The Black Swan

The Black Swan is a movie released in 1942 by 20th Century, produced by Robert Bassler and directed by Henry King. Starring Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, Laird Cregar, George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell and Anthony Quinn. If a movie's success was dependent on the production, visuals and the sets of a movie this would be a masterpiece. The Black Swan does not lack eye candy one bit, and the studio's went all out to produce a movie that looked, smelled, and felt like a swashbuckler set in the 17th century Caribbean. They even cobbled together an impressive line-up of actors to bring it all together, Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, Thomas Mitchell, Laird Cregar, George Sanders, even a super young Anthony Quinn has a minor role. While the movie has the makings of a memorable romp through the Port Royal, what we have is a mostly lukewarm tale of piracy and (forced?) love interest. Notorious pirate Henry Morgan is pardoned by King Charles II, and in exchange of giving up his piracy of the Caribbean, he is to protect Jamaica and unite the other pirates to serve King Charles II to make their naval force superior to Spain's. Not all of the pirates in the area are as open to serve the King as Captain Morgan is, so he is tasked with bringing them all under his control, be it above board or underhanded pirate guile. Tyrone Power (who previously had a huge hit with Zorro) was no stranger to using a sword so you'd think that he would be a perfect fit for a pirate role. To say he was less than impressive would be kind. He plays Jamie-Boy, a pirate who decides to remain loyal to his friend and mentor Henry Morgan and gets caught up when he spies the daughter of the deposed Jamaican governor. Let's face it, who wouldn't get caught up with Maureen O'Hara. But like Power's unimpressive role as Jamie-Boy, O'Hara really didn't do anything to improve the quality of the film. While many of her other roles had plenty of impressive accolades and showed she had plenty of acting chops, I can't say the same here as she really didn't have much to work with. But O'Hara in 1942 and Technicolor is a beautiful match, no doubt about it. Thomas Mitchell, Laird Cregar and George Sanders really do make this film watchable. I was telling my movie review buddy Brian Williams that 20th Century could have made a pirate movie based on the characters of Tommy Blue (Mitchell), Morgan (Cregar) and Sanders (Leech) and the movie probably would have been far more entertaining. The movie has all the archetypes that you would expect out of a swashbuckler. And it's so impressive to look at that one could almost forgive the boring storyline and the uninspired performance of Power and O'Hara. Lastly, the music score, which is so vital to the success in movies, be it the 30's, 40's, or 2020's, isn't Newman's best work, nor the worst. But to be fair, the movie lacks the scenes needed to bring out the spirit of a pirate movie. His french horns in the beginning and bright, exciting and on-point, and the final act is where his music settles in the best at. The ho-hum feeling after the first 10-minutes until the last 20-minutes, makes one forget that Newman has a score in the movie But 2 out of 5 stars is the best it gets.

My favorite pirate movie of all time and I collect them!

Great 5/5 A+