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Subject: Re: Red coats and ham! Author: Steve Bingen [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 21:15:22 02/06/06 Mon In reply to: Susan 's message, "Red coats and ham!" on 17:54:05 01/13/06 Fri Ahoy all, According to "The RKO Story" a very interesting tid-bit about the history of this odball bit of ham and hokem is that the picture was prepared by horror film master Val Lewton as (presumably) a thriller to star non other than Boris Karloff as Blackbeard! If you look at the finished picture this idea has some sort of depraved logic actually. This is the most sadistic pirate film I can think off -- filled with beheadings and torture and violence unlike any other pirate picture of the era. The climax is really tasteless if you think about it. I mean what an awful way to die, burried to the neck in sand, having to watch the tide come and go and wondering which time it will do one and not the other... In fact a much later horror film, "Creepshow", ripped off the idea and it played exactly the same way. I suspect that when RKO got the chance to hire Newton conventional pirate elements were brought in to satisfy his "Treasure Island" fans. So it was Henry Morgan, not Blackbeard that was grafted into the plot at the last minute. I hate to admiit it, well, maybe not, but when I first saw this film, I was maybe 8 and found it, and Newton very scary indeed. Maybe if Boris Karloff had played the part I'd be posting on a "Frankenstein" site today. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

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[> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Red coats and ham! Author: Sue G. [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 08:06:15 02/07/06 Tue That's really interesting and it would cetainly explain why they did not attempt to follow the real history of Blackbeard. I could see why you would find Robert Newton scary in that film, expecially as a child. If I didn't like RN so much I would have found the movie totally gross. I had not seen the movie for many years and the one thing that I did remember from the film was his head sticking up from the sand and the water washing over it! That scene stuck in my mind all those years. It was a bit creepy! I didn't remember the humorous parts of the film (until seeing it recently). Just that one horrible ending! [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Re: Red coats and ham! Author: Steve Bingen [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 16:37:13 02/08/06 Wed Yeah, the “Blackbeard” violence level, and particularly that ending, was indeed pretty strong stuff. The 8–year old version of myself also thought it was scary that Blackbeard sleeps in the film with those wild eyes of his wide-open! Although when I saw the movie again years later I noticed that this feat was described but never actually seen --although Robert Newton’s eyes certainly do make the idea easy to visualize. The real Blackbeard the pirate’s story was a bit of a horror tale itself come to think of it – what with his proclaimed “I’m the devil from hell” theatrics and his apparently refusing to die until he was practically hacked to pieces-- I especially enjoyed reading here that according to legend, after Blackbeard was beheaded, and his body cast over the side, his torso swam around the boat a few times in defiance. Boris Karloff and Val Lewton would have fit right into THAT film. I wonder what direction the 21st century Blackbeard movies are going to swim in [ Post a Reply to This Message ]

[> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> [> Subject: Chester A. Riley meets the Killer, Edward Teach Author: Susan [ Edit | View ] Date Posted: 02:05:10 02/13/06 Mon I heartily agree with both of you about the ending! (It's especially disturbing to see *Robert Newton* meet such a gruesome end. Although Boris Karloff met an even more grisly one in the Black Cat, didn't he? Though we only see it in shadow.) Thanks for the interesting trivia about its almost being a horror movie--makes a lot more sense now! Although I imagine the whole thing would've been different with Boris Karloff as the lead. But can you imagine William Bendix as Karloff's sidekick? Brings to mind certain Abbott & Costello movies! [ Post a Reply to This Message ]