The Black Flamingo (1948)

D. Raoul Walsh
Glorious Technicolor


It’s been a long time since we had a proper pirate film. These days the closest we get is ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’, which is much more post-modern and ironic (as well as being happy to arse about and throw goggle-eyes at the supernatural). But those films don’t feel like proper pirate films to me, they’re almost spoofs of a pirate films which just coast along on the affection we apparently all feel for Johnny Depp’s performance. (And seriously, if we don’t love it and think it’s merely okay – and if we’re honest increasingly served with lashings of self-indulgence which makes it go WAY over the top - then those films can be more than somewhat tedious). Before that we had ‘Cutthroat Island’, which I saw in the cinema and greatly enjoyed, and am always a little baffled that it was such a flop and has so much bad press. But really if we want a proper pirate film – one with ruffled shirts and cutlasses and impossibly handsome leading men with earrings pretending to sail the seven seas in a large tank in the studio – we have to go back even further to the 1940s/1950s and the true age of the pirate film.


This is one of my favourites. Here we have Clark Gable roaring it up as the titular Black Flamingo – who according to his star-struck first mate is “a rogue, a fighter, a lover.” (It goes without saying that the first mate has a bit of a crush on Clark, indeed the moony way he utters the word “lover” suggests this affection may have been reciprocated.) Out at sea one day (or in a tank in the studio) Clark and his crew catch sight of a listing frigate. They’re pirates of the old school so of course they raid, and on board they find nobody but wealthy London trader Sidney Greenstreet and his delectable daughter, Virginia Mayo. Obviously there’s a mystery as to why the ship is otherwise empty, but first – and to save his own life – Greenstreet tells them of some treasure he has stowed away. Filled with greed, the pirates sail out to find it, taking Greenstreet and Mayo with them as hostages. And that’s the film. It’s a breezy and exciting adventure yarn which is filled with the thrill of sailing the mighty oceans, wielding cutlasses, and wearing big frilly shirts (in particular Clark’s luridly red frilly shirt). It’s about Clark Gable’s dashing moustache, it’s about his romancing the absolute peach of a beauty that is Virginia Mayo and it’s about Clark’s less than trustworthy relationship with Sidney Greenstreet. The two of them facing off in a battle of wills, a battle of styles, a battle of rogues who look so distinctive in profile.


And that’s what makes this film so brilliant, it keeps everything simple. Rather than lots of complex plot points and supernatural nonsense, ‘The Black Flamingo’ presents its strengths and proceeds to expertly play to them. Raoul Walsh clearly believes that the dashing enthusiasm of Clark Gable will contrast fantastically with the conniving stillness of Greenstreet, and so it’s worthwhile giving them lots of scenes together. Similarly he thinks that Virginia Mayo looks absolutely ravishing in Technicolor (seriously Virginia Mayo does look absolutely, jaw droppingly, sex on legs, magnificent in Technicolor; her peaches and cream complexion is absolutely delicious – seriously it’s possible that no woman was ever photographed as well in Technicolor as Virginia Mayo) and it will be a male audience fantasy to see her seduced by Clark Gable. (And women, let’s be honest, the sight of an expert seduction by Clark Gable must offer a vicarious thrill). Okay the mystery of the empty ship isn’t as resolved as well as it should be, but everyone has had so much fun on the way that only the most finicky will really care. As what this film is trying to be is The Perfect Pirate Movie, with catchy sea-shanties, a cheerfully roguish crew, betrayal and distrust, romance and adventure laced through every frame. All of that is true and Walsh magnificently steers this mighty ship to give us a truly wonderful hour and a half.