Captain Blood (1935)

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again... I love Tuner Classic Movies. Every March they show Oscar winning films, 24 hours a day, in preparation for the years Oscar award ceremony. TCM in March along with a Digital Video Recorder = Heaven for a film buff such as myself.

This weekend I caught Errol Flynn in Captain Blood I have three thoughts after watching this film:
1) Pirates of the Caribbean owes A LOT to this classic film.
2) Errol Flynn was incredibly charming with an infectious grin.
3) Olivia de Havilland is a beautiful woman with wonderful, expressive eyes.

Captain Blood is the story of Dr. Peter Blood, played with magnetism by Flynn, who is branded a traitor by King James for offering medical assistance to a rebel. He is forced into slavery in the Caribbean and bought by Arabella Bishop, played by de Havilland. He eventually earns a level of freedom on the island by helping to heal the Governor’s gout. This freedom allows Blood to seek passage off the island and forms a rag-tag crew from among his fellow slaves.

Their plans are interrupted by an attack by the Spaniards, but he and his crew steal a Spanish ship and save the town, yet are still considered rebels and slaves. They quickly realize they are men without a country and become pirates, living by a strict code of ethics penned by Blood himself.

Eventually, King James replaces the Governor with Arabella’s father, who is determined to bring Blood, now Captain Blood, to justice. Blood and his crew attack and steal, hiding out in the Tortugas, away from the new Governor’s wrath.

Blood makes a pact with French pirate Captain Lavasseur, portrayed by Basil Rathbone… a pact which comes back to haunt him when Blood is forced to pay for de Havilland’s freedom from Rathbone’s grip, buying her as she had bought him.

The story climaxes with massive naval battles, a path to freedom, the eventual justice for Blood and the acknowledgement of shared love between Flynn and de Havilland.

Flynn is perfect in the role of Blood, playing both an educated man and doctor and a fierce man forced into piracy as Captain Blood. Olivia de Havilland’s face radiates with her smile and her simmering love for Blood is hard for her to suppress.

It appears as if the recently popular Pirates of the Caribbean used Captain Blood as a template, pulling many of its plot elements out and into Pirates. There are the locations, the wronged man who is forced to become a pirate and who is in love with the Governor’s daughter, the charming Captain and the naval battles are, at times, shot for shot copies. I will say that if you are going to copy a pirate movie, Captain Blood is the one to copy for it has so many wonderful elements and performances.

I find it interesting that Flynn was not the first choice for the role. Robert Donat was cast in the title role, but didn't turn up at the start of shooting. Warner Brothers scrambled to find a replacement, asking Brian Aherne to take the role, but he refused. Warner Brothers decided to take a gamble on the previously unknown Australian, Errol Flynn, and the rest, as they say, is history.

I also found out that Basil Rathbone took a dislike to Flynn. During their dueling sequence, he reminded Flynn that he was being paid considerably more for his part in the picture, a part which is very small in the overall scope of the film, and then deliberately wounded him in the arm (leaving a permanent scar).

If you want some old-school swashbuckling fun and to see the genes which gave birth to Pirates of the Caribbean, check out Captain Blood. You won’t be disappointed.