Capitan Blood

Nearly 80 years old and `Captain Blood' still is one of the greatest sea-adventures ever made. It initially served as an appropriate answer to `Mutiny on the Bounty', also released in 1935 and starring Clark Gable. This film launched the terrific career of Errol Flynn, who only appeared uncredited in other film until then. Captain Blood is a compelling and versatile story about a young Irish doctor, named Peter Blood. After giving medical attention to rebellions, he's sold as a slave to the wondrously beautiful Arabella Bishop (Olivia de Havilland)…niece of the rancorous Colonel Bishop (Lionel Atwill). Blood escapes slavery and, together with his faithful crew, he starts a successful and diverse career as a pirate in the Caribbean sea. Yet, the unanswered love he feels for Arabella never really allows him to be fully free. Naturally, this film doesn't feature as many outrageous swordfights as in later pirate movies, but the decors and scenery are breath-taking and very inspired. Some neutral sequences (mainly in the beginning of the film) can be considered tedious, but long and delightful patriot speeches and exiting battles make up for those. Errol Flynn does a great job as the rebellious captain, even though his handsome looks don't really match the image of a feared pirate. Special mention goes out to Basil Rathbone, flawlessly cast as a French corsair. Highly recommended if you're a fan of classic and nostalgic cinema.

Flynn's first starring role in Hollywood! This is a lavish, knock-you-silly gorgeous production with a solid, book-based plot, packed with action, salt water, swordplay AND hordes of pirates "celebrating in pirate fashion" (!). Flynn and de Havilland spark as they spar in the best love-hate mode, and this time, when she inadvisedly condescends to him in his slavery, his pride is as involved as hers. Suave, deadly French pirate captain Rathbone's betrayal of Flynn makes their thrilling, fated-from-the-start duel very satisfying indeed. The icing on the cake -- Flynn at his slim, youthful, sexy freshest, so beautiful he breaks your heart!

How thankful we should be that Robert Donat turned this role down, as it allowed the introduction of one of the most romantic screen teams in movie history - Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Director Michael Curtiz produced a great pirate film that stands up well some 70 years later, and has become the blue-print for others of this genre to follow. The two stars are great, showing an excellent rapport, and the support cast including those two great villains, Basil Rathbone and Lionel Atwill add so much to the story of piracy on the high seas. While by today's standards one can see the use of models in the sea battles, they were quite remarkable in their time and still provide much excitement and fun. Swashbuckling was Flynn's forte, and Warners did him no favours by casting him in less adventurous roles. Do not miss the opportunity to see this on DVD or Video as it is a couple of hours of great entertainment.

This is remembered as Errol Flynn's great opening movie role - which is partly true. He had a nice career in Australian movies (one a film about Fletcher Christian and the Bounty), but CAPTAIN BLOOD was his first Hollywood film as a star, and it was a brilliantly colorful opening role.

Flynn plays Dr. Peter Blood, a physician who is the 1685 version of Dr. Samuel Mudd in the Assassination of Lincoln. Mudd, if you recall, treated John Wilkes Booth's broken leg, and was sentenced to life imprisonment as a result. Flynn treats some injured men not realizing they are soldiers in a revolt. When they are arrested so is he, and he ends up being transported as an indentured servant (little better than a slave) to Jamaica in the West Indies.

The revolt, by the way, is that of James, Duke of Monmouth. The son of one Lucy Walters, his father was supposed to be King Charles II, one of several lovers Walters had when James was born. King Charles had ennobled Monmouth, and treated him well at court, but refused to legitimize him as the Whigs hoped (they wanted the Protestant Monmouth on the throne, rather than the Catholic brother of Charles, James, Duke of York. In the end Monmouth led this ill-fated revolt, which was defeated at the battle of Sedgewick Moor. Monmouth was beheaded at the Tower of London. King James II (the former Duke of York) sent his most belligerent jurist, Judge George Jeffreys to the west country where hundreds were hanged at fast trials (known forever after as "The Bloody Assizes". Jeffreys appears in the film as the judge that orders Blood's transporting to the New World. However in the film Blood (desperate to prove he is just a doctor) says the judge is suffering from tuberculosis. Jeffeys actually suffered from kidney stones, and was a heavy drinker and curser as a result. King James II made him Lord Chancellor for his work.

Flynn's real adventures begin in Jamaica, where he is working at the estate of Colonel Bishop (Lionel Atwill) and his niece Arabella (Olivia De Haviland). It was the first film Flynn and De Haviland co-starred in. Atwill is a bully to these traitorous indentured servants, but Flynn's medical abilities raises him above the others. With the aid of two local doctors he plans an escape, and he and the other indentured servants (Guy Kibbee, Ross Alexander, etc.) escape after defeating a pirate attack on the island. They also have the pleasure of plundering and discomforting Atwill, who vows to hunt them down and destroy them. The only regret Flynn has in leaving is he and Arabella have fallen in love.

We watch the rise of Peter Blood as a leading pirate, his temporary partnership with the French pirate Captain Lavasseur (Basil Rathbone) - which ends in a duel over De Haviland (and the first time Rathbone had to die at Flynn's hand in a duel in their films), and his gradual emergence as a friend of a reformed England represented by Lord Willoughby (Henry Stephenson) after the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688 overthrows James II. Although not exactly the same, Blood's rise from Pirate king to Governor of Jamaica (as the film ends) is a mirror of the story (a decade earlier) of the rise of Pirate, Henry Morgan, to being Sir Henry Morgan, Lt. Governor/Governor of Jamaica. A closer acting job regarding Morgan was done by Laird Cregar in THE BLACK SWAN, where he played that Governor - and with a welsh accent. But Flynn does very nicely, with his charm, humor, good looks, and athletic grace. It was a good introduction to a Hollywood legend.

'Captain Blood' made stars of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland when it was released, both winning their roles by default when other casting attempts failed. It's a rousing pirate adventure tale, told as only Rafael Sabatini in his novel could do. Aside from a splendid script, it has Michael Curtiz at the directorial helm and Erich Wolfgang Korngold supplying the stirring background music. The Flynn-de Havilland-Korngold-Curtiz package would be repeated many times by Warner Bros. since the ingredients proved a smash hit, most notably in 'The Adventures of Robin Hood'.

Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) is a physician wrongly accused of being a traitor and sent to the West Indies into a life of slavery. He is purchased at the auction block by a spirited beauty (Olivia de Havilland) whose father happens to be the Governor (Lionel Atwil). When he leads other prisoners in an escape plan and succeeds, he becomes a pirate on the high seas. Eventually he is involved in a fight, a duel to the death with another pirate (Basil Rathbone) in order to win the fair heroine. The climactic duel between Flynn and Rathbone is on par with their other famous duel in 'Robin Hood'.

Fans of either Errol Flynn or Olivia de Havilland cannot fail to enjoy this romantic adventure done in the grand style by a studio that knew it had two future stars in the making.