Two studios, 20th Century Fox and Universal have taken some older films out of the vault. In an attempt to cash in on any interest generated by a blockbuster franchise starring Johnny Depp, several films will be available on DVD for the first time. The films represent an era when movies about pirates were a viable genre, as well as films where scores were settled by swords instead of guns.

The better of the two forthcoming sets is “Tyrone Power: The Swashbuckler Box Set”. For those not familiar with Power, he was a handsome and very popular star, something like the Brad Pitt of his era, from the mid-Thirties until his untimely death in 1958. The five film set is somewhat misnamed, as one of the films, Blood and Sand, is about bullfighters, while Prince of Foxes is about the Borgias in Renaissance Italy. The other titles are The Black Rose, Son of Fury and The Captain from Castille. While there is lots of sword fighting, none of these is a pirate film. For those interested in seeing Power as a pirate, The Black Swan is already out on DVD.

For films actually about pirates, Universal is presenting there four film “Pirates of the Golden Age Movie Collection “. The closest to a classic in this bunch is Against All Flags made in 1950, starring Errol Flynn. The original Captain Blood was getting pretty anemic by the time he made this film co-starring Anthony Quinn and Maureen O’Hara. The other three titles make you wonder about Universal’s priorities considering some of the titles they have still in the vaults like this film starring Tony Curtis or this prophetic look at popular media. Two of the pirate films, Buccaneer’s Girl and Yankee Buccaneer were directed by Frederick De Cordova, a guy who found more rewarding success in his long association with Johnny Carson. Also included is Double Crossbones, a musical comedy pirate movie starring Donald O’Connor, best remembered as Gene Kelly’s partner in Singin’ in the Rain. In other words, it’s nice that these movies are on DVD, but while some movies are keepers, some are clearly best part of the rental queue.

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