Sunday, February 21, 2010

This Week's Poll: Who is Your Favorite Movie Pirate?

Aargh, maties! This week’s poll focuses on those rascally rogues who were bold enough to fly the jolly roger aboard their plundering ships as they sailed across the silver screen. As always, it was tough to get the list of nominees down to a manageable size. As a result, privateers got the boot (sorry, fans of The Sea Hawk) and, of course, there’s no Johnny Depp because Pirates of the Caribbean isn’t a film classic (time will tell!). It was also with reluctance that I omitted such famous movie pirates as Long John Silver (Robert Newton in Treasure Island), Captain Kidd (Charles Laughton played him twice), and Blackbeard (Peter Ustinov played his ghost). With that said, here are your nominees:

Captain Vallo (Burt Lancaster, The Crimson Pirate) – Burt Lancaster and Nick Cravat (Burt’s former acrobat partner) play the world’s most athletic pirates in this lighthearted action flick from Robert Siodmak. It’s lively and fun and a little hectic at times. It’s amazing that Burt made this in 1952 and then From Here to Eternity the next year.

Captain Peter Blood (Errol Flynn, Captain Blood) – Flynn vaulted to stardom as a wrongly convicted physician who is sold into slavery and escapes to become a famous pirate. It was the first pairing of Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, who would become a classic screen couple. Based on the bestselling novel by Rafael Sabatini.

Jamie Waring (Tyrone Powers, The Black Swan) – Powers portrays a roguish pirate who reluctantly reforms…only to return to his swashbuckling ways as one of the good guys. Maureen O’Hara, who would later play a pirate herself, is Jamie’s eventual love interest. George Sanders co-stars a baddie called Redbeard. Also based on a Sabatini novel.

Serafin (Gene Kelly, The Pirate) – Okay, Kelly isn’t really a pirate in this movie…he plays a circus troupe performer who poses as the notorious “Mack the Black” to win the love of Judy Garland. But he still spends much of the film acting like a pirate…plus he sings and dances “Be a Clown”—so he’s get included in this poll!

Prudence “Spitfire” Stevens (Maureen O’Hara, Against All Flags) – Ms. O’Hara proves that female pirates can hold their own against the guys in this entertaining swashbuckler. She plays a Madagascar-based buccaneer whose suspects Errol Flynn of being a spy among her fellow mates (she’s right!).

Captain Hook (Hans Conried, Peter Pan) – Conreid provided the voice for the animated Captain Hook in Disney’s 1953 colorful Peter Pan. But for those of us who grew up watching the TV adaptation of the Peter Pan Broadway musical, the definitive Hook was Cyril Ritchard. For this poll, though we’ll stick with Disney’s Hook since more people may be familiar with him.

The Black Pirate (Douglas Fairbanks) –Fairbanks stars as a young nobleman who becomes a buccaneer to avenge his father whose untimely death was caused by…pirates! This classic silent adventures was originally shot in early two-strip Technicolor, though most prints today are black-and-white.

As always, any comments about omissions are welcomed. In the meantime, please cast your vote in the green sidebar on the right.

14 comments:

  1. ARR, Rick as some one who has played at the Brotherhood of the Cost meetings in North County Ca once or twice this is a cool poll, I have a VHS Dub of Crimson from a new print somewhere around here. I love the opening shot. Tyrone and Douglas are great too, But I have tyo go with Peter Blood with the first Flynn /vs Rathbone sword fight BTW the fight was shot at Lauguna Beach , CA

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  2. Rick, i love/love pirate movies. Can i vote twice? i can not choose between Tyrone Powers and Errol Flynn..

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  3. YARRRRRR! It's hard to choose. There are really two categories here: the fun pirate (Lancaster, Kelly, Conried) and the swashbuckler (Flynn, Powers). For pure fun, I choose Lancaster. The Crimson Pirate is one of those movies that just makes you smile thinking about it - it's also a sentimental favourite from childhood. For pure Swash, Errol Flynn as Captain Blood could deliver that rousing swashbuckling dialogue and make you BELIEVE it. Plus there is the fabulous swordfight with Basil Rathbone and the Korngold score - it makes the whole package work. Errol Flynn wins by a nose. Tyrone Power is my #2 swashbuckler. (And a favorite actor, he was VERY good.) Power also had an amazing duel with Rathbone in Zorro, but that's another contest. Aaah, how about a poll of the best swordfights? :-)

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  4. This is truly a fun poll! I have to say that I especially enjoyed reading the comments. Panavia makes some excellent points about fun vs. swashbuckling. But, like him and Paul, Errol wins this contest of the high seas for me!

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  5. What about Steve Reeves as Morgan the Pirate ?

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  6. Anonymous, I liked Steve best as the title hero in HERCULES and HERCULES UNCHAINED.

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  7. Rick29; I've been told that Steve Reeves best film was called "A Long Day's Ride Into Hell" or something like that. Ever seen or heard of it?

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  8. Rick29; I preferred Steve Reeves in "The Thief of Baghdad" which I saw as a kid and never seen since. I was told by a friend that his best movie was "A Long Day's Ride Into Hell" or such like. Ever seen or heard of it?

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  9. What about Yul Brynner as Jean Lafayette ?

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  10. Captain Hook would get my vote. Everyone knows who he is. And he has a sense of humor, which is admirable. Besides, he has the whole look of a pirate. You can't forget his righthand man Smee.

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  11. Anonymous, I'd never heard of Reeves's A LONG DAY'S RIDE INTO HELL. It'd be interesting to see him in a Western. Kayla, I like Smee, too!

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  12. Rick29
    Sorry, film title should have been "A Long Ride From Hell" made in 1968

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  13. What about Yul Brynner as Jean Lafitte in The Buccaneer from 1958?

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  14. Not Yul Brynner. I recall that portrayals of LaFitte and Jackson were rather historically accurate as compared to the other nominees in the poll here, who are definitely swashbucklers.

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