Captain Blood (1935 film)

Captain Blood

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Michael Curtiz
Produced by
Screenplay by Casey Robinson
Based on Captain Blood 
by Rafael Sabatini
Starring
Music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Cinematography
Edited by George Amy
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates
  • December 28, 1935 (USA)
Running time
 119 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $1,000,000 (estimated)

Captain Blood is a 1935 American swashbuckling film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Ross Alexander. The film was made by First National Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures and produced by Harry Joe Brown and Gordon Hollingshead, with Hal B. Wallis as executive producer. Based on the 1922 novel Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini, with a screenplay by Casey Robinson, the film is about an enslaved doctor and his fellow prisoners who escape and become pirates on the open seas.[1]

Warner Bros. Pictures took a serious risk in pairing two relatively unknown performers in the lead roles. Flynn's performance made him a major star and established him as the natural successor to Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and a "symbol of an unvanquished man" during the Depression.[1][2] The film also established de Havilland, in just her fourth film appearance, as a major star. Captain Blood was the first of eight films co-starring Flynn and de Havilland, and in 1938, the two would be re-united with Rathbone in The Adventures of Robin Hood. The film also features a stirring musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Some of the impressive sea-battle footage was taken from The Sea Hawk (1924).

Captain Blood received positive reviews and was a success at the box office.[3] The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing, and Best Sound Editing.[4]

Plot

In seventeenth century England, an Irish doctor named Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) is summoned to aid Lord Gildoy, a wounded patron who had participated in the Monmouth Rebellion. Arrested while performing his duties as a physician, he is convicted of treason against the King and sentenced to death by the infamous Judge Jeffreys in the Bloody Assizes. By the whim of King James II, who sees an opportunity for profit, Blood and the surviving rebels are transported to the West Indies to be sold into slavery.

In the English colony of Port Royal, Blood is purchased by Arabella Bishop (Olivia de Havilland), the beautiful niece of the local military commander Colonel Bishop (Lionel Atwill). Attracted by Blood's rebellious nature, Arabella does her best to improve his chances of living by recommending him as the personal physician of the local governor, who is suffering from painful gout. Outwardly resentful towards Arabella for trying to do him favors, yet silently appreciative for her support, Blood nevertheless continues to hatch a plan of escape for himself and his fellow slaves. The plan is almost foiled when Bishop gets suspicious and has one of the men flogged in an attempt to make him talk. Later, Blood is spared a similar fate when a Spanish squadron attacks the town. During the raid, Blood and his fellow slaves escape, seize control of the Spanish raiders' ship, and sail away to begin a life of piracy.

Blood and his men soon achieve incredible success and fame. When the old governor is unable to contain the pirate menace, Colonel Bishop is promoted to his post, and Arabella is sent to England for a recreational sojourn. Three years later, while sailing back to the Caribbean, the ship on which Arabella and royal emissary Lord Willoughby (Henry Stephenson) are travelling is captured by Blood's treacherous partner, Captain Levasseur (Basil Rathbone), who plans to hold them for ransom. Blood purchases them himself, relishing the opportunity to turn the tables on his former owner, but Levasseur objects vehemently. Blood kills him in the ensuing duel.

Back on the open seas, Blood offers Arabella valuable jewelry from his conquests as a sign of his love for her. Rather than showing gratitude for being rescued, Arabella is indignant at having been purchased by Blood and calls him a "thief and a pirate". Despite his anger at being rejected, in an act of gallantry he orders his men to set sail to Port Royal to deliver Arabella and Lord Willoughby to safety, despite the presence there of Colonel Bishop and his forces.

As they approach Port Royal, they sight two French warships attacking the colony; Bishop has left it undefended in his single-minded pursuit of Blood. Lord Willoughby pleads with Blood to save the colony, but the captain and his crew refuse to fight for the corrupt king. When Willoughby reveals that James II has since been deposed in the Glorious Revolution and that Willoughby has been sent by the new king, William of Orange, to offer Blood and his men a full pardon and a commission with the Royal Navy, they change their minds and prepare for battle.

