Review of Captain Blood (1935) by Nate W — 08 May 2009

The problem with minature work is that water doesn't scale. Oh, there are other terribly silly things about the effects in this movie, such as the breakaway hulls in the final battle, but it really looks fake when they're showing ships in dread battle, and the splashing of water makes it look filmed in someone's bathtub. I cannot comment on the accuracy of those miniatures, since they're not in my time period and ships aren't really my thing anyway. But ye Gods. The costumes are lovely. The scenery, when they're not just as sea, is striking. (Though, of course, the whole thing was shot in California!) The acting's pretty good, though there is a tendency on Errol Flynn's part to ham it up a little. I haven't seen many of his movies, but I'm not sure he ever stopped doing that. But again, the worst thing is those fake-looking splashes.

Dr. Peter Blood (Flynn) is called out of his bed late at night to tend the wounds of a man involved in the rebellion against King James II (Vernon Steele). For this, he is arrested for treason. Enormous numbers of rebels against the throne are executed, but James is convinced to ship them off to the Indies as slaves instead, which will make money for the Crown. Dr. Blood is one of them. He ends up being purchased by the lovely niece of the governor (Lionel Atwill), Miss Arabella Bishop (Olivia de Havilland). His skill as a doctor is shown when he treats Governor Steed (George Hassell) for gout. This extra trust enables him to plan an elaborate escape along with, um, [i]all[/i] the other surviving rebels. Their ship gets sunk when the Spanish attack Port Royal, but they capture the Spanish ship instead and turn to a life of piracy, fighting against the corrupt English government's ships as much as those of anyone else.

The funny thing about Olivia de Havilland's career is that she spent about as much time playing women declared to be beautiful as she did women declared to be plain, and there wasn't even really any change in makeup for it. The dresses were different, but that about did it. I'm not as familiar with her sister's career (they're both still alive, and they're apparently still not on speaking terms after nearly seventy years), but as far as I can tell, Joan Fontaine has the same problem. Both sisters played at least two plain literary heroines, with Olivia as Catherine Sloper in [i]The Heiress[/i] and of course Melanie Hamilton in [i]Gone With the Wind[/i], and Joan as the second Mrs. de Winter in [i]Rebecca[/i] and Jane Eyre in, well, [i]Jane Eyre[/i]. They looked strikingly alike, too, so they were both giving the lie to what was said onscreen. Here, as the governor's niece, she is supposed to be beautiful enough to make Captain Blood willing to risk his life, twice, in chivalrous gestures to win her over. It's a far cry from not being pretty enough to attract Montgomery Clift without the additional benefit of a fortune.

Inevitably, this film gets compared to [i]Pirates of the Caribbean[/i]. I don't think it's really fair, though. [i]Pirates[/i] is more of a fantasy, and to anyone who doubts it, I have two words: "undead monkey." Again, it's not really my field, but I do know that at least one of the ships from [i]Pirates[/i] is accurate, though I don't know if it's accurate to the right time period. IMDB lists several inaccuracies involving the ships in [i]Captain Blood[/i], and there are several other anachronisms as well. The costumes from [i]Pirates[/i] are a little more fanciful, but again, fantasy. And the firing of utensils in the first [i]Pirates[/i] is surely no less ridiculous than the firing of live coals in [i]Captain Blood[/i].

There is--and I think we all knew this was going to happen--a remake in the works due out in 2011. IMDB does not yet list information on it, sadly. I cannot but assume that the casting will be horribly wrong. The makers of this version took a chance on the then-unknown Errol Flynn, who then went on to make all kinds of other movies with director Michael Curtiz (whom he hated and who hated him right back) and something like eight more with Olivia de Havilland. Despite his crazy personal life, Errol Flynn was a star. He then swashed his buckle all over Hollywood, though sadly, his last movie was [i]Cuban Rebel Girls[/i]. Olivia de Havilland was basically a nobody, too. It was her fourth movie. Okay, Michael Curtiz had already directed well over a hundred movies, albeit a large number not in English, but even I haven't heard of most of them and it wasn't until 1942 that he directed his best-known picture ([i]Casablanca[/i]). Warner Bros. took a chance, and it paid off--the film was even nominated for five Oscars, albeit three of them write-ins. (They don't let you do that anymore.) Wouldn't it be nice if they'd do that again?