Le corsaire noir

Now don't get me wrong, I have always been an avid fan of Terence Hill and Bud Spencer, but this is a film that does not fit their talents. What made the two so popular was their chemistry on screen, with either playing the idiot at times but it works. That is not the case here, which is a great pity, this film could have been so much more, so what was wrong? Palli lost his way, he could not make his mind up whether this film was going to be a comedy or a drama, unfortunately because of this the film suffers. I have seen Hill play austere parts before, but always there are moments that have shown his humanity and his humour. This movie lacks this, in fact i felt uncomfortable with the character, who seemed to show no appreciation for his crew or the risks they ran for him and even the 20 second speech at the end of the film did little to change that. Bud Spencer, like Terence Hill is an accomplished comedy actor and I firmly believe that he was not comfortable playing this role. His lines could have just as easily been read from a newspaper and his interaction with Hill during negotiations were lacklustre and dull. The reason I have given this film 5 is that it did have some saving graces, mainly the characters that were the crew. Each had special skills, which did interest me and of course George martin who saved the movie from being a complete dirge. Had Hill's character been more like the swashbuckling Errol Flynn type and had there been more interaction between Hill and Spencer, this could have been a great movie.

This is the tale of a buccaneer who takes over a ship of corsairs and wreak havoc on the high seas. The pirate named Blackie(Terence Hill) join forces with Don Pedro(George Martin, also screenwriter). They square off against their nemesis, the viceroy(Edmund Purdom, Sinuhe, The prodigal) and other pirates captains(Allan Collins and Pascuale Basile, also master of arms). Blackie and Don Pedro are helped by a corpulent hunk named Moko(Fernando Bilbao) and a sympathetic pirate(habitual of Italian B series, Sal Borgese). They're going a buccaneer settlement where encounter a prisoners selling, there is slaved the viceroy's spouse(Silvia Monti). The wife is bought by Blackie, but she's freed by a ransom. Meanwhile, viceroy wishes a shipment of gold transport from Guayaquil until Spain .

This is an agreeable entertainment juvenile romp. The movie displays action, swordplay, slapdash, fist-play and humor with tongue in check. This release has some nice and even hilarious moments here and there , though isn't always interesting , sometimes is diverting and fresh and on a couple of sympathetic occasions is frankly delicious. Terence Hill (Mario Girotti, Massimo Girotti'son)is cool as the pirate hero who finds dangerous situations while trying rob the shipment. This isn't the usual Hill-Spencer(Carlo Pedersoli) buddy movie, but they're contenders instead of partners, for that reason they're best known for roles in Spaghetti, 'They call me Trinity¨and followings, where they're much better. The starring are accompanied by gorgeous girls, such as Silvia Monti, Diana Lorys and Monica Randall. This adventures movie of middling budget and confuse plot, is enriched by colorful cinematography but unfortunately the copy circulating is badly printed. The motion picture is regularly directed by Lorenzo Gicca Palli, alias Vincent Thomas. He's usually screenwriter of Italian Western and adventures genre(Zorro the invincible, Hercules the avenger,Fury of Khybers) and occasionally filmmaker(Last gunfight). This standard and average 7o's Italian swashbuckling film to be liked for Hill and Spencer fans.

BLACKIE THE PIRATE is a comic costume swashbuckler designed to cash in on the new-found success of star Terence Hill, but it's not quite on par with the comic westerns that made his name. Instead this is a swashbuckling pirate movie, one that's saddled with a complicated plot involving a number of rival pirates and the inevitable hunt for gold.

Sadly this is rather a dull affair, with the humour limited and the action only so-so. I always found Hill rather a wooden lead, especially when the material isn't great, and such is the case here; he displays little of the charisma of even the peplum actors a decade previously. Even worse, his usual comedy partner Bud Spencer is given the limited role of an antagonist, the kind of part that anybody could have played, limiting the amount of shenanigans the pair can have together.

Much of the fun comes from spotting the names in the cast, such as Alan Collins who plays yet another rival pirate. Edmund Purdom is given a little screen time to chew the scenery as always, while genre favourites like George Martin (who also wrote the lacklustre screenplay) and Sal Borghese are also cast as other naval fellows. Sadly the scripting in BLACKIE THE PIRATE is below par, the action fails to ignite the screen, and the humour just isn't there. This is a juvenile, undemanding type of film.

Anyone who expects a typically buddy movie with Spencer and hill will be totally disappointed, so am I. Maybe this film is from a neutral point of view an average film. But as it is advertised as a buddy movie I will judge it like that. Spencers part is ridiculous. His dumbness is awesome, Hill, on the other hand is some kind of superman pirate which can do everything and whose silliest plans will succeed. Summarized this film is a typically old-fashioned pirate movie spiced up with some kind of humour and some good action scenes.

Watch this movie if you are a hard core fan of old-fashioned pirate movies, but not as Spencer/Hill movie.

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"