The Black Swan Arrives

It’s been six years since I watched The Black Swan. The new DVD just came in this week, so it was time to catch up. The following is a reflection dated March 14, 2000, right after I saw it the last time. Prior to 2000, a 16mm LPP print (which promised not to fade) was much in demand among collectors, but the new century brought with it a sharp decline in film collecting, and the prized Black Swan was no longer such a prize. I don’t know what one would bring now, but it couldn’t be that much, especially with a new DVD you can get for $10 or less. Here’s some Jane Withers/Black Swan trivia. An avid memorabilia collector from the time she was a child actress at Fox in the thirties and early forties. I’m told she used to crawl into the dumpsters on the lot in order to retrieve discarded stills, props, costumes, etc. One of the items scored was an original scale model of The Black Swan. The size was such it had to be stored in a warehouse. I’d heard this story for years, but was never sure if it was on the level. Finally, I got to meet Jane Withers at a Ray Courts autograph show in North Hollywood about seven or eight years ago, and the first thing I asked about was The Black Swan. Did she really have that ship? Yes --- and for several decades, until time and deterioration finally obliged her to get rid of it. As to when she'd acquired the model, I didn’t ask. Possibly at that big Fox auction they had back in the early seventies. Chances are the studio kept using it on through the fifties, maybe in things like Anne Of The Indes. Anyway, at least Jane got to enjoy it for a while. So back to that 2000 Black Swan essay, keep in mind I wrote it before those recent Pirates of The Caribbean movies, or else I would have surely mentioned them (the reference here is to the theme park rides) ---



If you've visited either of the Disney worlds, you’ve no doubt experienced The Pirates of The Caribbean --- well, here is its motion picture counterpart --- every bit as artificial as Disney's indoor sail through pirate waters. I’m convinced this movie was a direct forerunner and inspiration for the ride, as they're both deliberately overblown and kid-friendly. Zanuck conceived The Black Swan as schoolboy pirate adventure from the beginning --- opening scenes announce as much. Whereas the Errol Flynns functioned as straight period drama, this one casts a wink toward the audience from the first reel on --- even Power's own Son Of Fury, released within the same year, managed an intensity never approached by The Black Swan. I remember waiting with great anticipation back around 1980 when it resurfaced on the old "SFM Holiday Network" after having been years out of circulation (except for a few scattered B/W prints in 16mm). It seemed a letdown then, and compared with The Mark Of Zorro and Son Of Fury, frankly still is --- yet somehow, The Black Swan seems to gain on repeated viewing, and for that reason, I’d recommend it as a video keeper. Two elements alone justify ownership --- the color and Alfred Newman's score. Otherwise, there is a miscast George Sanders --- I know it's hard to imagine G.S. as an unwelcome participant in ANY film, but he's just too urbane for athletic excesses he's put through here (George was notorious for ducking stunt work) --- and that flaming red beard too often conceals the beloved Sanders sneer we know to lie beneath --- this one's clearly among the actor's "take-the-money-and-run" parts. Director Henry King was ideally suited for Americana subjects (see the wonderful Margie and Wait Till The Sun Shines, Nellie), but was versatile enough to hoist the Jolly Roger when necessary, though you sense he'd rather be doing something else. Maureen O'Hara's the usual spitfire (she even got around to playing a character named Spitfire a few years later with Errol Flynn) --- you wonder why these guys put up with so much aggravation to get at her --- then that fadeout clinch, surprising for a code pic, comes along to remind you. She and Power also do a bedtime variation on the old It Happened One Night gag that is actually the most suspenseful scene in the show. Don’t get your hopes up for a Zorro worthy climactic duel --- here it's undercranked and ludicrous --- like running a silent at the wrong speed. Tyrone Power was peeling potatoes by the time this got into theatres --- he'd never look so frisky again --- even in similar post-war projects, it was clear the party was over --- just compare Swan with Captain From Castile --- same star, color, director, composer --- but now the milk had curdled, and a noirish malaise had definitely set in. Power may have looked back on the Black Swan(s) of his past as childish unworthies (or "monuments to public patience" as he liked to call them), but this was the sort of vehicle that took him to the top, and would have kept him there, had the war and his own displacement by newer faces not occurred (think Burt Lancaster and The Crimson Pirate, virtually a remake of The Black Swan). In a sense, it’s Power's own swan song as the impossibly handsome matinee idol --- a status he would soon exchange for a marine uniform, and never really get back.




Fast forward to 2006 and another viewing of The Black Swan. These are not very dangerous pirates. They seldom do anything piratical. All of them talk about it a great deal, describing horrific acts of pillage and mayhem that have taken place offscreen, if at all. "Your fulminations, my Lords and Gentlemen, are filled with bilge and blather," says Laird Cregar, and indeed, this show is rich with fulmination --- never have I heard so much fruity and high-flying dialogue as this. At times it’s exhausting. Laird waxes eloquent on the subject of tearing out Power’s gizzard and hanging it from the highest yardarm, then tells Maureen O’ Hara how he’ll soon see Power dangling in chains from an even higher gibbet. Nothing remotely as violent actually happens in the movie, and certainly nothing in the behavior of any character suggests it will. The Black Swan is itself a lot of bilge and blather, but enjoyable none the less, if only for being on and off in 85 minutes (I understand the new Pirates of The Caribbean sequel runs 150 minutes, including four or five apparent endings prior to the actual one). I will say Laird Cregar is absolutely resplendent in period attire. This man could have lived and prospered three centuries ago, I have no doubt of that. Maybe someone should have taught Ty that No Means No insofar as his dealings with Maureen --- she gives a pretty convincing show of not wanting anything to do with him, and yet he persists. Come to think of it, this woman’s always pushing guys away --- remember To The Shores Of Tripoli, The Quiet Man, all those costume shows where she’d rather run the man through with a sword than go to bed with him (and don’t forget the time she gave Brian Keith that wicked black eye)? Man, I would just give up. So long, baby, it can’t be that good! The veritable treasure chest referred to in a trade ad shown here amounted to $5.7 million worldwide. There was $2.5 domestic, $3.1 foreign, and a profit of $2.3 million. This was the biggest money 20th Fox had seen in its history, and would not be surpassed until after the war and Leave Her To Heaven.