The Black Swan

Maureen O' Hara and Tyrone Power in The Black Swan

Henry King's The Black Swan is a dull Technicolor swashbuckler from 1942. 20th Century Fox wanted to emulate the success Warner Brothers had had with Errol Flynn's pirate pictures. The Black Swan was originally a novel by Rafael Sabatini, the Dumasesque writer whose Captain Blood had provided the basis for the 1935 Michael Curtiz film which had launched Flynn's career. King who had guided star Tyrone Power in such hits as In Old Chicago, Alexander's Ragtime Band, and Jesse James failed to bring the panache to the project that Curtiz had lent to both Captain Blood and 1940's The Sea Hawk, but the film was still a great commercial success.

Part of my issues with the film was that I felt that screenwriters Ben Hecht and Seton Miller failed to capture Sabatini's dash and narrative drive. Indeed, their script has little to do with the source novel. Even at a scant 84 minutes, the film feels both slow and belabored. Furthermore, Power is not ideally cast. Even his mustache feels off. His Jamie Waring is supposed to be a passionate brigand, but Power is too suave for the role. When we see Power guzzling spirits with George Sanders, wine dripping down his throat, the effect is incongruous. The poised and sophisticated charm of Zorro was a much better fit for Power. Likewise, Sanders is cast as a coarse Scottish pirate. Sanders, like Power, gives a passable performance, but he was much better suited for roles that emphasized his urbanity. 

If ever there was an actress suited for Technicolor epics, it was the fiery ginger Maureen O'Hara. Her romantic scenes with Power are the highlight of the film, if a bit rapey for post-modern sensibilities. Still, she was much better utilized in a similar role in Frank Borzage's 1945 pirate epic, The Spanish Main. 

Leon Shamroy won the Oscar for Best Cinematography for The Black Swan, but the film's use of three strip Technicolor seems crude and dated next to such contemporary color films as the Power vehicle, Blood and Sand. Backgrounds in The Black Swan seem overly monochromatic, like the blue dungeon where Power suffers on the rack (Power seems to have his shirt off for much of the film and this does not seem to be by accident). Since Shamroy did some of the most striking color photography of the era, see especially his work in Leave Her to Heaven, the fault seems to lie with King. Indeed, his black and white films, like The Song of Bernadette and The Gunfighter, are more visually impressive than his color ones. The Black Swan also features Laird Cregar, Thomas Mitchell, and Anthony Quinn. With the talents involved, it should have been a better film, but I did enjoy Alfred Newman's score.