June 15 — Classic Cinema fans will get a special treat from Cohen Media Group next month.
Company officials announced Thursday, the organization will re-issue two classic Douglas Fairbanks movies July 25 on Blu-ray in one set in the form of the Douglas Fairbanks Double Feature: Robin Hood and The Black Pirate. Robin Hood (1922) preceded the equally famed Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) by more than a decade, the latter making star Errol Flynn a household name in his own right.
Also starring Sam De Grasse (Intolerance, The Man Who Laughs, Blind Husbands) as the evil Prince John, William Lowery (Battling Buddy, A Bad Man and Others, Faithful Wives) as the Sheriff of Nottingham and Enid Bennett (The Red Lilly, Fuss and Feathers, Stepping Out)) as Maid Marian. Alan Hale, Sr. (The Sea Hawk, Adventures of Don Juan, The Adventures of Robin Hood) also joins the cast as Robin’s friend, Little John.
According to information provided about the movie, the sets were constructed by an army of carpenters totaling 500 and stood 900 feet tall, covering multiple acres of land. The movie’s original 35 mm positive was scanned at 4K for its presentation here, with 175 hours of restoration at 2K completed.
The Black Pirate
Deputing originally in 1926, The Black Pirate stars Fairbanks as The Duke of Arnoldo, a young nobleman who wants to avenge the death of his father at the hands of pirates. He does this by infiltrating the very group of pirates responsible for his father’s death. Things get complicated, though, when the Duke discovers a woman on board the pirates’ ship. The woman, Princess Isobel (Billie Dove — The American Beauty, The Painted Angel, At The Stage Door), becomes of interest to the Duke, and he works to protect her from the pirates during his journey.
Fairbanks’ biographer, Jeffery Vance said The Black Pirate was “the most carefully prepared and controlled of Fairbanks’s entire career.” Initially shot in two-strip technicolor, the movie earned rave reviews from The New York Times which called the movie’s color was “mindful of the paintings of the old masters.”
The Black Pirate will feature a feature-length audio commentary from film historian Rudy Behlmer and multiple outtakes with Behlmer as bonus content.
Robin Hood runs two hours, 13 minutes and The Black Pirate runs just over an hour and a half, at 95 minutes.
More information on this and other titles from Cohen Media Group is available online now at:
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