Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.
The Black Swan (1942) Directed by Henry King.
"Now put your shirt on. You look much too naked for a decent English gentleman" Captain Morgan, to Jamie Waring.
The Caribbean of 1674 was a land torn by piracy. But with a truce between warring England and Spain the days of the freebooting privateer are coming to an end. Captain Henry Morgan (Laird Cregar) is standing trial in England, and Captain Jaime Waring (Tyrone Power), Jamie Boy to his friends, has been captured by Don Miguel (Fortunia Bonanova) and is put on the rack. But the devil looks after his own, and Tommy Blue (Thomas Mitchell) his first mate mounts a daring rescue. Don Miguel gets a taste of the stretch, and the governor, Lord Denby (George Zucco) is thrown in chains, but not for long.
While the changes in fortune may take months to travel from one side of the Atlantic to the other, their timing is providential, and a new Governor of Jamaica arrives, one friendly to Jamie Boy, Captain Henry Morgan! Pardoned for all his crimes, he is to bring the brethren of the coast back into the fold, to give them 100 acres and a full pardon if they will give up piracy.
Some are willing. Others, like that red bearded devil, Captain Billy Leech (George Sanders) do not come to heel, and are now truly pirates, and not English Privateers. (The difference between the two is what ports you will be hung in. Privateers, in Spanish Ports, Pirates, in all of them.)
Of course, it was in that misadventure that Jamie got to know the Governor's daughter, Lady Margaret Denby (Maureen O'Hara, a woman made to be ravished by pirates.) Their romance is all red skies at morning...Jaime cocksure she wants him, her livid, and heaving those magnificent bosoms at his audacity.
There is a traitor in the fold of Port Royal, Margaret is due to be married, and Leech is plundering all the English treasure ships with inside information, and her intended is leading the call for the impeachment of Sir Henry Morgan. There is only one course of action for our Jamie Boy to take; kidnap Margaret.
Actually, it is a solid plan. It does stop Roger Ingram (Edward Ashley) from sailing to England with the articles of impeachment, and gives Jamie a chance to deal with Leech, and uncover the traitor.
What follows is high adventure on the high seas in the grand tradition! Swashing to the left, buckling to the right blood on the decks, and a hellcat in the cabin. It just doesn't get any better than that.
Of course, a pirate movie is only as good as it colours; the more colourful the characters, the broader and more over the top, the better we like them. And this one has the best. Tyrone Powers as Jamie Boy Waring. Barbara Cartland, Queen of Bodice Ripper fiction, was asked how she, a virgin, could write so realistically and enthusiastically about sex. Her reply, "We didn't need sex. We had Tyrone Power".
This is so very true. Creamy and suave, he had a powerful magnetism coupled with a telling sensitivity that made the hearts of millions of women (and quite a number of men). Only a cad would drag up his affair with fellow swashbuckler of the silver screen Errol Flynn. But wouldn't that have made a great (and historically more accurate) pirate tale?
How good was the acting in this movie? So good that I only mention the first mate of Leech's ship as an afterthought. A one eyed scalawag named Wogan, played by an overshadowed Anthony Quinn.
And the movie was well made from a technical point of view. As part of the war effort, they filmed as many scenes in one take as they could, to not waste film. 30 scenes in one take each. It was nominated for two Oscars, Best Effects and Music, and won the Oscar for Cinematography.
Set sail for high adventure!
Like the Black Swan, this review is Lean-N-Mean at 666 words exactly.
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