Welcome to the Memorial Film Collection of Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks may have passed away in the distant past, but thanks to an enthralling, good old invention called Film, he will never be really gone.
Whenever you feel like traveling back in time to meet the First King of Hollywood, and to witness his incredible stunts, all you have to do, is watching one (or more) of his movies.
But which ones should you watch?
Well, if that’s the very question lurking in your mind right now, then you came to the right place. We’re just about to present the 11 Best Movies of Douglas Fairbanks.
If this is your first ride on the time-travelling FrameTrek Wagon, here’s what this is all about:
We choose a topic, in this case: “Best Movies of Douglas Fairbanks”, and we set sail for a journey, where the bricks of the trek are made of movie frames, and each stop represents a magnificent achievement in Film.
The Best Movies of Douglas Fairbanks is an episode of FrameTrek’s Hall of Legends: A mega-journey dedicated to identify the greatest artists of World Cinema, and their most significant works.
Meet Douglas Fairbanks, the First King of Hollywood
(1883 – 1939)
Douglas Fairbanks is undisputedly the number one swashbuckler superstar of the Silent Era. He is known for impersonating legendary adventure figures, such as Zorro, Robin Hood and D’Artagnan, just to name a few.
According to legend, the idea of becoming an actor came to him when he fell off the roof as a child and hurt himself. He began acting at age 12 at an amateur theater in Denver.
By the time he was 20, he had made a name for himself on Broadway, and about a decade later, he went to Hollywood.
His charismatic on-screen persona and his excellent athletic abilities gained him wide attention among theater audiences and his popularity quickly escalated.
Fairbanks performed most of his incredible stunts himself, and he frequently requested that his name be listed last in the film credits.
The man that’s out to do something has to keep in high gear all the time.
Douglas Fairbanks
Fairbanks had such an influential onscreen presence, that the overall physical look of Superman, in his very first comic book appearance, was based on him. On top of that, his portrayal of Zorro served as an inspiration for creating Batman.
So yeah, there’s plenty to talk about, when it comes to Douglas Fairbanks, but this article concentrates on his Top 11 Films, so let’s cut to the chase, shall we?
After all, an actor is as good as his greatest achievements. Thus, the finest way to familiarize yourself with Fairbanks, is through watching his best films as a marathon.
Ready? Buckle up then, and let the best movies of Douglas Fairbanks carry you to the cinematic land of silent adventures!
Presenting the 11 Best Films of Douglas Fairbanks
Chronologically
The Mystery of the Leaping Fish (1916)
Short silent comedy film.
Fairbanks plays a cocaine-shooting detective called “Coke Ennyday”, who is a parody of Sherlock Holmes. Ironically, he is after a gang of drug smugglers.
Why is The Mystery of the Leaping Fish among the best movies of Douglas Fairbanks?
✓ The most bizarre and most controversial movie of Fairbanks.
✓ Considered something of a cult film due its comedic dealings of drug use.
When the Clouds Roll by (1919)
Silent comedy film directed by Victor Fleming.
Story: Psychiatrist Dr. Ulrich Metz attempts to drive Daniel Brown to suicide. (IMDB)
Why is When the Clouds Roll by among the best films of Douglas Fairbanks?
✓ Considered to be the best of all the contemporary Fairbanks comedies.
✓ It is the first movie of the legendary, Academy Award Winning American film director Victor Fleming.
The Mark of Zorro (1920)
Silent swashbuckler adventure film directed by Fred Niblo.
Story: A seemingly idiotic fop is really the courageous vigilante Zorro, who seeks to protect the oppressed. (IMDB)
Between Frames:
✪ With this motion picture, Fairbanks re-energized his career and made the transition from comedies to the costume films for which he is best remembered.
Why is The Mark of Zorro among the top movies of Douglas Fairbanks?
✓ A genre-defining swashbuckler adventure and the first movie version of the legendary Zorro character.
✓ The United States Library of Congress selected this film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
The Three Musketeers (1921)
Silent swashbuckler adventure film directed by Fred Niblo.
Story: Young D’Artagnan travels to Paris to fulfill his life’s desire of becoming one of the king’s Musketeers, to fight for France and the honor of the queen.
Between Frames:
✪ To prepare for the role, Fairbanks grew his own, real D’Artagnan mustache, and he loved it so much that he wore it for the rest of his life.
✪ He performed a one-handed handspring to grab a sword during a fight scene. This is considered as one of the greatest stunts of early cinema.
Why is The Three Musketeers among the top films of Douglas Fairbanks?
✓ Its a hugely entertaining action-packed film, and it is the first on-screen version of Alexandre Dumas’s classic adventure novel of the same title.
✓ The role of D’Artagnan gave Fairbanks an excellent opportunity to show his athletic skills and to solidify his image, as a swashbuckler movie star.
Robin Hood (1922)
Silent swashbuckler adventure film.
