THE BLACK SWAN (1942)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *naturalistic*
MYTHICITY: *good*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *psychological, sociological*

I can just barely justify assigning this naturalistic film a trope in my system, based only on the fact that in THE BLACK SWAN, pirates are made into the means of overcoming piracy, and thus are factors in bringing about the very civilization that moviegoers fled to theaters to escape.

SWAN-- which according to my sources is barely based upon the Rafael Sabatini novel-- starts off by abjuring any of the politics that informed both Sabatini's most famous novel CAPTAIN BLOOD and the 1935 film adaptation that became the granddaddy of all sound pirate films.

This is a story of the Spanish Main - - when Villainy wore a Sash, and the only political creed in the world was - - - Love, Gold, and Adventure.

But in fact, SWAN uses basically the same political backdrop as CAPTAIN BLOOD, with England seeking to make inroads against Spain's colonial holdings in the New World, the aforesaid Spanish Main. The broad implication to most English-speaking audiences was that England was going to become a better master than Spain.

Only through scraps of dialogue do the characters make clear that the male principals in the story-- the historical Henry Morgan (Laird Cregar) and the fictional Jamie Waring (Tyrone Power) and Billy Leech (George Sanders) -- start out as English privateers, who are free to pillage the ships and colonies of the Spanish. Yet the film starts out with what seems an outright act of violent piracy, as Waring, Leech and their forces attack the Argentinian town of Corrientes. However, the raiders then suffer a counterattack, and Jamie is taken prisoner and stretched upon a rack by the Spanish governor. This state of affairs only lasts long enough for Waring to exchange some barbs about past hostilities, and then Waring is rescued by a force led by his bosom chum Tommy Blue (Thomas Mitchell).

The governor changes places with Waring on the rack, but the interlude's real purpose is to introduce two other characters. One is the minor figure of Lord Denby (George Zucco), England's governor of Jamaica, whose presence in a Spanish-held city is never explained. Waring implies that Denby's been giving aid and comfort to the enemy, hanging Englishmen, presumably other privateers. The dialogue has also established by this time that Waring thinks that Morgan, something of a father-figure to Waring, has been hanged in England.

Though Denby claims that England and Spain have made peace, Waring tells his buddies to stick Denby in a cell. Then the much more important character of Denby's daughter Margaret (Maureen O'Hara) shows up. Waring immediately begins courting her in his preferred manner, trying to force a kiss upon her. She bites his lip, he knocks her out, and then throws her over his shoulder, implicitly planning to continue the courtship elsewhere. Then he forgets about Margaret-- rather unceremoniously dropping her to the floor-- as the last major character in the story pops up. It's none other than Henry Morgan, who, instead of getting hanged, has been appointed to take Denby's place as governor of Jamaica. The broad implication is that the former privateer is supposed to be better than Denby at ridding the Caribbean of pirates.

Waring and Blue are only reluctantly converted to serve Morgan's cause, while Leech makes clear that he plans to continue as a full-time pirate. In Jamaica, Denby cedes his position to Morgan and then disappears from the story, but his continued presence in Jamaica makes it convenient for Margaret to go on living there-- and thus for Waring to court her by more "civilized" methods. But in contrast to many similar swashbucklers, including CAPTAIN BLOOD, the female lead shows no overt sign of interest in the male lead, for all that Waring recites the usual "your lips say no but ..." schtick. Despite Waring's forcefulness and charisma, Margaret cleaves to her current fiancee, a weak sister named Ingram.

However, if Denby is only a suspected traitor, Ingram is the real thing. He sells intel on incoming treasure-ships to Leech and his gang, and even warns them when the ships under Morgan's command go on the hunt. To Margaret's credit, she does notice one of Ingram's suspicious transactions, but she still makes plans to marry him. This enrages Waring, so that he kidnaps her and takes her away on his ship. This leads into Leech's forces overtaking Waring's one ship, and lots of romantic tensions as Waring runs a long con to convince the pirate that he and Margaret deserted decent society to elope. 

SWAN is the closest thing we have to a perfect pirate movie, with note-perfect performances by Power, O'Hara, Cregar, Sanders and Mitchell, and an inimitable score by Alfred Newman. Yet the script by Ben Hecht and Seton I. Miller excels in establishing how much fun robbery and rapine are when they're performed in the name of civilization. Whether by accident or design, Margaret never overtly responds to any of Waring's roguish sallies until he proves to her that he's actually joined the side of the angels. Thus, when the two engage in a final liplock at the movie's close, Morgan laments that "it's the end of the Spanish Main"-- dolefully returning the viewer to the real world, where love, gold and adventure only survive in stories.