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- Jun 23, 2006
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- Robert M. Grippo
Dvr'd The Black Swan on Movies! Last night and the print of course was the same that plays on The Fox Movie Channel and used for the dvd --- does anyone know if Fox has an archival original Technicolor Print? Must have looked wonderful upon its original release! The original release in 1942 was timed for the Christmas Holidays - here is the NYT's review! After seeing "The Black Swan," which hove to at the Roxy last night, a good many small boys are going to feel they were born too late into this world. For guided by Rafael Sabatini's reckless pirate yarn, Darryl Zanuck has hauled a likely lot of studio swashbucklers all over the Spanish Main and with enough Technicolored sword-play and double-barreled oaths to make a 12-year-old's eyes pop. Directed in headlong style by Henry King, filled with rococo rhetoric by Ben Hecht and Seton I. Miller, and acted in the ripest tradition, "The Black Swan" is one of the waning season's prettiest adventures. Sir Henry Morgan, Jamie Boy, and Tommy Blue—they were men, sirrah!Swaggering up and down the Caribbean under full sail, wearing enormous sashes, cutlasses like razors and mustachios of assorted styles, the villains have a gay time of it. Today, they pounce upon a gold-laden galleon, scuttle it and leave precious few survivors; tomorrow they swoop into Tortuga; next day, Maracaibo lies ready for plunder. The boys sweep through the streets, breaking heads merrily as they go, stealing the likeliest maidens, brawling over rich brocades. Now and then, one finds himself upon the rack in the governor's dungeon, but not for long—his friends arrive invariably and on cue. Amid these rip-roaring events there is the story of Sir Henry Morgan's temporary return to grace as governor of Jamaica and his attempt to sweep an unrepentant former henchman, Billy Leech, from the seas. For this mission, Jamie Boy, who looks for all the world like Tyrone Power, is selected, but only after Jamie makes a midnight abduction of a certain aristocratic lady—in this case, Maureen O'Hara—to make the voyage more bearable. How Jamie brings the red-bearded Leech to bay and simultaneously wins the acquiescence of his kidnapped lady is all told in that final handsome battle as ships rake each other with broadsides and Mr. Power's men rage across the decks.It is performed by actors as if to the hokum born. Mr. Power is a very vision of manly loveliness, and he growls just like a big bad pirate; Laird Cregar, as Morgan, bellows oaths like an irate opera singer; George Sanders's Billy Leech is as naughty and quarrelsome a man as one would care not to meet on a moonless night; Thomas Mitchell's Irish accent still stands him in good stead as one of the roisterers, and Maureen O'Hara is brunette and beautiful—which is all the part requires. "The Black Swan" is in the golden tradition of boyish adventures. The small fry probably will be brandishing wooden swords in the parlor and slitting sofa pillows for some time to come. But a lot of grown-ups are going to like it, too.
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- but the 2 million dollars worth of restoration are very evident (I've now heard it was closer to 5 million). Overall this film looks quite remarkable and makes for very enjoyable viewing. Fox continues to impress with its 'Studio Classics' lineup. 
