Black Pirate (United Artists) (1926)

Good Articles that Will Aid Your Campaign How “Doug” Managed Feat of Splitting Galleon’s Sails Days of Practise, at First in Harness, Three-ply Canvas, and Special Dexterity with a Knife All Contributed to Spectacular Bit of Movie Business Two scenes id particular have proved amazing to those who have had the fortune to see Douglas Fairbanks in “The Black Pirate” at the . Theatre. They have gasped at the un¬ derwater swimming 6cene and at the sail-splitting episode. The former is a sweeping, dramatical¬ ly effective bit in which 120 soldiers with knives in mouths and swords at side are seen submerging their galley, swimming in formation at a great depth, then rising in ranks to the surface. The latter comes, when Fairbanks, to prove his skill at this business of piracy, takes a ship single handed, bounds agilely to the topsails to ride a knife in a mag¬ nificent gesture that neatly severs the canvas in half. To do this took days of practice, with Mr. Fairbanks suspended like a monkey on a leash as he made those trial plunges down the sails. The sails were made three ply thick, the knife dulled, as otherwise the speed of cutting through the canvas would have sent him hurtling to the ground. He held the knife at a 45-degree angle to the sail and then, with arms and legs taped to prevent friction burns, in a breath-taking moment ac¬ tually zoomed down the sails. Once everything was in place, Dwight Franklin, the illustrator and authority on pirate life, a disciple of Howard Pyle, had the composition of each scene to work out, to make it as carefully planned for eye pleasure as any canvas for gallery exhibition. Every night during six weeks filming the assistant director handed him a layout of the scenes to be shot the next day. Franklin would sketch in the figures, number them and then have the cast fit into the figure position, with the result that the pirate crew had no haphazard grouping of themselves but were placed in accordance with definite laws of com¬ position where they were most eye-com¬ pelling. For such an episode as that when the pirates hastily scrambled off an unfortunate merchantman about to be exploded, each man was timed; had a special position and moment to fling himself over the deck rails. After the general fury of departure abated, lone men from various portions of the ship dove in shining arcs into the sea. Such were the minutiae of the composition of this glamorous picture of pirate life. AN OBJECT LESSON TO FILM MAGNATES “The Black Pirate” should be held up as a shining example for those pro¬ ducers whose intentions may be to in¬ undate the film market with prismatic pictures. Such is the conclusion of Martin B. Dickstein, in the Brooklyn Eagle. “So homogeneous has been the distri¬ bution of tones in the new Fairbanks’ picture,” he writes, “that never after the introductory sequences is one aware at all of the existence of the rich browns, the mellow bronzes and the soft sepia tones which make this pro¬ duction a constant balm to the optic senses. This would be the strongest point in favor of Technicolor/ Colors which cry aloud their presence, like a sour trombone in a symphony, cannot be beautiful. And ‘The Black Pirate’ is an uncommonly beautiful cinematog¬ raphic composition. “Let me be so presumptuous, then, as to lay a word of warning upon the threshold of those penny-catching film manufacturers who would make colored pictures because ‘The Black Pirate’ as a colored picture has won a fat meas¬ ure of attention and will therefore make a lot of money. I would remind these producers that Douglas Fairbanks has not attained his objective of successful color photography in a week or a month or even a year of painstaking effort and study. He has been a good three years at the job of preparing for and producing this masterful screening at the Selwyn.” ^SEES BOY ANGLE IN PIRATE FILM Anent “The Black Pirate”, nothing pleases its star more than the criti¬ cism it has received. Comments on its story make him rejoicS. For years he wanted to make a pirate story. What boy hasn’t dreamed of taking a ship single- handed? Mr. Fairbanks says: “Really, I’ve the mental angle of a seventeen-year old boy. I make, or try to make, just the kind of pic¬ tures I enjoy myself. What I wanted to produce was the pirate feeling I got from Howard Pyle’s illustrations. Everything depends on angles, any¬ way.” UNIQUE FILM BID A unique and flattering invitation from the Government of New Zea¬ land to Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford to visit that country as its guests, was recently delivered through Ralph R. Doyle, general manager of United Artists, Ltd., of Australasia, and is in the form of three reels of film, displaying the scenic beauties of New Zealand and specially titled for “Doug” and Mary. Arthur H. Messenger, Publicity Officer of New Zealand, is respon¬ sible for this special “film invitation.” The final title of the film is: “When are you coming to New Zealand? A welcome awaits you!” According to Mr. Doyle, Mary Pickford is the most popular feminine star of both New Zealand and Aus¬ tralia while the star of “The Black Pirate” occupies a similar position as the male favorite in the hearts of the fans of the Antipodes. EX-“PUGS” PREFERRED The average person defines a pirate as just a pirate. But in Doug Fairbanks’ opinion a pirate is not a pirate unless he is the most