The Black Swan **** (1942, Tyrone Power, Maureen O’Hara, Laird Cregar, Thomas Mitchell, George Sanders, Anthony Quinn, George Zucco) – Classic Movie Review 7324

The 1942 high-adventure movie The Black Swan is thrilling pirate malarkey, with the two handsome leads Tyrone Power and Maureen O’Hara giving attractive performances.

Director Henry King’s 1942 high-adventure Technicolor swashbuckler movie The Black Swan is thrilling pirate malarkey, with the two handsome leads Tyrone Power and Maureen O’Hara giving most attractive performances. But they are still upstaged by rousing turns from that tremendous quintet of Laird Cregar, Thomas Mitchell, George Sanders, Anthony Quinn and George Zucco.

There are no acting Oscars for this, but Mitchell, Sanders and Quinn are all Best Supporting Actor Oscar winners: Mitchell for Stagecoach (1939), Sanders for All About Eve (1950) and Quinn for Viva Zapata! (1952) and Lust for Life (1956).

Ben Hecht and Seton J Miller’s screenplay is supposedly based on Rafael Sabatini’s 1932 novel The Black Swan, but their story is completely original, about reformed cutthroats cleaning up the Caribbean.

Tyrone Power plays pirate Jamie Waring in The Black Swan.

Power plays the swashbuckler Jamie Waring, who is elected Jamaican governor, falls for the lovely, fiery Lady Margaret Denby (O’Hara) and has to take on the villainous Captain Billy Leech (Sanders).

Maureen O’Hara as Lady Denby.

Leon Shamroy’s Technicolor cinematography won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Color, and Alfred Newman’s music score was nominated for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. Both are exceptional. There was also a third nomination for the notable Best Effects, Special Effects for Fred Sersen (photographic), Roger Heman Sr (sound) and George Leverett (sound).

The only character retained from Sabatini’s novel is the historical character Captain Henry Morgan (Cregar).

Tyrone Power and Maureen O’Hara in The Black Swan (1942).

Also in the cast are Edward Ashley, Fortunio Bonanova, Stuart Robertson, Charles McNaughton, Frederick Worlock, Willie Fung, Charles Francis and Arthur Shields. Also it is the final film of silent star Helene Costello (21 June 1906 – 26 January 1957), who died in hospital of pneumonia after admission for treatment for drug and alcohol addiction. She has an uncredited bit part as Woman.

The film cost $1,493,800, but was a huge hit, earning $5,727,000 worldwide, and making a profit for 20th Century-Fox of $2,366,300. For wartime economy, the actors tried to keep the number of takes low to conserve film and 30 of the scenes were done in a single take. That must have kept the budget low!

The ending was re-shot to appease the censor. Originally Power and O’Hara jump into the sea together.

Beware the black-and-white reissue version.

The film’s title relates to Captain Leech’s enemy ship the Black Swan, while Captain Waring’s ship is the Revenge.

The pirate ship used also appears in Lady Hamilton [That Hamilton Woman] (1941), The Princess and the Pirate (1944) and Captain Kidd (1945).

Tyrone Power and Maureen O’Hara were never Oscar nominated.

O’Hara recalled The Black Swan as ‘everything you could want in a lavish pirate picture: a magnificent ship with thundering cannons; a dashing hero battling menacing villains, sword fights, fabulous costumes’.

Power died on November 15, 1958 (age 44) in Madrid, Spain.

O’Hara died on October 24, 2015 (age 95) in Boise, Idaho.

The cast are Tyrone Power as Jamie Waring, Maureen O’Hara as Lady Margaret Denby, Laird Cregar as Sir Henry Morgan, Thomas Mitchell as Tom Blue, George Sanders as Captain Billy Leech, Anthony Quinn as Wogan, George Zucco as Lord Denby, Edward Ashley, Fortunio Bonanova, Stuart Robertson, Charles McNaughton, Frederick Worlock, Willie Fung, Charles Francis, Arthur Shields, and Helene Costello as Woman.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7324

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