7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Douglas Fairbanks is a simple shipwrecked man who vows revenge on the pirates who caused the death of his father. Through a bold attack he gains their ship and becomes their trusted captain. Adventure and intrigue abound in this early example of Technicolor.
Starring: Billie Dove, Tempe Pigott, Donald Crisp, Sam De Grasse, Anders RandolfAdventure | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
None
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Note: This version of this film is available on Blu-ray as part of Cohen's Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: Robin Hood / The Black Pirate
release.
There's an old adage that states "the more things change, the more they remain the same", and with regard to hugely budgeted "event movie" epics
like Douglas Fairbanks used to star in, that's certainly still the case today, but in terms of a man actually like Fairbanks himself, maybe not quite so
much. Fairbanks was a rare commodity in the film world even during his heyday, and you'd be relatively hard pressed to find a suitably analogous
person who came along after Fairbanks, since Fairbanks wasn't just at one point the most popular male movie star in the world, he also helped found
United Artists, and frequently also contributed to his many films as producer and/or writer (sometimes uncredited or under a pseudonym). Cohen has
aggregated two
of Fairbanks' best remembered silents on one disc, with this disc evidently offering the Blu-ray debut of Robin Hood.
The Black Pirate is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cohen Film Collection, an imprint of Cohen Media Group, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. Cohen offers only a brief comment that "a 35mm color negative was matered in HD for this presentation", but it's unclear to me whether Cohen did their own work or simply utilized whatever Kino Lorber used for their release. One way or the other, and based solely on screenshots (which can be risky), this looks very similar if not outright identical to the Kino Lorber release. The two strip Technicolor is a bit muted looking, as Casey noted in his review of the Kino Lorber offering, but it's rather gorgeous looking when taken contextually and on its own merits. As Casey also mentioned, two strip Technicolor did "best" with colors either in the red-orange or blue-green spectrums, and those tones are emphasized throughout the production. There are easily visible variances in densities and suffusion throughout the presentation, and there's also quite a bit of damage to wade through, including typical things like scratches and nicks, along with some warped frames and even some kind of odd discoloration that can run down the sides of the frame at time. Grain resolves organically and gives the visuals a nicely textured appearance.
The Black Pirate features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 presentation of Robert Israels' recreation of the original score by Mortimer Wilson, in a repeat of one of two audio options Kino Lorber offered on their disc (a lossy organ score was the other choice, and it is not included here). The music is rather bright, if not especially "pirate"-esque, and it sounds nicely full bodied throughout, with some appealing dynamic range and typically excellent clarity.
Cohen is offering the two Fairbanks films on one disc, with the following supplements, all of which were previously offered on Kino Lorber's release of
The Black Pirate:
The Black Pirate will probably appear pretty rote to modern day eyes, but that may not take into account how "original" the film was at the time of its release. It's a joy to be able to see two strip Technicolor in such relatively decent shape, and Fairbanks has charisma to spare. Technical merits are generally solid, and the archival supplements are also enjoyable. Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
1952
Warner Archive Collection
1940
2002
1995
1942
Fox Studio Classics
1942
1921
1964
1977
75th Anniversary Edition
1939
Warner Archive Collection
1955
1934
1937
1916
1984
1989
Limited Edition to 3000
1954
2010
1932
Warner Archive Collection
1935