Il corsaro nero

To me,this is the paragon for the swashbucklers.This is how to do a swashbuckler."Blackie the Pirate" sets a standard for the genre.It gives a concrete idea on how such a movie ought to be.Very picturesque,and visually pleasing,"Blackie ..." has everything that I request from a movie of this kind:humor,fun,a handsome lead (T. Hill),good cast (George Martin,Bud Spencer) ,fluency,attractive music,sexy women (Silvia Monti,Mónica Randall,Diana Lorys),a film made by men who think and have a powerful sense of epic.These Italians used to had an incredible sens of fun. Horrors,westerns,Peplums,crime movies,SF,swashbucklers,WW 2 movies,comedy,sex drama,etc.,they hit the nail on the head.The French failed lamentably to take over all these "commercial" genres,but the Italians hit it.(It is true that I know a few outstanding French genre movies;but,with the Italians,outstanding is the rule.)And they were able to bring in Gemma,Nero,Hill,etc..To me,the Italian cinema is a source of inexhaustible pleasure.The Italians are for the fun what the French are for the novels,or the Germans for the music.They have the skill for doing EVERYTHING right.So,this Italian swashbuckler,"Blackie ...",IS a swashbuckler.

The two Italian actors have a lot of fun in this movie.(But "Blackie ..." is not a buddy film,as Spencer got only a bit part,though an excellent one.)The cast is very good.The girls were some 25-30 years when they appeared in Corsaro Nero.

A movie made out of love for fun.(A bluff like the Granger "Scaramouche" can not bear comparison with "Blackie ...".That "Scaramouche" can not pretend to be "a different kind" of movie;it is only a banal and stupid movie,lacking any charm.)

Gicca Palli did not make many movies.

There's the makings of something here: a pirate comedy or a swashbuckling drama, but, ultimately it's neither one or the other enough to make it a good movie, which is rather a shame. Had it actually been a "Trinity Boys Do Pirating" sort of movie, it would have worked. It such a case, it needn't have had a compelling plot: just let Terence Hill and Bud Spencer humorously beat up other pirates and corrupt sailors while having their own dumb misfortunes and bad luck. The movie already had the two comedians and plenty of other very capable actors and actresses, including the beautiful Silvia Monti, Monica Randall, and Diana Lorys.

Alas... Bud Spencer is barely even in this movie and Terence Hill ("Blackie the Pirate") is rarely funny cast as a more traditional leading man type. In fact, the sort of stuff you expect of a "Trinity" movie, Bud's impossible strength and toughness, Terence's agile and offbeat fighting style are farmed out more to the supporting actors, which is actually one of the better parts of the film: Blackie's crew al seem to have their own special talents: one, for example, has excellent aim with a canon or pistols, other is very strong, etc. A crew of pirates, each with their own specialties but only in certain situations starts to almost write itself.

Well... whatever. It's not that movie. Watch it if you'll watch anything By Hill or Spencer or watch it if you'll watch any kind of pirate movie, just don't watch it if you're expecting Terence and Bud to be doing a buddy-buddy pirate comedy.

No pun intended - Terence Hill and Bud Spencer ... two people that shaped my childhood. Even though they had done movies together way before I was born. But I liked watching their movies - dubbed in German, but they had a great industry back then. Probably still have - for the bigger productions.

This one I probably never saw before. This is not like any other movie they did that I really liked. Their relationship is different in this one, the focus is on other characters .. and you have boats and pirates and sword fighting and other stuff like that. While I reckon it is nice to try something different, maybe this is why it just doesn't feel like ... home (well you know what I mean) ... anyway, nice movie overall but nothing special ... if you are a fan of those two actors you won't mind flaws or other things anyway ...

When I first watched this one in 1987, I of course expected a comedy with both Hill and Spencer as the main characters, getting up to their usual hyjinx. I was to be bitterly disappointed. Instead I got a serious drama/action movie, which was more of a Terence Hill on his own type of movie. Bud had a much smaller role and for large parts was absent. This is probably why many lists do not include Blackie on them when it comes to listing Spencer/Hill movies.

Viewing this for a second time 30 years later, my expectations were nowhere near as high and I actually found out it wasn't as bad as I remembered. It was well filmed and although a little formulaic, had some entertaining stuff.

Hill plays a gentlemanly honourable pirate, while Bud plays a rival one. It seemed Bud's voiceover was his usual, but for Terence it was someone new.

One hesitates to pass judgment on a movie which, in the English-language videotape, has obviously gone through a lot of clumsy re-editing and re-dubbing. Still, it's all we have to judge it by and so the truth must be told: this movie makes virtually no sense at all. The plot has something to do with a shipment of gold which the Viceroy at Guayaquil wants to send back to Spain. A loose confederation of pirate captains has other ideas, as does the Viceroy's beautiful and ambitious wife. Any attempt to clarify the plot beyond these elements will be met with frustration.

That said, the movie retains an amiable quality, is never out and out dull, and has an attractive cast. It's best viewed as an "In-Flight" feature -- one of those things you don't expect much of and which you halfway watch out of the corner of your eye while you're doing something else.

The highlight, (such as it is), may come when Edmund Purdom walks into a room and finds a shirtless Terence Hill tied to a wall, several bloody whip marks on his back. One can't help recalling at this moment that Purdom himself felt the sting of a whip back in MGM's 1954 spectacle, "The Prodigal"