Tag Archives: Jeffrey Vance

Douglas Fairbank’s massive “Black Pirate” arrives on Cohen Film Collection Blu-ray

Cohen Film Collection has done it again: A big-screen spectacle that ranks as one of the monumental accomplishments of the silent era, Robin Hood is a timeless story of romance and intrigue, staged on a herculean scale. And now it has been released on Blu-ray.

The film’s sets were erected by an army of 500 carpenters and towered 90 feet in the air, covering acres of land—historically accurate to the smallest detail. For this restoration, a full frame 35MM fine grain positive was scanned at 4K, with 175 hours of digital clean-up at 2K completed.

Shot in two-strip Technicolor, Fairbanks had conceived of The Black Pirate years before it was finally made. According to Fairbanks biographer Jeffrey Vance, it was “the most carefully prepared and controlled of Fairbanks’s entire career,” certainly in no small part due to the expense and limitations of the early color process. The resulting film earned high praise from The New York Times, which praised its “unrivalled beauty…mindful of the paintings of the old masters.” A 35MM color negative was mastered in HD for this presentation.

Bonus Features:

Audio Commentary for THE BLACK PIRATE by film historian Rudy Behlmer | 18 minutes of THE BLACK PIRATE outtakes with commentary BY RUDY BEHLMER | 29 minutes of additional BLACK PIRATE outtakes.