The Black Pirate

The Black Pirate (1926) — watch online on iFILM — is a swashbuckling silent adventure directed by Albert Parker, with Douglas Fairbanks as a nobleman who infiltrates a pirate crew to settle a blood debt. He earns their trust the hard way: taking a merchant vessel entirely alone, which he pulls off in a sequence that still holds up.

Shot in early two-strip Technicolor, the film has a warm amber palette — gilded wood, dark water, vivid sails — that looks more like an illustrated plate than a period photograph. Fairbanks performed his own acrobatics throughout; the knife-slide down the sail is real, not a cut. Billie Dove plays the captive princess; Donald Crisp is among the pirates. Released through United Artists, it ranked among the year's biggest commercial successes. Stream The Black Pirate (1926) on iFILM.