Captain Blood ***** (1935, Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Guy Kibbee) – Classic Movie Review 3282

Director Michael Curtiz’s vintage 1935 American black-and-white swashbuckler pirate film Captain Blood from Warner Bros is a great bona fide adventure classic and turned the young Errol Flynn into a superstar. It also established the 19-year-old Olivia de Havilland as a major star, in her fourth screen appearance.

It was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing, and Best Sound Editing. Its huge success, making Warner Bros a profit of $1,462,000 on a cost of $1,242,000, paved Hollywood’s way for many more romantic costume adventures, out of style since the silent era. It was as influential as it was popular, and Flynn was seen as the heir to silent swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks Sr.

This film of Rafael Sabatini’s famous 1922 pirate yarn novel was planned to star Robert Donat, who suffered repeated ill health problems, but the role of Peter Blood eventually went to the then unknown Flynn. Early filming was scrapped because of Flynn’s inexperience as an actor and his Australian accent.

But he soon added personable authority and vocal prowess to his natural roguish charm as the surgeon who escapes a hanging judge to become a Caribbean cut-throat. In Port Royal, Jamaica, he mixes with French pirate Levasseur (Basil Rathbone) and fair lady Arabella Bishop (Olivia de Havilland), the Governor’s daughter who buys him for £10 to spite her uncle, Colonel Bishop (Lionel Atwill), who owns a plantation.

Director Curtiz injects a high level of thrills and excitement, and the technical credits are first-rate, with Hal Mohr’s photography, Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s music and Anton Grot’s sets absolutely outstanding.

Guy Kibbee, Ross Alexander, Robert Barrat, Henry Stephenson, Donald Meek and J Carrol Naish head the lovely character star support cast.

Also in the cast are Hobart Cavanaugh, Jessie Ralph, Forrester Harvey, Frank McGlynn Sr, Holmes Herbert and David Torrence.

Most of the film was shot on a sound stage in the summer of 1935 but some exteriors, including the sword fight between Rathbone and Flynn, were shot on location at Laguna Beach, California.

Captain Blood runs 119 minutes, is written by Casey Robinson, and produced by Harry Joe Brown and Gordon Hollingshead, with Hal B Wallis as executive producer.

It premiered on 26 December 1935 at the Mark Strand Theatre in New York City and was released in the US on 28 December 1935.

It is the first of eight films with Flynn and de Havilland. In 1938 they were re-united with Basil Rathbone in The Adventures of Robin Hood. That same year of 1938, Rathbone also starred with Flynn in The Dawn Patrol.

The Son of Captain Blood eventually followed in 1962, with Flynn’s son Sean in the star role and Ann Todd playing Arabella.

Louis Heyward stars in Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950).

A1924 silent film of Captain Blood starred J Warren Kerrigan as Peter Blood.

Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold originally declined writing the score for a pirate movie, but changed his mind after watching Flynn and de Havilland filming. But then he learned that he needed to compose more than an hour of symphonic music in only three weeks, forcing him to use symphonic poems by Franz Liszt for about 10 per cent of the score. So he insisted his credit was only for musical arrangement.

The cast are Errol Flynn as Peter Blood, Olivia de Havilland as Arabella Bishop, Lionel Atwill as Colonel Bishop, Basil Rathbone as Levasseur, Ross Alexander as Jeremy Pitt, Guy Kibbee as Master Gunner Henry Hagthorpe, Henry Stephenson as Lord Willoughby, Robert Barrat as John Wolverstone, Hobart Cavanaugh as Dr. Bronson, Donald Meek as Dr. Whacker, Jessie Ralph as Mrs. Barlow, Forrester Harvey as Honesty Nuttall, Frank McGlynn Sr. as Rev. Uriah Ogle, Holmes Herbert as Capt. Gardner, David Torrence as Andrew Baynes, J. Carrol Naish as Cahusac, Pedro de Cordoba as Don Diego, George Hassell as Governor Steed, Harry Cording as Kent, Leonard Mudie as Baron Jeffreys, Ivan F. Simpson as The Prosecutor, Mary Forbes as Mrs. Steed, E. E. Clive as Clerk of the Court, Colin Kenny as Lord Chester Dyke, Vernon Steele as James II, Murray Kinnell as Court Clerk, and Halliwell Hobbes as Lord Sunderland.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3282

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