henry Morgan who is now a governor in the West Indies (played by Torin Thatcher). When a young man, played by Keith Andes, wants to advance in service, he goes under cover on a pirate ship only to find that Blackbeard is in command. Also on the boat is the Lady Edwina Mansfield, played by Linda Darnell.
There are the expected action adventures with the touches of rollicking comedy in Robert Newton’s performance.
Raoul Walsh had begun directing films in Hollywood with Pancho Villa in 1912. During the 20s and 30s he made a number of silent films making the transition to sound with such films as The Big Trail with John Wayne. In the late 30s and 40s he moved to Warner Bros and directed a number of action adventures but especially war adventures with Errol Flynn including Northern Pursuit, Uncertain Glory, Objective, Burma, Desperate Journey. With the coming of Cinemascope and wide screen in the 1950s he made a number of action adventures, many of them at sea including Captain Horatio Hornblower and Sea Devils.
1. How entertaining an adventure, comedy, parody, matinee film?
2. Its use of pirate genre techniques and conventions? Better than usual, different? Realistic, parody?
3. Quality of photography, colour, locations and sets? Pirate music? Special effects, battles?
4. The film related to history. Comment on the opening caption of the armchair pirate. How credible was the plot? Tosch, Sir Henry Morgan? Piracy in the 18th century? Pirate behaviour?
5. Robert Newton's style as Blackbeard? Appearance, style of acting (hamming?), behaviour, betrayal, greed? Edwina as heroine? Glamour, greed, romance? Maynard as hero, spy, possibility of killing Blackbeard, vengeance on Morgan? Worley as Lieutenant, betrayed? Henry Morgan and his status? The conventional pirate crew?
6. The conventional sequences of life on the ship, dangers, fights, betrayal, the burial of treasure?
7. The most memorable sequences?
8. The humorous and tongue-in-cheek attitude towards the events?
9. Brutality? Violence? Conventional presentation of heroes and heroines, villains?
