Nouvelles aventures du capitaine Blood

A Columbia swashbuckler starring Louis Hayward from the forties without George McReady as the villain is like a hamburger without the meat: I mean absolutely impossible to imagine. So this early fifties - late forties aadventures flick has nothing to envy from Warner Bros productions for which Gordon Douglas also worked in the same period, or maybe after this period. He then missed the awful Sam Katzman producer if he had stayed in Columbia Pictures. Lucky guy. This movvie is a very good entertaining yarn, full of action but bringing nothing exceptional either. Everything is predictable; after all it was the Hollywood system. Gordon Douglas's directing is, as usual, flawless, no matter the plot itself.

FORTUNES OF CAPTAIN BLOOD never rises above being a pedestrian take on the Captain Blood legend originated by Rafael Sabatini in his immortal pirate tale, CAPTAIN BLOOD.

This is strictly secondary stuff, with LOUIS HAYWARD as the doctor turned pirate on the high seas. He's competent in the swashbuckling role rather than charismatic--and there lies the difference between him and Flynn. At times, he seems almost bored with his role.

DONA DRAKE does nicely enough as a peasant girl who flirts with Captain Blood (while he's assuming the name of Pedro), and PATRICIA MEDINA is equally at home in her role as a headstrong aristocratic lady. LOWELL GILMORE and GEORGE MACREADY are likewise competent as the rather villainous men interested only in pearls and wealth--but the story and its characters barely rise above the routine in a lifeless pirate tale.

ALFONSO BEDOYA at least furnishes a bit of sly humor as the prison overseer hoodwinked by Captain Blood (he was the man with the famous line about "We don't need no stinkin' badges" from TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE).

But the saga only really comes to life during the last half-hour, and then it's standard pirate swordplay and cannon fire until the predictable happy ending finds Captain Blood and the aristocratic lady sharing a kiss before the fadeout.

Summing up: Standard pirate tale with only occasional flashes of lively swordplay. As for Hayward, he was much better as "The Man in the Iron Mask".

Gordon Douglas at the time was redoing Erroll Flynn's adventures movies :for instance "rogues of Sherwood" showed Robin Hood's son (!)battling against his wicked uncle ;Hayward was sluggish but Mc Ready was delightful as the villain.

Another character portrayed by Flynn (gloriously) :another Hayward /McReady pairing and another battle.Six men from captain Blood's crew have been sold as slaves and they have got to dive for pearls in waters infested with sharks (too bad,those scenes are not shown;it would have added some suspense to a story which is terribly in need of it) The story is barely entertaining ,compared to the great Blood of Flynn and De Havilland (replaced by Patricia Medina who tries her best but who is not Olivia )

The previous poster is mistaken if she remembers seeing Hayward in glorious color--this is a black and white movie---and a less glorious B&W than that supplied Warner Brothers' Captain Blood by Ernest Haller and Hal Mohr. In fact, Fortunes often looks like a TV production--and not just because of the poor model work. What isn't typical of a TV movie is the surprising amount of violence--Blood's crew is bludgeoned mercilessly when they are captured, whipped by the Marquis and his overseers, and forced to listen to Alfonso Bedoya's idiosyncratic line readings.

I remember seeing Louis Hayward in The Black Arrow when I was about 10, and thinking that movie a great swashbuckler. Yet when I read the posts about it on IMDb, I wonder if my memory is playing tricks on me as well. Watching a bit of Fortunes on TCM, I rather suspect it is--this movie is pretty tepid, with the chief excellence being Hayward's performance, even though he gets no help from the script or director.

Mostly landlocked follow up to the Errol Flynn movie and based on another novel in the series concerns Louis Hayward trying to rescue a number of his crew who have been captured by an evil governor and forced into slavery as pearl divers. Most of the film has Hayward disguised as a fruit merchant attempting to get information that will help him free his men...while flirting with several women and fighting off bad men.

A mindless swashbuckler this is perfect Sunday afternoon fare, far from taxing it will simply put you into a place far away from all your troubles.

7 out of 10