Classic Movie Reviews: The Black Swan

The Black Swan (1942) was directed by Henry King and starred Maureen O'Hara and Tyrone Power.

After England and Spain make peace, notorious pirate Henry Morgan (Laird Cregar) is made Governor of Jamaica and decides to reform. He vows to rid the Caribbean of his former comrades, by persuasion or force, if necessary. Jamie Waring (Tyrone Power) and Tommie Blue (Thomas Mitchell), reluctantly give up their "trade" out of friendship with Morgan.

Morgan replaces the former governor, Lord Denby (George Zucco) but is not trusted by either the lawful residents or the pirates.

Captain Billy Leach (George Sanders) and Wogan (Anthony Quinn) refuse to change and continue wrecking havoc on the Caribbean seas. When Morgan is unable to stop the pirating of his old shipmates, he is suspected of still being allied with them. Someone is selling sailing information to Captain Leech and his crew. The people of Jamaica suspect Morgan and demand for his impeachment.

It is up to Jamie Waring to set sail to get to the bottom of things and bring Captian Leech and his crew to justice and restore Captain Morgan's good name.

However, Jamie Waring has taken a liking to Lord Denby's daughter, Lady Margaret (Maureen O'Hara) who happens to be engaged to an English gentleman, Roger Ingram (Edward Ashley). It turns out, her soon to be husband is the one secretly providing information about ship sailings to the pirates in an attempt to unseat the newly appointed Governor Morgan.

On the eve of Lady Margaret's wedding to Roger, Jamie Waring kidnaps her and takes her along on his voyage to capture Captain Leech and his crew. When Jamie Waring, Tommie Blue and the crew meet up with Leech's ship "The Black Swan" they realize they cannot fight them or out run them. So Jamie Waring and his crew form a fake alliance with Leech pretending they have left Morgan and returned to being pirates. Their plan is to lure Leech in and have him captured. However, Leech discovers their plan and takes them all hostage and the fight is on.

In the meantime, Captain Morgan thinks he has been betrayed by Jamie Waring and vows to bring him in.

What falls is an explosion of fighting and Leech is brought down and Lady Margaret falls in love with Jamie.

This is one of the best pirate films. The film won an oscar for Best Cinematography, Color.

Maureen O'Hara is stunning as Lady Margaret. Thomas Mitchell, Tyrone Power, George Sanders and Laird Cregar give excellent performaces.

Tyrone Power as Jamie Waring.