Captain Blood

'Captain Blood' made stars of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland when it was released, both winning their roles by default when other casting attempts failed. It's a rousing pirate adventure tale, told as only Rafael Sabatini in his novel could do. Aside from a splendid script, it has Michael Curtiz at the directorial helm and Erich Wolfgang Korngold supplying the stirring background music. The Flynn-de Havilland-Korngold-Curtiz package would be repeated many times by Warner Bros. since the ingredients proved a smash hit, most notably in 'The Adventures of Robin Hood'.

Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) is a physician wrongly accused of being a traitor and sent to the West Indies into a life of slavery. He is purchased at the auction block by a spirited beauty (Olivia de Havilland) whose father happens to be the Governor (Lionel Atwil). When he leads other prisoners in an escape plan and succeeds, he becomes a pirate on the high seas. Eventually he is involved in a fight, a duel to the death with another pirate (Basil Rathbone) in order to win the fair heroine. The climactic duel between Flynn and Rathbone is on par with their other famous duel in 'Robin Hood'.

Fans of either Errol Flynn or Olivia de Havilland cannot fail to enjoy this romantic adventure done in the grand style by a studio that knew it had two future stars in the making.

Flynn's first starring role in Hollywood! This is a lavish, knock-you-silly gorgeous production with a solid, book-based plot, packed with action, salt water, swordplay AND hordes of pirates "celebrating in pirate fashion" (!). Flynn and de Havilland spark as they spar in the best love-hate mode, and this time, when she inadvisedly condescends to him in his slavery, his pride is as involved as hers. Suave, deadly French pirate captain Rathbone's betrayal of Flynn makes their thrilling, fated-from-the-start duel very satisfying indeed. The icing on the cake -- Flynn at his slim, youthful, sexy freshest, so beautiful he breaks your heart!

How thankful we should be that Robert Donat turned this role down, as it allowed the introduction of one of the most romantic screen teams in movie history - Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. Director Michael Curtiz produced a great pirate film that stands up well some 70 years later, and has become the blue-print for others of this genre to follow. The two stars are great, showing an excellent rapport, and the support cast including those two great villains, Basil Rathbone and Lionel Atwill add so much to the story of piracy on the high seas. While by today's standards one can see the use of models in the sea battles, they were quite remarkable in their time and still provide much excitement and fun. Swashbuckling was Flynn's forte, and Warners did him no favours by casting him in less adventurous roles. Do not miss the opportunity to see this on DVD or Video as it is a couple of hours of great entertainment.

I'm not that big on pirate movies and I thought this might be overrated.....but I was wrong. This is good stuff and I wonder if a more realistic pirate movie has ever been made.

This was Errol Flynn's first starring role and it sure got him off to a flying start. Few actors have ever played the "dashing hero" as well as Flynn. Despite being almost "worship idol" status by women, he is still comes across as a "man's man," and that all started with this film.

What I liked best about this was that the story stood out more than the action or the romance. Many times classic films overdid the latter, producing lulls in what was considered an adventure story. That's not the case here. It also isn't the typical clichéd pirate film in which the captain is seen with an eye patch and a parrot on his shoulder.

This is nothing fancy, just a just solid story.....period, which is probably why it holds up so well over 70 years later!

Practically the same cast that made magic in the later ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, but magic just the same -- they never made a pirate film that could equal this one, much less surpass it, though Hollywood certainly tried. If you only ever see two Flynn movies, watch this and ROBIN HOOD and you'll be the richer for it.