Restored Silent

BEHIND THE DOOR-1919-Amid anti-German sentiment at the beginning of WWI, Capt. Krug (Hobart Bosworth) and his toughest rival Tavish (James Gordon) join the navy. Krug also marries Alice (Jane Novak} against her families wishes. Ostracized, she stows away on her husband's ship (Tavish is his first mate). Their ship is eventually torpedoed by a German sub which finds Krug and Alice in a lifeboat. Lt. Brandt (Wallace Beery), the sub commander has Alice taken aboard but abandons Krug to the open sea. He survives and vows revenge. Alice is gang raped by the crew, then killed and her body thrown overboard. Later both Krug and Brandt meet again and Krug gets his revenge big time. 

This rediscovered classic, which uses stills for some missing scenes, starts off like some typical “DW Griffith” drama and ends like a nightmare that may have influenced Edgar Ulmer. It kind of manages to say ethnic hatred is wrong but still shows the German as being very bad. It's based on a story by Gouverneur Morris.

Director Irvin Willat made THE GRIM GAME starring Harry Houdini the same year.
 https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2017/10/houdini.html

Mr. BIG's Pirates

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THE BOY AND THE PIRATES-1960-Jimmy (Charles Herbert), a little kid who likes pirates finds a bottle with a mini-genie (Joe Turkel) in it. Because of a wish he makes Jimmy winds up on “The Queen's Revenge”, a pirate ship ruled by the infamous Blackbeard (Murvyn Vye)) who makes Jimmy his cabin boy. He has to swab the deck, clean fish and get rum for the captain. After the pirates loot and kill on a Dutch ship Jimmy (who Blackbeard calls a “miserable cabin rat”) rescues Katrina (Susan Gordon), a girl about his age. Blackbeard wants to throw her overboard but Jimmy stands up for her. When the crew learn their captain is after some gold, Morgan (Timothy Carey) tries to burn out Jimmy's tongue. When a British ship attacks The Queens Revenge, Jimmy and Katrina escape to an island but Blackbeard follows them. Jimmy throws the genie bottle at the pirate and he winds up back home. 

Despite being aimed at kids there's long stretches of talk and blood and violence. 

This bizarre kiddie swashbuckling fantasy was the first color film for “Mr. BIG” himself Bert I. Gordon (still alive at the time of this writing). There are no giant monsters but it's definitely a low budget production with some mediocre SFX. This was the second of four appearances for Susan Gordon in her dad's movies. Star Charles Herbert was also a popular child star at the time having been in THE FLY and THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK and many TV shows. He was in William Castle's 13 GHOSTS the same year.

Thanks for reading, matey!