My, what an awful lot of swords.

[meganbmoore]

I spent a lot of this week watching old pirate movies. (And Leverage, which makes me ponder great mysteries of the universe, like "Who is prettier, a well-groomed Timothy Hutton, or Errol Flynn back when he was swinging on ropes and making out with Olivia de Havilland and Brenda Marshall?") Captain Blood, The Sea Hawk, The Black Swan, and  Cutthroat Island pretend it's older than it is are ones I actually own and have seen before, and Against All Flags and Buccaneer's Girl were new to me.  AAF has Errol Flynn as an undercover British officer who falls in love with a pirate captain played by Maureen O'Hara.  This was quite fun, though I sighed sadly when she traded in her Robin Hood-like duds for dresses and got jealous over a girl who was using Flynn for his lips.  Some serious race!fail in this one, but Maureen O'Hara's boots were beyond amazing.  Observe:






 
BG was pretty lighthearted, with an aspiring performer played by Yvonne de Carlo getting caught up with a pirate played by Philip Friend who was a cross between Robin Hood and Zorro.  If I enjoy the other two movies in the "Pirates of the Golden Age" set, I may have to invest in it.

But you know, I seriously miss the way they used to write the women in movies from the 30s-50s with so much self-esteem and, well, "gumption."  Like, romantic comedies with Katharine Hepburn, Myrna Loy, Carole Lombard, etc.  tended to have heroines who were aggressive, put up with nothing and had borderline unshakable self-esteem and composure, which seems to be missing in a lot of modern romantic comedies.  Which isn't to say that they don't have some severe gender issues by our standards (to go back to pirate movies, I have great fondness for The Black Swan, but let's face it, the only thing missing to make it a "bodice ripper" is an actual ripped bodice.)

But I really miss the old swashbucklers. Cutthroat Island, the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and the Zorro movies with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta Jones all try, and I'm fond off all of them, and would classify them as swashbucklers, but none quite achieve the flare.

So, what are you favorite pirate movies and/or swashbucklers?  Feed my binge mood.

I also found this tribute to swashbucklers (embedding disabled) on youtube that's pretty entertaining.  Does anyone know what movie is the one with the brunette who walks up and shoots the guys restraints off?  It looks fun. 

Comments

[damned_colonial]

(Here via were_duck, who just pointed me over this way.)

Ooh, Against All Flags looks like JUST WHAT I NEED for the multi-fandom vid I'm making! *netflixes*

Incidentally, if you come across any others with women cross-dressing and or buckling a swash or two, could you give me a heads-up?

[elena]

Scaramouche has the best (flynning-heavy) duel in Hollywood history, and the best part is that the novel (By Rafael Sabatini, same writer as Captain Blood) is even better.

Otherwise I'm partial to Burt Lancaster. The Flame And The Arrow and The Crimson Pirate are quite endearing in a goofy way.