Story: A nobleman becomes the vigilante Robin Hood who protects the oppressed English people from the tyrannical Prince John. (IMDB)
Why is Robin Hood among the greatest movies of Douglas Fairbanks?
✓ It was one of the most expensive films of the 1920s, but it also became a smash hit and generally received favorable reviews.
✓ The film pays strong attention to the details of costumes, sets, and scenery in order to recreate the world of medieval England.
The Thief of Bagdad (1924)
Silent swashbuckler fantasy adventure film.
Story: A recalcitrant thief vies with a duplicitous Mongol ruler for the hand of a beautiful princess. (IMDB)
Between Frames:
✪ The flying carpet effect required a sheet of steel attached to piano wires and a crane that lifted Fairbanks above the crowd.
✪ The scene where Fairbanks jumps in and out of huge clay pots on the market was done by placing small trampolines inside each pot, which allowed him to bounce from one pot to another without difficulty.
It requires some viewing commitment, but this beautifully assembled showcase for Douglas Fairbanks’ acting offers some splendid treats for classic film fans.
Rotten Tomatoes Critics Consensus
Why is The Thief of Bagdad among the greatest films of Douglas Fairbanks?
✓ Included among the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die.
✓ Selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
✓ Widely considered one of the greatest and most visually stunning silent films, and Fairbanks’s greatest work.
Don Q Son of Zorro (1925)
Silent swashbuckler adventure film directed by Donald Crisp.
Story: Don Cesar, son of Zorro, is framed for murder while visiting Spain, and becomes the whip-wielding outlaw Don Q. (IMDB)
Between Frames:
✪ Fairbanks spent six weeks learning fancy whipmanship for the role, and he paired his new tricks with his excellent acrobatic stunts. He uses the whip to lasso a bull, to light a cigarette, or to extinguish a candle, among other tricks.
The Black Pirate (1926)
Silent Technicolor swashbuckler adventure film.
Story: Seeking revenge, an athletic young man joins the pirate band responsible for his father’s death. (IMDB)
Between Frames:
✪ Technicolor was only an experimental process at the time, with a limited but pleasing range of colors. Being one of the very few silent films shot using this process, this film is a true milestone in world cinema.
Why is The Black Pirate among the best movies of Douglas Fairbanks?
✓ This was the most thoroughly planned and controlled work to be ever made by Fairbanks. He not only wrote, produced, and starred in the movie, but he also wanted it to be shot entirely in color.
✓ This movie has the most famous and widely copied stunt of Fairbanks’s entire career – riding down a sail, hanging on the edge of a knife as it cuts downward.
The Gaucho (1927)
Silent romantic adventure film.
Story: Gaucho, the charismatic leader of a band of outlaws, comes to liberate Miracle City from an evil and sadistic general.
Why is The Gaucho among the best films of Douglas Fairbanks?
✓ Its relative darkness of tone, setting, and character, makes it one of Fairbanks’s most fascinating pictures. Its more realistic and mature, than his other productions.
The Iron Mask (1929)
Part-talkie swashbuckler adventure film.
Story: D’Artagnan and his fellow musketeers set out to save the rightful King of France who has been imprisoned in a remote castle dungeon by his brother and forced to wear an iron mask. (Amazon)
Between Frames:
✪ There is a prologue and an intermission, where the four Musketeers appear in a medieval stage booth and Doug speaks directly to the audience. This was the very first time Fairbanks ever spoke in a film.
✪ This was the only film in which Douglas Fairbanks dies on screen. It was done in an effort to appropriately symbolize his departure from silent films.
The Private Life of Don Juan (1934)
Full-talkie British comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Korda.
Story: A middle-aged Don Juan returns to romantic Seville to try to hang on to his title as the world’s greatest lover. Unfortunately a young rival is threatening to earn it for himself. (Rotten Tomatoes)
This is the final theatrical movie of Douglas Fairbanks.
The end of Douglas Fairbanks’s Story
Fairbanks was one of the most successful and hardworking silent actors, but his enthusiasm for film-making greatly reduced when faced with the restrictions and difficulties of sound recording for the early talkies.
He was nearly 50 years old at the time and he had been a chain-smoker for years. So, his general health began to decline and his athletic abilities greatly diminished.
After a few poorly received talkies, his popularity began to fade, and following the release of The Private Life of Don Juan, Fairbanks retired from acting.
He continued to be lightly involved in the film industry due to his various partnerships, but there was a shift in his main focus. He spent his last years travelling abroad with his wife.
Fairbanks passed away in 1939 at age 56 due to a heart attack.
I never felt better in my life.
Last words of Douglas Fairbanks
If you’d like to dig deeper into the story of Douglas Fairbanks, you may want to read his biography, The First King of Hollywood by Tracey Goessel.
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Is there a movie on the list you’d replace with another one? Share your thoughts below.
