The Black Swan (1942)

Director:

Henry King

Writers:

Ben Hecht (screenplay) and
Seton I. Miller (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

4 December 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Family | History

Tagline:

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

Plot:

When notorious pirate Henry Morgan is made governor of Jamaica, he enlists the help of some of his former...

Plot Keywords:

Governor | Pirate | Henry Morgan | Jamaica | English

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Tyrone Power	...	Jamie Waring
Maureen O'Hara	...	Lady Margaret Denby
Laird Cregar	...	Capt. Sir Henry Morgan
Thomas Mitchell	...	Tom 'Tommie' Blue
George Sanders	...	Capt. Billy Leech
Anthony Quinn	...	Wogan - Leech's First Mate
George Zucco	...	Lord Denby

Also Known As:

Rafael Sabatini's The Black Swan (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

87 min (copyright time) | USA:85 min (current existing footage) | Portugal:85 min (re-release) (censored version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #8421)

Filming Locations:

Cuba

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Three of the cast-members in "The Black Swan" won Supporting Actor Oscars at some point in their careers: Thomas Mitchell for "Stagecoach" (1939), George Sanders for "All About Eve" (1950), and Anthony Quinn for both "Viva Zapata!" (1952) and "Lust for Life" (1956).

Goofs:

Factual errors: Although the story is supposed to take place in the 17th century, Lady Margaret has a medallion with a colour photo inside. You can clearly see it's a photo when Jamie first finds the medallion and then opens it. Photography was not invented until the 19th century.

Quotes:

Jamie: In Tortuga when a woman slaps a man's face, it means she wants him to grab her, over-power her, and smother her with kisses. I understand in Jamaica a gentleman must refuse such overtures.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Pirates of Tortuga (1961)

Soundtrack:

Heave Ho

Great Movie!!!

I first saw this movie when I was 11 or 12 years old. Since then I've seen about nine or ten times. So what if the good guy is a pirate? A real proud one? Tyrone Power give one of his best performances, George Sanders is pure evil, Maureen O'Hara is more than just the pretty damsel-about-to-be-in-constant-distress and Laird Cregar gives life to a good portrait of Henry Morgan. And the other actors gives good performances as well. Plus the story is good (I never read Sabatini's book, shame on me), a fine example of the Pirate Movie (like Douglas Fairbanks's The Black Corsair). All in all the kind of movie that you can see many and many times.