Captain Blood (1935)
Directed By: Michael Curtiz
Written By: Casey Robinson
Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill
Length: 119 min.
Genre: Adventure
Based On: The 1922 Novel "Captain Blood" written by Rafael Sabatini
1936 Oscar Nominee - Best Picture
1936 Oscar Nominee - Best Director
1936 Oscar Nominee - Best Writing, Screenplay
Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) is a doctor who makes the fateful decision to treat the wounds of some men who happened to have rebelled against the crown of England. Peter tries to plea to the court that he was merely doing his job as a doctor, but the judge cares not. He's sentenced to death, but the crown sees a chance for profit and commutes the sentence of all men not yet hanged to be sold into indentured servitude. He gets sent to Port Royal to serve a term of 10 years working for the highest bidder.
Side note: One of my ancestors came to America the same way. In 1715, he was on the wrong side of a rebellion in Scotland (started in Scotland, ended in northern England) and was sent to Maryland as an indentured servant for a term of 7 years. Anyway, back to the story.
Arabella Bishop (Olivia de Havilland), the daughter of Colonel Bishop (Lionel Atwill) buys Peter Blood for 10 pounds. He isn't nearly as grateful as she thinks he should be, so she sends him to work on her father's land. And so begins their romantic subplot.
Peter gains favor with the governor by treating his gout and this annoys Col. Bishop. Peter makes the decision to escape. He has a relatively easy life since gaining the governor's favor, though, but many of the people he's come to care about do not. Plus, even if he has it easy, who wants to live life as someone else's property. So he hatches a plan to escape along with several others.
Well, the plan fails. He was to be at the docks by midnight, but Col. Bishop, tired of Peter's attitude, He has Peter tied up and is about to kill him. So how is Peter going to get out of this. Will Arabella show up and save him? Will he survive this beating, and plan a new escape?
No. Pirate ex machina happens. The Port is attacked at that very moment, and Spanish pirates storm the city. Peter and his friends make it to the dock, but their ship has been sunk. They manage to get aboard the Spanish pirate ship and take it over. And so begins their lives as pirates!
Later in the film, Captain Blood is able to turn the tables on miss Arabella Bishop. She is taken hostage by Blood's partner Captain Levasseur. Blood buys Arabella from Captain Levasseur, but he is not happy with the arrangement and the men duel, with Captain Blood killing Captain Levasseur. Now it is Arabella's turn to be ungrateful after being bought.
The movie was a huge success. The budget was between $1m and $1.2m, and made back twice as much. It was nominated for Best Picture and helped launch Errol Flynn to stardom. This was his first big role in a Hollywood movie, but it certainly wouldn't be his last, nor will it be his last with Olivia de Havilland.
One thing about this movie really bugged me. We watch Peter Blood plan and set in motion his plan to escape. But it all fails, and they escape anyway. I hate when the actions of the characters are inconsequential to the plot. Had Peter not planned any escape at all, they still would have escaped! If their prep had somehow helped the pirates take the city, then that would have worked. But for 30 minutes of the film, the character's actions did not matter at all.
(It's one thing if the theme of the movie is fatalism, if the movie is trying to make a philosophical point about human behavior and human actions. But this movie is not. It's an adventure story. The actions of the characters should matter, and they shouldn't be saved by whatever-ex-machina).
That aside, I did enjoy the movie overall. It struck a nice balance of action and drama, the duel scene was well done and the main actors were all great. The romantic subplot was cheesy and rushed, but what romantic subplot isn't. But I was disappointed. It was supposed to be a pirate adventure, but it was that for only half the movie. I would have liked it if they got to the piracy a good deal sooner, especially since their 30 minute Act 2 was, in the end, pointless.
I was also impressed by how accurate the film was in some aspects of pirate life. For example, Captain Blood and his crew, immediately after taking the Spanish ship, write up a document detailing how everyone will be compensated, along with a list of monetary compensation for losing their limbs. (400 for a right arm, 300 for a left arm, etc.). That actually did happen on pirate ships.
And later in the film, while sailing they mention how they had every flag of every nation on board. Pirate ships weren't run by idiots. They didn't fly a pirate flag while sailing in the open water. Pirate ships would fly a nation's flag, then raise their pirate flag when they got too close for the ship to run. They did this because 99 times out of 100 the ship they were 'attacking' would then immediately surrender without a fight. It was actually rare for pirates to have to fight to take a ship, mainly because they wouldn't try to take a ship they knew could actually put up a fight.
Overall, a bit disappointing that was nonetheless a decently fun adventure, but features a major writing pet peeve of mine, so it gets a full point deduction for that.
My Rating: 5 / 10
IMDB User Rating: 7.7/10 (12.3k votes)
Rotten Tomatoes: 100% Critics (25-0), 89% of Audience (8k votes)