The Black Pirate (1926): South West Silents

We’re very excited to have Lillian Henley back at the Palace Piano to accompany this brilliant big-screen family spectacle that ranks as one of the monumental accomplishments of the silent era. The film has been recently restored and showcases the beautiful two-strip Technicolor cinematography. Action packed star Douglas Fairbanks had conceived this 1926 smash hit The Black Pirate years before it was finally made. Fairbanks plays Michel, The Duke of Arnoldo who ends up being the sole survivor after a pirate raid on a cargo ship. After infiltrating the gang of pirates, Michel (now dubbed as The Black Pirate) mounts an elaborate ploy to recover the brigands’ treasure, reclaim the ship and rescue the divine Princess (Billie Dove) held captive there.

According to Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance, it was “the most carefully prepared and controlled of Fairbanks’s entire career,” certainly in no small part due to the expense and limitations…