This is the last in a bi-weekly feature on movies: "In Case You Missed It the First Time." This week, it's 1935's pirate-caper "Captain Blood."
Long before there were apocalyptic blockbusters dependent on bank-breaking budgets or murderous rampage flicks with death tolls higher than your average action film fan can count, pirate movies ruled the seas. The genre has been in decline for years. ("Pirates of the Caribbean" was the first of the genre to break even at the box office since the 1960s, but that might just be because the last pirate film before that was Geena Davis' supremely hideous "Cutthroat Island.") Nevertheless, old swashbuckling classics still provide hours of lighthearted entertainment from an era when men were men and women were tavern wenches or the Governor's closest relations.
"Captain Blood," one of the earliest excursions into the genre, is one of the best. It stars an extraordinarily young Olivia de Havilland and an amazingly blond Errol Flynn, whose perfect hair and shining teeth never seem to get in the way of swinging on ropes or dueling dastardly Frenchmen to the death.
Released in 1935 and based on a Rafael Sabatini novel published in 1922, "Captain Blood" spends a good deal of time justifying the title character's turn to buccaneering. Peter Blood (Flynn) is introduced as an Irishman, a doctor, graduated from the Trinity College in Dublin (as he takes great pleasure in reminding us), until he has the misfortune to get caught by the King's guard while aiding a wounded soldier who had been injured during the Monmouth Rebellion.
Blood, who enjoys quoting Latin and would like nothing better than to return home to tend his geraniums, hardly seems the type to become a pirate. He is put on trial alongside the other members of the rebellion, and though the leaders all manage to buy their way out, the good doctor proves to be too adept a speaker. After making a mockery of the head judge, he and the other less financially-able men are sentenced to a lifetime of slavery in Barbados.
Despite the moral overtones and the overenthusiastic philosophical speeches that Blood delivers as a matter of habit, the film possesses every hallmark that has come to mark the best swashbuckling movies. Blood falls in love with Arabella Bishop (de Havilland), the Governor's beautiful niece, and when he finally turns pirate after being mistreated by a cruel owner, he names his ship in her honor and goes rampaging up and down the Spanish Main.
What follows is a lively piratical romp through the Caribbean, the likes of which even Captain Jack Sparrow would envy. Blood and his men battle dastardly French pirates and their villainous nemesis from Barbados, all in the name of the King who has turned his back on them. The later swashbuckling sequences more than make up for the lack of action early on in the film, and even the obligatory love story can't detract from the heart-racing adventure.
The role of Peter Blood was actor Errol Flynn's first major part, though he went on to star in "The Sea Hawk," "Against All Flags," and the original 1938 version of "The Adventures of Robin Hood."
Flynn is from a time when action heroes were expected not only to look good while skillfully slaughtering legions upon legions of villains, but to be able to stop and muse philosophically when the camera angle called for it, and there's none better at it than Flynn. In "Captain Blood," he is at his pedantic best, whether he's musing on the meaning of life and the ultimate goodwill of mankind in his cabin alongside his beautiful captive or giving a rousing speech to his men that immediately boosts morale so high that his every sentence is punctuated with rousing cries of "Huzzah!"
The movie is also one of director Michael Curtiz's early works in English. Curtiz, a native of Hungary, had already made a name for himself in Europe and went on to direct many of Flynn's later films. His first venture into the pirate genre is amazingly well done, and the fight sequences in "Captain Blood" hold none of the "same-sailor-falls-off-the-boat-five-times" shortcuts that plague later buccaneer movies like "The Crimson Pirate."
"Captain Blood" is everything that a good pirate movie should be. It has thrilling sword fights, daring ship-to-ship battles, handsome pirates, dastardly villains, and maybe a little bit of romance thrown in for good measure (not to mention, not even a hint of Orlando Bloom). Tie on your bandanna, adjust your eye patch, ready your cannons, and get set for one of the best swashbuckling adventures of all time.
