Captain Blood (1935)

CAPTAIN BLOOD (1935)

By Ralph Santini - ****

                The definitive Pirate film, Captain Blood is loaded with grand adventure, exciting action, excellent dialogue and rich writing. Well-directed by Warner Bros. swashbuckling favorite Michael Curtiz, this film tells a rousing tale about this young, late 17^th century physician, Dr. Peter Blood (an exciting star-making performance by Errol Flynn) is wrongfully arrested for aiding and abetting a wounded rebel that fought with the Army of the Duke Of Monmouth whom they were trying to expose the tyrannical King James II (Vernon Steele) from the Throne of England. He is later enslaved and sent to Jamaica with more rebels that would eventually join him to become buccaneers, right after an untimely interruption by Spanish privateers. After that they manage to escape from the law, and they become self-governing Pirates, with our hero Dr. Blood becoming their Captain.

                This film was based on a novel by adventure writer Rafael Sabatani which Warner Bros. would quickly adapt for the screen. Flynn was only selected after making three films, all of them of mediocre quality. In fact he was later selected after Robert Donat, who appeared in Edward Small’s adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, the year before, was reported seriously ill and was in no condition to play the role, so enter Mr. Flynn, an Australian actor who joined Warner Bros, and with this film, it launched him, an important career with Warner Bros., eventually appearing from time to time in what many other consider some of the finest action films of all time, ranging from The Adventures Of Robin Hood (1938) to another equally exciting pirate film The Sea Hawk (1940) and a few more.

                This film also greenlighted Flynn’s on-screen sweetheart, future Oscar® winner Olivia DeHavilland, who was only 19 when the movie was made and released. DeHavilland is cast as the love interest, which like many other films in the future, seems to have a love-hate relationship with the hero. The issue in this film is that her character Ms. Bishop is the niece of a cruel slave officer, Colonel Bishop (a riveting performance by versatile character actor Lionel Atwill) who would do anything to eliminate Captain Blood, no matter what. In spite of this, while still being a slave, he would be hired by Ms. Bishop to cure a gout which often makes an eccentric governor (George Hassel, hilarious) frantic and hysterical, not wanting to see two more doctors (one of them played by future Stagecoach co-star Donald Meek) because of their incompetence. This element brings a great amount of humor to this wonderfully blended screenplay that also contains excitement and tragedy as well. On top of that it has a remarkable score by the legendary composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold whom he would eventually compose for other Warner Bros. swashbucklers that starred Errol Flynn, himself and directed by Michael Curtiz, which in this film jumpstarted their legendary collaboration.

                That’s what this film is still wonderfully entertaining, even for 80 years. It has a versatile nature that includes plenty of action from many cannon fires to a great swordfight scene between Flynn and additional antagonist Basil Rathbone as an amorally ambitious French Pirate Captain named Levasseur who is fantastic in the role. That’s what make the results of this masterpiece terrific. This film was in fact nominated for four Academy Awards, including best screenplay and even best pictures and alas did not win any of them, with the latter losing to WB’s ambitious competitor MGM with “Mutiny On The Bounty”. Nevertheless I still think’s one of finest swashbucklers of all time because it’s fun, to me it’s an exciting and overall spectacular experience that I enjoy every time I’ve seen it over the years.