''Black Jack'', also known as ''Captain Blackjack'', is a 1950 adventure film written and directed by Julien Duvivier and starring

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Herbert Marshall Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall (23 May 1890 – 22 January 1966) was an English stage, screen and radio actor who starred in many popular and well-regarded Hollywood films in the 1930s and 1940s. After a successful theatrical career in the Uni ...

Patricia Roc Patricia Roc (born Felicia Miriam Ursula Herold; 7 June 1915 – 30 December 2003) was an English film actress, popular in the Gainsborough melodramas such as ''Madonna of the Seven Moons'' (1945) and '' The Wicked Lady'' (1945), though she only ...

and

Dennis Wyndham Dennis Wyndham (15 January 1887 – 19 August 1973) was a South African born stage and film actor. Long based in Britain, he appeared in more than 40 films between 1920 and 1956. He was born in Natal, South Africa. On 23 May 1917, he marrie ...

. Set on the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

, it tells the story of a man who does evil deeds. Although his conscience is awakened and he has fallen in love, escaping his past proves impossible. The English-language film was a co-production between France, Spain and the United States.

Plot

Demobilised after World War II, Mike Alexander pursues any deals, legal or not, which will make him a fortune. He has acquired a yacht in Mallorca, where he hears of a cargo ship in difficulty, the ''Chalcis'', which is full of refugees. He agrees to take the six richest off the ship, but is sickened by the distress of the rest and tells the captain to put them ashore on an isolated island. He also sees an attractive young woman, Ingrid, who refuses his offer of a free trip to safety. The captain scuttles the ship in a hidden cove and takes Ingrid to

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...

. Shortly after, Ingrid turns up in Mallorca as companion to an eccentric American millionairess, Emily Birk. Again she refuses the advances of Alexander, even when he says his fortune is arriving soon. Mrs Birk tells her she is really a cop and is after Alexander, an evil crook who is expecting a cargo of drugs. Ingrid agrees to go with Alexander to the island where the ''Chalcis'' is lying and they are sickened to find all the refugees locked in the hold by the captain and dead. When Alexander's drugs arrive, concealed in a schooner, they are lifted by Mrs Birk, who is not a cop but a dealer, and hidden in the wreck of the ''Chalcis''. Alexander finds this out and, his cover blown, destroys the consignment. To escape the law, he then heads in his yacht for Tangier and Ingrid agrees to flee with him. In an ending that was in accord with the

Motion Picture Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...

, police launches pursue them and shoot Alexander dead.

Cast

as Mike Alexander *

as Doctor James Curtis *

as Ingrid Dekker *

Agnes Moorehead Agnes Robertson Moorehead (December 6, 1900April 30, 1974) was an American actress. In a career spanning four decades, her credits included work in radio, stage, film, and television.Obituary ''Variety'', May 8, 1974, page 286. Moorehead was th ...

as Emily Birk * Marcel Dalio as Captain Nicarescu *

as Fernando Barrio * Howard Vernon as Schooner Captain * José Nieto as Inspector Carnero *

Jolie Gabor Jolie Gabor, Countess de Szigethy (born Janka Tilleman; September 30, 1896 – April 1, 1997) was a Hungarian-born American jeweler and socialite, known as the mother of actresses and fellow socialites Magda, Zsa Zsa and Eva Gabor. Family ...

as jeweler

References

External links

* 1950 films 1950 adventure films 1950s English-language films Films directed by Julien Duvivier Films shot in Mallorca French adventure films Spanish adventure films Seafaring films Films set in the Mediterranean Sea English-language French films English-language Spanish films American adventure films American black-and-white films Films scored by Joseph Kosma 1950s American films {{adventure-film-stub