Captain Blood: A Swashbuckler Is Born

Captain Blood: A Swashbuckler is Born (2005)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

This 20-minute featurette has interviews with Rudy Behlmer, Lincoln Hurst, Robert Osborne and Bob Thomas as they discuss the making of the classic CAPTAIN BLOOD. We start off with discussion of Errol Flynn and how he had made a couple pictures overseas and then Warner brought him over where he appeared in a couple small films. Olivia de Havilland had also just appeared in her first few films and was on a 7-year contract. The historians mention the countless major stars who were considered for their roles but in the end the studio decided to take a chance and go with a couple unknowns. From here we learn about the casting of Basil Rathbone, Lionel Atwill and the rest of the supporting players. Overall this is yet another very entertaining featurette from Warner that gets the job done in such a short running time. We hear about all stages of the production and learn about how big of a hit it was. Fans of the movie are certainly going to be entertained by this thing as those interviewed really do a nice job at keeping the thing moving at a nice pace and after it's over with you really do feel as if you know everything about the picture.

This Warner Home Video was produced for the 2005 release of the DVD of "Captain Blood" of 1935. Half a dozen film historians, critics and authors and some others discuss the making of the Warner Brothers film in 1935 - "Captain Blood." Much attention is given to the selection of Errol Flynn to play the lead role of Peter Blood. Here was an unknown, barely broken-in, imported English actor, who exploded on the screen. It was one of the biggest and quickest rises to stardom in Hollywood history.

And, as the interviewees in the 20-minute documentary point out, this film and Flynn's persona sparked a rebirth of swashbuckler films. The last surge of swashbucklers was with Douglas Fairbanks in silent films of the late teens to the mid-1920s. Other aspects of the film are discussed. It was also a breakout film for Olivia de Havilland. And, the music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold would set the standard for exciting adventure and swashbuckling films of all time.

Interviewees include Rudy Behlmer, Lincoln Hurst, Robert Osborne, Bob Thomas, Tim Weske and John Mauceri

Lincoln Hurst says, "Captain Blood caught audiences, I think, by surprise. They, they had never heard of this young man, Errol Flynn, or of this co-star, Olivia de Havilland. And I think many of them walked out of the theaters and wondering where have these people been all of their lives. It was a tremendous box office success. It catapulted Errol Flynn to overnight super stardom. It's the most amazing debut of any new actor in the history of Hollywood."

Robert Osborne spoke of Olivia de Havilland and her quick stardom. "She has a brightness and a sensibility," he says, "and sort of a whole elegance about her that was several steps above most of the .. leading ladies who were in film."

Bob Thomas commented on the pairing of Flynn and de Havilland. "Jack Warner was smart enough to know that... Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland were a winning couple on the screen," he says. So, he cast them in eight pictures together.

They also talk about the great supporting cast of this and other films. Robert Osborne says, "Films in the 1930s and 1940s, particularly, were so rich with these wonderful character people." Lincoln Hurst comments on Basil Rathbone as Levasseur. "He was the man in those days that everyone loved to hate. So he was perfect as the villain."

John Mauceri, conductor, talks abut Erich Korngold's music for the film and the impact it had on future films. He says, "Captain Blood was really the prototype for all the swashbuckling films, and he scores of every swashbuckling film by every composer ever since." That's also why Warner Brothers ruled the roost in these type of Hollywood films.

Most movie fans just enjoy films and aren't that much interested in their backgrounds. But history buffs and those who enjoy everything about the making of movies and the stars of the past should find this documentary interesting.

What this documentary does is emphasize the fact that Errol Flynn and his frequent co-star Olivia de Havilland both came along at the right time--both clicked immediately with audiences--and both became permanent fixtures of the romantic swashbuckler/western type of adventure film for which Flynn was famous.

Both are treated with insightful reflections on their persona by Robert Osborne, Rudy Behlmer and Bob Thomas, who offer some superb commentary while showing clips from the film that made Flynn and de Havilland such popular co-stars.

And, of course, the great Erich Wolfgang Korngold score gets mentioned with full appreciation for its contribution to the success of CAPTAIN BLOOD.

Trivia: Interesting that both de Havilland and Flynn were not the first choices for their roles--others were considered and then dropped.