I can vividly recall when I saw "The Sea Hawks" , "Robin Hood" and the sliightly grainier "Captain Blood", on the big screen as a kid in the late 1950's.
Erik Wolfgang Korngold was the Composer for the scores...the music is available online. It's still good listening.
Something about Pirate movies!
Just yesterday watched the original "Pirates of the Caribbean" on the tube. Great stuff. I noticed the crew on the Black Pearl was similar to many of the crewmembers on Errol Flynns ship...great character actors, like they used to cast in the 30's and 40's.
Real similarities between Captain Blood/The Sea Hawks. And the modern Pirates of the Carribean series. Not only wiith the Crew but down to the ships monkey.
FN in MT
I've never seen, "Pirates of the Caribbean", because it has Johnny Depp in it, and I think he's a jerk. He often comes across on talk shows like he's "on something" or is an egomaniac who thinks it beneath himself to be an entertaining guest. I thought the movie was a camp jab at the old adventure-pirate movies.
His co-star Orlando Bloom seems more grounded and the lucky guy married Miranda Kerr, the noted Aussie spokesmodel/Angel for Victoria's Secret. Miranda is cute and can be pretty funny, but she wasn't in the movie.
A peer of Sabatini was Samuel Shellabarger. I think he may have written, "Captain From Castile." I'll check and look for his books, too.
As for real dueling swords, I understand that the epee technique is closest to the real rapier. But the smallsword that replaced the rapier for normal dress wear was also said to be very deadly. I've seen truly beautiful examples of both in a sword book that I found at Barnes and Noble. It has a history of swords thriough the ages, and excellent coverage of Roman swords, another of my interests.
But who really created the famous mosiac of Alexander at Issus? Is the sword at his side one that the artist actually observed on the famous conqueror, or was the artist of a later time? Stiil, it looks Greek and correct. I think the handle was meant to be ivory.
The ship name, "The Black Pearl" seemed familiar. Then I got it! That was also the name of a Modesty Blaise adventure available now as a bound comic. (Modesty ran as a comic strip in about 53 nations, as well as being in excellent conventional novels.) Well, Modesty took fencing lessons from an Italian master in London and used a sword to kill a villain in, "A Taste For Death", if I recall the right novel.
The Blaise books were published from about 1965-1996, and the author was Peter O'Donnell, if anyone wants to find them. But she has almost a cult folowing here and the books are hard to locate. I think fans snap them up at used book stores.
A TRUE book that sort of fits in here is, "The Conquest of Mexico", by Bernal Diaz del Castillo. He was the only member of the Cortes expedition to have later written how they overcame the Aztec and other fierce tribes to take New Spain. It is a remarkable account, mostly humbly told, of daring and perilous deeds not well understood by the public today. Some of the hardships they suffered and the scenes that they beheld are almost tear-jerkers. It is not a volume for the timid. It will impress you as few books can. This is available in many languages and is a timeless classic. B&N had to order my copy, but it is currently in print, I think. Most major libraries should have it, too. Just an astounding book!
Can't stand my Shakespeare favorites, "MacBeth" and, "Julius Caesar."
