Fortunes of Captain Blood ** (1950, Louis Hayward, Patricia Medina, George Macready) – Classic Movie Review 9376

Director Gordon Douglas’s 1950 swashbuckling adventure film Fortunes of Captain Blood is an acceptably humble adventure, based on the novel by Rafael Sabatini, though the routine script and direction, and the cheap-looking Columbia Pictures production largely defeat a welcome cast of actors who look as though they are ready for something classier.

Louis Hayward swashes his buckle as buccaneer Captain Peter Blood, the Irish doctor turned pirate, who faces the wicked marquis De Riconete (George Macready), who has been hired by the Spanish to put a permanent stop to his dirty work. The formidable Patricia Medina provides the fiery glamour and exotic romance as the marquis’s niece, Isabelita Sotomayor.

Fortunes of Captain Blood is a little bit lusty, and some genial fun, but it proves no threat to Errol Flynn or rival to his 1935 classic Captain Blood. Nevertheless Medina and Hayward are a useful team, and Macready is a good villain. Unfortunately it is shot in black and white when it is crying out for colour.

It is followed by a Technicolor sequel, Captain Pirate (1952), with Medina and Hayward.

Also in the cast are Dona Drake, Alfonso Bedoya, Terry Kilburn, Lowell Gilmore, Wilton Graff, Curt Bois, Lumsden Hare, Billy Bevan, Harry Cording, Duke York, Martin Garralaga, Alberto Morin, Sven Hugo Borg, James Fairfax, Charles Irwin, Georges Renavent and Nick Volpe.

Fortunes of Captain Blood is directed by Gordon Douglas, runs 91 minutes, is released by Columbia, is written by Michael Hogan, Robert Libott and Frank Burt, based on the novel by Rafael Sabatini, is shot in black and white by George E Diskant, is produced by Harry Joe Brown, is scored by Paul Sawtell and Morris Stoloff, and is designe dby George Brooks.

Medina appears with Hayward in four films: Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950), The Lady and the Bandit (1951), Lady in the Iron Mask (1952) and Captain Pirate (1952).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9376

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