Captain Blood

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Trailer—Captain Blood

Captain Blood

Errol Flynn's first starring turn as an action hero is set in the golden age of piracy. Flynn's character, Captain Blood, starts out as Dr. Blood; a compassionate physician who makes the mistake of treating English rebels. Royalists take a dim view of this and Dr. Blood is sentenced to slavery in the West Indies. Amazingly all the slaves are white, but nonetheless, he escapes and is transfigured into Captain Blood, pirate extraordinaire. Captain Blood also stars Olivia de Haviland as the love interest, Lionel Atwill as her vengeful father, and Basil Rathbone as Blood's French pirate rival. This is the tops and is highly recommended.

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!

The pirate movie is a sub-genre of the cinema. "Captain Blood," while not the first pirate movie, gave us all the infrastructure for those to come. Errol Flynn was born to play these parts. He had swagger, good looks, and a way of overcoming obstacles. At the beginning he is treated like dirt and shoved off to be enslaved by king and country. When he has a chance, he takes his fellow slaves, captures a Spanish ship, and sets off to rob and plunder any merchant ship he comes across. But there is also romance, betrayal, revenge, and scenes of incredible action. This hasn't always been my favorite kind of movie, but I can see why this one stands above so many others.

I have always wanted to see this film and so I recently purchased the Errol Flynn Signature Collection from Warner Bros. and promptly watched this title. This could easily be considered the greatest pirate movie ever made and by far the most realistic. Being a film student I watched it with a critical eye but at the same time found myself engaged in the excitement and all of the swashbuckling spectacle that WAS the film. Errol Flynn's breakout performance could easily rival his appearance as Robin Hood 3 years later, and Basil Rathbone is his typically evil self. The swordplay is spectacular, the Korngold's score is breathtaking, and the film is not only well made but (after 70 years) easily as entertaining (if not more) as the recent Pirates of the Caribbean. Highly recommended viewing for viewers of all ages.

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.

Practically the same cast that made magic in the later ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, but magic just the same -- they never made a pirate film that could equal this one, much less surpass it, though Hollywood certainly tried. If you only ever see two Flynn movies, watch this and ROBIN HOOD and you'll be the richer for it.