primal looking creature imagin¬ able. And Fairbanks took no chances in the selection of the cast for “The Black Pirate”, his current production which is at the . Theatre. All those making application posed before the camera, and if they looked rough and ready enough, they were permitted to join his “Jolly Roger” crew. Out of the first 200 who applied only fifty qualified. Studio employes, hard¬ ened by years of contact with charac¬ ters of all sorts, claim Fairbanks’ bevy of buccaneers is the roughest and boldest looking lot they ever saw. Most of the “extras” were ex-pugilists, wrestlers and cow-punchers, hard ^muscled and hard mannered. “The Black Pirate” is in Technicolor, which necessitated five months of ex¬ perimental work in color blending, be¬ fore production began. FAIRBANKS OUTDOES SELF AS A PIRATE New Film of Buccaneering Ad¬ venture Is Spectacular and Romantic Douglas Fairbanks has long been not¬ ed for his lavish and ambitious picture productions, but in “The Black Pirate” he is reported as fairly having out¬ done his own previous efforts. It is a faithful, thrilling epic of the golden days of buccaneering near the end of the eighteenth century, and depicts viv¬ idly and colorfully the hectic life of the dare-devil roamers of the Spanish Main during that era. In every way it is the most stupendous production that Doug has ever attempted, and from end to end it is filled with the unique ath¬ letic feats that place a Fairbanks pic¬ ture in a class by itself; in fact, in “The Black Pirate” the star has thought up a number of new stunts that are as thrilling as they are novel. The entire picture has been filmed in a remarkable new color process known as Technicolor, that reproduces with exactitude every tint, shade and hue of nature itself. Unlike many other color attempts, Technicolor is entirely nat¬ ural, minus all exaggeration, and restful to the eyes. The cast supporting Fairbanks as usual is a notable one. The leading lady is the lovely Billie Dove. Hundreds and hundreds of blood-thirsty pirates ap¬ pear during the action, and the leaders and hundreds of blood-thirsty pirates ap- tors as Donald Crisp, Sam De Grasse, Anders Randolf, Charles Stevens, E. J. Ratcliffe, Charles Belcher, Roy Coul- son and John Wallace. “The Black Pirate” was directed by Albert Parker, who has served in. a similar capacity with several other Fair¬ banks pictures. Dwight Franklin, the noted artist, whose specialty is the de¬ picting of pirate life, acted as consult¬ ant during the filming of the production, Doug himself has devised, arranged and staged an elaborate prologue that will | introduce the oicture. CUED PIRATE FILM FROM OLD MASTERS Douglas Fairbanks Studied Art Galleries Before Undertaking New Production It was only after Douglas Fair¬ banks had made an exhaustive study of the Technicolor process and its results with different shades that he decided to produce his “Black Pirate” wholly in colors. Albert Parker, his director, said Fairbanks went so far as to study the works of old masters at the Huntington Art Gallery in Pasadena, Cal., as he wanted to do his utmost to get effects that would appeal to an artist. It was his idea to make a pirate picture that would seem to the spectators as something that had been down in the cellars, for perhaps 300 years, and looked as if it had been cleaned and varnished for the theatre showing. Fifty^ thousand feet of test negative was “shot” be¬ fore work was started on the film. All the woodwork on the vessels, used in the picture was tested first in its natural state and then painted, to see how it appeared on the screen. Sometimes the painted results were too green, or not exactly the tint that Mr. Fairbanks wanted. Virtually one set of costumes was used for sunlight scenes and another set for sequences photographed with artificial light. In “The Black Pirate,” as seen on the screen at the .•..... theatre this week, this difference in the costumes is not evident, which was just the thing striven for. Fairbanks had a color chart, using numbers* for the different shades wanted. There was trouble with make¬ up of faces. Some players under the prismatic process needed, no make¬ up while others 'needed if anything more than they would with the or¬ dinary black and white photography. Full-blooded countenances had to be made up in a special way. Sam de Grasse, one of the actors in the film, looks as if he employed make-up, whereas he uses none. Fairbanks has a heavy beard, and his chin when shaved looks dark. Red was used on his cheeks and chin. Zan, a wig-maker, who is an artist in his line, had to make up some of the players three and four times a day. Then it was by no means plain sailing to find a leading woman suited to the special type of production. One hundred female players were tested and were finally narrowed down to five. Four of these were deemed suf¬ ficiently attractive, but lacked some quality desired by Fairbanks. Billie Dove finally was chosen for the role, and it is perhaps interesting to note that her make-up instead of the usual white was buff or parchment color. It seems that two-handed fencing was as popular in the Seventeenth Century as two-gun shooting was in the period of the early American West. Douglas Fairbanks handles his steel with enthusiasm and finesse and you’ll see him in some great work in his new picture, “The Black Pi¬ rate,” now the feature at the . . theatre