Les évasions du capitaine Blood

Yes, folks, the producer of this marvelous little adventure yarn is the same who gave us the Budd Boetticher and Randolph Scott's western series, several years later. I am so happy that it was not the infamous Sam Katzman who produced this excellent movie. Because the poor Ralph Murphy - lame director - could have done anything against this Katzman plague; even William Castle hardly tried his best, during his Columbia Pictures period, with Katzman on his back, watching over his shoulder. Without any success.... So, yes, this tremendous adventure film, very colorful, action packed, is as good as the Sidney Salkow's films or even the Universal Studios ones, also from the same period, starring the likes of Maureen O'Hara insteand of Patricia Medina - O'Hara's equivalent for Harry Cohn's company (Columbia).

I guess the previous reviews have said most of it. I watched this film without having seen "Fortunes of Captain Blood", and it was OK. Good colour, and the battle scenes, including the inevitable closing duel, were well mounted, if one makes allowances for model ships devoid of crews.

The plot progressed at a good pace, though there were several occasions when I thought "How on earth did (s)he know that", and the King of Spain's offer of a pardon for Dona Isabella arrived very quickly indeed.

There was quite a parade of colourful characters who had a few minutes of screen time.

Whilst this isn't a patch on "Captain Blood" (1935), it still makes for a fun sort-of sequel with Louis Hayward swashing and buckling for ninety minutes. This time, he must convince the authorities that he is being framed for a series of daring pirate raids on shipping by a man impersonating him. When they try to arrest him, he takes to his old ways to prove his innocence. We have seen all of this before, and to be honest much of it is a bit flat and derivative; Hayward hasn't the glint in his eye of many of his more mischievous, engaging, earlier performances and it really misses a decent baddie - a foil for his character to fence with. It's still an enjoyable film to watch, the costumes are suitably sumptuous and there is cannon fire a-plenty, but somehow it just falls a bit short.

This is the latest retelling of the film which made Errol Flynn a star. Louis Heyward plays a convincing Peter Blood, a doctor who becomes a pirate when he is convicted unjustly. I enjoyed the movie when I saw it as a kid. I don't know if I will still like it now. I will have a chance to see it again as Sony MGM is planning to release it on DVD on June 27, 2006 as a double program with "Fortunes of Captain Blood". "Captain Pirate" is a loose remake of "Fortunes..." made 2 years later again starring Heyward as Blood and in color this time and written by the same screen writers, Frank Burt and Robert Libott. However, at that time, I found "Fortunes..." to be a better film. Now I'll be able to judge them when the DVD comes out. By the way, my favorite pirate movie of all time, then and now, is still "The Crimson Pirate" with Burt Lancaster.

Louis Hayward plays Captain Blood, now a reformed character and practicing medicine on a tropical island who wants to settle down and marry a Spanish countess dressed by Jean Louis.

But as regularly happens to Elvis Presley in similar circumstances his past comes back to haunt him and he has to pick up his sword and return to the high seas to restore his reputation.

There's a lot of talk amidst the action; the picture's aspirations to an epic dimension deriving from a brief narration by Patricia Medina. In amongst the yo-ho-ho and swordplay Hayward also gets the admiring attention of a cute little kid who's also just like you'd find in a Presley picture.