Ex-pirate Henry Morgan (Laird Cregar) has been made governor of Jamaica, much to the distain of its previous governor (George Zucco) and his daughter, Lady Margaret (Maureen O’Hara). Pirate Captain Leech (George Sanders) and his sidekick Wogan (Anthony Quinn) also are not to keen on the new situation, and sail off on The Black Swan to continue their pillaging ways. Captain Jamie (Tyrone Power), who was Morgan’s second in command, and his sidekick Tommy Blue (Thomas Mitchell), are having a harder time figuring where they belong. They stick with Morgan but keep their pirate attitudes. Jamie has fallen for Lady Margaret, who repeatedly rebukes him. Morgan’s runs into trouble quickly as pirate activity continues and he’s blamed for it, which leaves it to Jamie to save the day and win the girl.
It’s easy to forget how brief the golden age of Swashbucklers was and how few great films there were. After Captain Blood (1935), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Sea Hawk (1940), and the Mark of Zorro (1940), there was not another great Swashbuckler for over a decade until Scaramouche in 1952. Between those there were lackluster adventure films, often fun but without artistry. The Black Swan is the biggest and most colorful of those. It is Saturday afternoon fare, reasonably enjoyable and filled with clichés. It is rightly renowned for its vibrant cinematography, but little else.
Like Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, and Scaramouche, it claims to be based on a Rafael Sabatini novel but there’s little from the book. The plot was invented for the screen and functions well enough, but the story is really the romance between Jamie and Lady Margaret and that doesn’t work at all. Tyrone Power was perfect as Zorro, an heroic gentleman with an effete side, but he can’t pull off being a pirate. It takes a special talent not to look silly as a pirate—Errol Flynn had it; Power does not. Maureen O’Hara takes on the first of her unreasonable, mood-swinging, fiery beauty roles. It’s a character she repeated in many of her films and it is too extreme to make sense and not extreme enough for full on comedy. She’s just unlikable.
The Black Swan looks beautiful. The costumes are attractive and the dueling isn’t dull. The secondary actors do a fine job, particularly a red-bearded George Sanders who I wouldn’t have expected to be so successful as a pirate. With low expectations, it is a fine romp if you want a pirate movie but don’t care much which one.