After setting Arabella ashore, Blood and his men approach the harbor disguised under French colors, and in the ensuing pitched battle, they defeat the enemy and save the colony. As a reward, Blood is appointed the new governor of Port Royal and has the pleasure of dealing with his hostile predecessor, now in serious trouble for dereliction of duty, and finally winning the hand and heart of Arabella.

Cast

De Havilland and Flynn in Captain Blood

Production

Warner Bros were inspired to make the movie after the popularity of Treasure Island (1934) and The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) revived the swashbuckler genre in Hollywood. They decided to remake Captain Blood which they had filmed in 1923.[6]

Budget

The production budget for the film was nearly $1,000,000.[1]

Casting

The lead role was originally offered to Robert Donat, who had starred in the successful 1934 film The Count of Monte Cristo.[2] The asthmatic Donat turned down the role, concerned that the action sequences would be too strenuous for him.[7] A series of screen tests with various actors led to an unknown Australian actor named Errol Flynn. In January 1935, Warner Bros. signed the young actor and brought him to Hollywood after seeing him in a British B picture Murder at Monte Carlo.[7] For the female lead role, Jean Muir was originally picked to play opposite Donat, but after the actor turned down the offer, the studio focused on 19-year-old Olivia de Havilland, who had starred in three previous films that same year, including A Midsummer Night's Dream for director Max Reinhardt.[7]

Filming locations

Filming Location of Three Arch Bay in January of 2015

Most of the film was shot on a sound stage in the summer of 1935. Some exterior scenes such as the swordfight between Rathbone and Flynn were shot on location at Laguna Beach, California standing in for a Caribbean shore (specifically, the fictional island of Virgen Magra...which translates from Spanish as "virgin slice of ham"). The final battle sequence between Blood's pirate crew and the French ships used one of the largest technical crews assembled for a film, requiring 2500 extras.[1] For sea-battle footage, Curtiz used a combination of process shots, miniatures, and footage taken from The Sea Hawk (1924).[8]

During filming Flynn collapsed from a reoccurrence of malaria, which he had contracted in New Guinea.

Reception

Critical response

Captain Blood had its opening premiere on December 26, 1935 at the Mark Strand Theatre in New York City,[9] and was released in the United States on December 28, 1935. The film received positive reviews and notices and wide public approval.[3]

Awards and nominations

The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and, despite not being nominated, Michael Curtiz received the second-greatest number of votes for Best Director, solely as a write-in candidate. Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Casey Robinson also failed to be nominated and also received substantially more votes for their work on this film than most of the official nominees.

The film was also nominated in the categories Music (Scoring), Sound Recording (Nathan Levinson) and Writing (Screenplay).[4]

Adaptations

Captain Blood was adapted as a radio play on the February 22, 1937 broadcast of Lux Radio Theater with Flynn, de Havilland and Rathbone all reprising their film parts. This radio version is included in the Special Features of the DVD version compiled in 2005.

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Uncredited cast members include Reginald Barlow, Matthew Beard, Yola d'Avril, Halliwell Hobbes, Murray Kinnell, Chrispin Martin, Jim Mason, Artie Ortego, Paul Panzer, Frank Puglia, Georges Renavent, Buddy Roosevelt, Tom Steele, Renee Torres, Blackie Whiteford, Tom Wilson[5]
Citations
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Captain Blood (1935)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Schager, Nick (April 20, 2005). "Captain Blood". Slant Magazine. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Thomas 1983, pp. 71–72.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "The 8th Academy Awards (1936) Nominees and Winners". The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved August 7, 2011.
  5. ↑ Full cast and crew at Internet Movie Database
  6. ↑ Tony Thomas, Rudy Behlmer * Clifford McCarty, The Films of Errol Flynn, Citadel Press, 1969 p 31
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Thomas 1983, p. 67.
  8. ↑ "Captain Blood Notes". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
  9. ↑ Brown, Gene (1995). Movie Time: A Chronology of Hollywood and the Movie Industry from its Beginnings to the Present. New York: MacMillan. p. 125. ISBN 0-02-860429-6.
Bibliography
  • Thomas, Tony (1969). The Complete Films of Errol Flynn. New York: Citadel Press. ISBN 978-0806502373.
  • Thomas, Tony (1983). The Films of Olivia de Havilland. New York: Citadel Press. ISBN 978-0806509884.

External links

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