The Black Pirate

Teaching us that revenge can be a great way to meet women, silent screen icon Douglas Fairbanks joins the crew of the ship that killed his father.

One of the silent era’s most spectacular action blockbusters, The Black Pirate also boasts an experimental early Technicolor process, making it one of the only color silent films. Douglas Fairbanks Sr. stars as a nobleman who is the sole survivor of a ship seized by pirates who blow up the ship, killing everyone on board, including Fairbanks’ father. Fairbanks vows revenge and subsequently joins the pirate crew, walking a fine line by seeming to aid the pirates while actually protecting potential victims and plotting the pirates’ ultimate downfall.

Fairbanks’s astonishing acrobatics remain dazzling today, and the climactic battle includes some great underwater footage of an aquatic assault on the pirates. This film includes Fairbanks’ most famous and widely copied stunt, riding down a sail on the edge of a knife. In another popular scene that is often copied, Fairbanks cuts loose the corner of a billowing sail, then holds on as the wind carries him up off the deck of the ship and high into the rigging.