Like Keaton and Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. took great pains with every aspect of his productions, rendering the period settings with studied precision, and directing the action (in association with the credited director) with great visual flair and his own whimsical humor. His best films provide a well-balanced mix of comedy, romance, acrobatics and spectacle. The Black Pirate, perhaps the last Fairbanks classic, is a sophisticated swashbuckling comedy, fast-paced, colorful and, with some of Fairbank's most astonishing gymnastic stunts, vastly entertaining. Fairbanks plays a nobleman who disguises his identity in order to avenge his father's death at the hands of a pirate band. Billie Dove plays the princess in distress, and Sam de Grasse is the buccaneer villain.
The film was originally renowned for its early use of two-strip Technicolor, and we hope to present a rare, 35mm original-color print tonight. Eileen Bowser of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, notes that, “although the Technicolor process was not yet perfected, Fairbanks had ideas for using it in a creative fashion even then. Avoiding brilliant hues, he asked his technicians to try for sepia and darkened tones as found in old, thickly varnished paintings, to give a sense of the romantic past.”

Our Tribute to Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. continues in January