Swashbucklers of the silver screen

There's something about a pirate adventure that stirs the imagination, and triggers a sense of free-spirited adventure and derring-do. It's true in literature and it's true in classic cinema, where such films as "Captain Blood," "The Sea Hawk," Disney's "Treasure Island" and even "Peter Pan" (with Captain Hook) forever elevate the Hollywood art of swashbuckling.

Once again, buccaneers are calling with "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," and it's likely the franchise will continue to scoop up filmgoers' pieces of eight and gold doubloons by the hundreds of millions.

The first in the series, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," personally rejuvenated a nearly forgotten film genre when its estimated $305.4 million gross, according to the Internet Movie Database, made it the 21st most successful film of all time and placed it in the top three among the films of 2003.

Though box-office records from Hollywood's golden age of pirates — the time of the great Errol Flynn — are hard to come by and difficult to compare, it's safe to say the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" film is the most successful movie to ever sail under the skull-and-crossbones.

In fact, it's a challenge to even name other pirate movies released over the past three decades. We'll help you with a few titles you may already have forgotten:

"Cutthroat Island," the 1995 Renny Harlin adventure in which the director turned his wife of that time, Geena Davis, into a fetching pirate. The film got mixed-to-poor reviews (I'm one of the few critics who liked it), and the estimated $92 million film earned only a meager $10 million at the box office, according to imdb.com.

"The Pirate Movie," a truly awful 1982 rock 'n' roll parody of "The Pirates of Penzance," starring Kristy McNichol and Christopher Atkins, that almost single-handedly buried the pirate genre. Mercifully, its petty box-office returns aren't readily available.

"Pirates," a misguided Roman Polanski adventure from 1986 that somehow cast Walter Matthau as a pirate captain. He was one of our great comic actors, but it was asking way too much for him to play a swashbuckler. It cost $40 million to make, while its U.S. gross was a paltry $1.6 million, according to imdb.com.

Certainly, two films in the "Peter Pan" canon have recently surfaced: the 2004 J. M. Barrie biopic, "Finding Neverland" (in which "Pirates of the Caribbean" actor Johnny Depp also starred), and the admirable 2003 live-action remake of "Peter Pan," with Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook. They're both worthy films, but piracy remains only on the periphery of the Barrie fable.

For longtime pirate movie fans, the glory days of buccaneers were in the '30s, '40s and '50s, when Hollywood's two greatest pirates enlivened the screen. They were:

Errol Flynn , the Tasmanian-born devil who made his name in a remarkable series of Warner Brothers adventure films under the director Michael Curtiz. The highlights include two pirate films that remain the absolute best of the genre: "Captain Blood" (1935) and "The Sea Hawk" (1940). Supported by superb visuals, great supporting casts and the majestic music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Flynn brought to life the concept of the pirate as the good-hearted Robin Hood of the sea. (That's fitting, since he was also the screen's greatest Robin Hood.)

Robert Newton , the colorful English actor whose hammy, scenery-chewing style was perfect for two of Hollywood's most robust pirates: Long John Silver in Disney's "Treasure Island" (1950), the less-impressive sequel, "Long John Silver" (1954) and in a subsequent, short-lived TV series; and the notorious title character in Raoul Walsh's "Blackbeard the Pirate" (1952).

When people say "shiver me timbers" and "Ar-r-r, me mateys," it's Newton they're imitating. He was more responsible than anyone for our concept of a pirate today — not even Wallace Beery's pirate in the well-made 1934 version of "Treasure Island" can compare.

But now we add Depp to the mix, as the actor blends his own considerable skills with a reflection of Rolling Stone Keith Richards to give us a funny, adventurous and strangely lovable pirate named Jack Sparrow.

And thanks to Captain Jack, the pirate season is once again upon us, leading to a plethora of new books — "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Pirates" (Alpha; $18.95), "The Pirate Wars" (Thomas Dunne Books; $24.95) and many others.

So avast mateys, it's time once again to go a-piratin'.