Republished from the show notes of my other site, Fuds on Film.
I suppose we could have filled up most of this episode with Errol Flynn movies, he having swashbuckled more than most. This 1935 film was his first major Hollywood outing.
His Doctor Peter Blood had put his swashbuckling days behind him, but is nonetheless unjustly swept up with rest of the traitors to the crown of King James II after having the temerity to treat one of them, and is shipped off to the West Indies, for a life in slavery.
In Port Royal, Jamaica, he catches the eye of Olivia de Havilland’s Arabella, daughter of the Lionel Atwill’s Colonel Bishop. She manoeuvres a position for Blood as physician to the colony’s governor, which affords him more freedom than other slaves but nothing like enough not to make a plan for complete freedom for him and his fellow slaves, and a life of piracy, soon enacted in the chaos of a Spanish attack.
After a successful career of brigandry, it’s an entanglement with Arabella that brings Blood back to the waters of Port Royal, and the changing political climate makes for some interesting opportunities for Blood and his crew.
I’m in a slightly unusual position with Captain Blood, oo-er, missus, in as much as despite watching this less than a week ago I can’t remember much in the way of details about it. I know I liked it well enough, but I don’t know if I can give you much in the way of a rationale for that, but here goes. Flynn is a charming lead and his chemistry with de Havilland would go on to be the backbone of a bunch of films. It’s an interesting story, and Michael Curtiz, later of Casablanca fame, keeps things moving along well enough despite this being one of the longer films on today’s roster.
I suppose in the context of this particular podcast I could take issue with it rather downplaying the whole “piracy” aspect of this pirate, taking I suppose an understandable focus on the “revenge against an unjust King and his lickspittles” angle that’s a less complex moral selling point, and one sure to please Glasgow Rangers fans the world over.
In short, an enjoyable start to proceedings.