Captain Blood (1935)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Michael Curtiz

Writers:

Rafael Sabatini (novel)
Casey Robinson (screenplay)

Release Date:

28 December 1935 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Romance

Tagline:

THE MOST MAGNIFICENT & THRILLING SEA ADVENTURE EVER FILMED (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

An enslaved English doctor and his comrades in chains escape and become pirates of the Robin Hood variety.

Plot Keywords:

Escape | Pirate | Swashbuckler | Slavery | Caribbean

Awards:

Nominated for 5 Oscars.

Cast

Errol Flynn	...	Peter Blood
Olivia de Havilland	...	Arabella Bishop
Lionel Atwill	...	Col. Bishop
Basil Rathbone	...	Levasseur
Ross Alexander	...	Jeremy Pitt
Guy Kibbee	...	Hagthorpe
Henry Stephenson	...	Lord Willoughby
Robert Barrat	...	Wolverstone
Hobart Cavanaugh	...	Dr. Bronson
Donald Meek	...	Dr. Whacker
Jessie Ralph	...	Mrs. Barlow
Forrester Harvey	...	Honesty Nuttall
Frank McGlynn Sr.	...	Rev. Ogle
Holmes Herbert	...	Capt. Gardner
David Torrence	...	Andrew Baynes

Runtime:

119 min | USA:99 min (re-release)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Germany:12 | Australia:PG (DVD rating) | Sweden:Btl | New Zealand:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #1552) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Australia:G | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Corona, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Because, Erich Wolfgang Korngold had only three weeks for scoring this picture, he used portions of two tone poems by Franz Liszt for some of the action scenes. However, he insisted on the screen credit "Musical Arrangements by" although still 90 % of the score was original.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Arabella Bishop is on the ship returning from England, she sees another ship in the distance, but the shot of the other ship was taken from land, not from the ocean, since we see waves starting to break in the near foreground of the shot.

Quotes:

[Arabella sees Peter leaving the Governor's house after treating him for gout]
Arabella Bishop: Oh, forgive me for not recognizing you, Dr. Blood. You're so changed... and for the better.
Dr. Peter Blood: The Governor tells me I have you to thank for that.
Arabella Bishop: You don't sound very grateful, Dr. Blood.
Dr. Peter Blood: Do you suppose I'd be grateful for an easy life, when my friends are treated like animals? Faith, it's they deserve your favors, not I. They're all honest rebels. I was snoring in my bed while they were trying to free England from an unclean tyrant.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Supernatural: Wishful Thinking (#4.8)" (2008)

Soundtrack:

Fugal Episode from Prometheus

"You've Saved My Money"--- "Can you swim Colonel Darlin'"

Talk about taking one long chance. The original star of Captain Blood was to be Robert Donat. But health reasons as they did often in Donat's career prevented him from doing this film. So Jack Warner gave the lead in this film to a contract player who had done a couple of bit parts in some B films and had done a lead in an Australian production of the Mutiny on the Bounty story.

Jack Warner not only created a star in Errol Flynn, but also created a new screen team in co-starring him with Olivia DeHavilland who hadn't done that much herself at Warner Brothers up to that time. Individually and together they were a vibrant and charismatic screen team and did eight films for the Brothers Warner.

They were so successful that they resented the typecasting. DeHavilland fought against it far more successfully than Flynn did. As legend has come down to us, Errol Flynn had other pursuits.

The story is that Doctor Peter Blood made a house call on a wounded rebel during the Monmouth rebellion in 1685 against James II. That house call got him a one way ticket to slavery on the island of Jamaica along with many other of the rebels. Olivia DeHavilland the niece of Lionel Atwill, the wealthiest man on Jamaica buys Flynn on a whim. An attack by Spanish pirates offers an opportunity for escape and Flynn and the rest of the rebels become pirates themselves.

Jack Warner provided his two unknowns with a good cast of supporting players. Basil Rathbone as Levasseur, Flynn's pirate rival, crew members Ross Alexander, Guy Kibbee, and Frank McGlyn, Sr., Henry Stephenson as the sympathetic Lord Willoughby, but most of all Lionel Atwill.

Atwill played many a screen villain, but I'm not sure he was ever better as the pompous blundering oaf Colonel Bishop. My favorite scene in Captain Blood has always been when after Flynn routs the Spanish pirate attack on Port Royal by seizing the pirate ship. When Atwill comes on board to thank those who turned the tables on the pirates he gets quite a reception. The dialog in this scene and the final result of this oaf being tossed into the harbor is priceless.

Love and romance, pirate battles, and a dueling scene between Flynn and Rathbone that was only topped by Rathbone and Flynn again in Robin Hood. It's all here and all for your entertainment for generations to come.