The Black Swan (1942)

An ex-pirate contends with rowdy buccaneers and a love-hate relationship with an aristocratic woman who's tougher than she seems.

Director:

Henry King

Writers:

Ben Hecht (screenplay), Seton I. Miller (screenplay) (as Seton I.Miller)

Stars:

Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, Laird Cregar

Won 1 Oscar. Another 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Tyrone Power	...	Jamie Waring
Maureen O'Hara	...	Lady Margaret Denby
Laird Cregar	...	Capt. Henry Morgan
Thomas Mitchell	...	Tommy Blue
George Sanders	...	Capt. Billy Leech
Anthony Quinn	...	Wogan
George Zucco	...	Lord Denby

Storyline

When notorious pirate Henry Morgan is made governor of Jamaica, he enlists the help of some of his former partners in ridding the Carribean of Buccaneers. When one of them apparently abducts the previous governor's pretty daughter and joins up with the rebels, things are set for a fight.

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Plot Keywords:

maracaibo venezuela | deception | tied up | pirate raid | governor | 

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Taglines:

Seas Ablaze...with black villainy, with fiery romance, with breathless deeds of daring...in the roaring era of Love, Gold and Adventure!

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Family | History

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

4 December 1942 (USA)

Also Known As:

Rafael Sabatini's The Black Swan

Filming Locations:

Cuba

Box Office

Gross USA:

$1,012,600, 3 February 1943

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

87 min (copyright time) 85 min (current existing footage) 85 min (re-release) (censored)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor) Black and White (reissue)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

To help out the war effort, the actors tried hard to keep the number of takes low so as to conserve film. Roughly 30 of the scenes were done in one take.

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Goofs

The ships are fairly authentic looking for the era, but they are being steered by a wheel. This came into fashion some 25 years after the story takes place. A common error in pirate movies.

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Quotes

[one of Leech's crew sits on the hatch over the hold containing the imprisoned seamen of the Revenge]
Tom 'Tommy' Blue: You may lock me in a hole, you varmints, but you can't sit on me. Here's to you. Bottoms up!
[Tommy jabs the pirate with a knife]

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits prologue: This is a story of the Spanish Main - - when Villainy wore a Sash, and the only political creed in the world was - - - Love, Gold, and Adventure.

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Connections

Featured in 20th Century-Fox: The First 50 Years (1997)

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Soundtracks

Heave Ho
(uncredited)
Music and Lyrics by Alfred Newman
Played during the opening credits and sung by an offscreen chorus

User Reviews

Ty At His Swashbuckling Best

The Black Swan And The Mark of Zorro show Tyrone Power at the height of his career. This was the Tyrone Power that the public wanted to see, but who he got tired of being. He was constantly after 20th Century Fox and Darryl Zanuck to give him more challenging roles.

Jamie Warring is another of Power's patented hero/heel characterizations. When we first meet him, Power's a totally unrepentant scalawag who has but one virtue, loyalty to the former pirate leader Henry Morgan. Morgan by all accounts was an effective and charismatic leader both in this film and in history. But that leadership is put to the test when the British government decides he's the only man capable of dealing with his former compatriots.

Laird Cregar as Morgan makes a plea for the group to turn honest. But there's a fly in the ointment. A dissident group led by George Sanders and Anthony Quinn don't want to give up the pirate lifestyle. It's up to Morgan, Power and the rest to then eradicate them.

Power at his hero/heel best is not above forcing his attentions on Maureen O'Hara the daughter of the former governor of Jamaica. Those attentions gradually move from the unwanted to the very much wanted, especially after Power and O'Hara are captured by Sanders. For the rest, well as they you just have to tune in.

The Black Swan deservedly won Oscars for special effects and color cinematography. It's unfortunate that today there are so few actors capable of playing the swashbuckling hero the way Ty Power could. He may have wanted to do more, but Darryl Zanuck knew exactly what the public wanted to see Tyrone Power in. It's worth a look.