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UCFC Movie Reviews Captain Blood Year: 1935 Director: Michael Curtiz Fencing Master: Fred Cavens Fight Coordinator: Ralph Faulkner Starring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, Lionel Atwill Review by V. Bjerreskov (2004 August 03) Oh, brilliant! As I said in my review of Pirates of the Caribbean, it's not because I'm obsessed with pirates. In fact, for most of the movie, Peter Blood is not a pirate. He is a doctor, prisoner, and slave, and is driven by the latter two to become a pirate, but a pirate with a heart of gold. And it is brilliant! I watched two films based on Sabatini works in a row, and now I want to read Sabatini. Even though Captain Blood and Scaramouche were filmed almost two decades apart, there is a similarity in characters and story that can only come from the original material. The plot here is very strong, and the characters are delightful; I even found the villains hard to hate. Plausibility in these kinds of movies is difficult to maintain, but not once was I jarred out of the movie's setting. Cinematically, it was well done. Curtiz chooses his shots with care, and the sets were fairly well constructed. There were some obvious treadmill, soundstage, and model scenes, but we must remember that this is 1935. For the early days of filmmaking, it was very well done. It's the casting, though, that makes the movie. I'll admit, this is my first Errol Flynn film, and boy, what have I been missing! The man is charismatic and natural on the screen, and has great chemistry with Olivia de Havilland. She's perfect too, coming across as spunky and intelligent, but feminine. Rathbone plays the pseudo-villain Levasseur with French flair and arrogance. His screen-time was relatively small in the grand scheme of things, and I was sorry to see his character go. As for Atwill, he was delightfully mean, the perfect plantation owner. The only real overacting I saw was at the end of the film, when it was called for in the script. I've seen much, much worse in some modern films. Fencing doesn't really appear in the film until the slaves become pirates, but then we see it quite often. There are several boarding parties, which are perhaps not the best for judging form. Then again, is there any form in the melee of a boarding party? Blood and Levasseur have one duel. Brava, gentlemen, well done! Granted, there was some hack and slash, but just as much proper lunging and thrusting. It was lovely. I am so sad this film is not available on DVD yet. It really was delightful in every way. I highly recommend it! Back to Movie Reviews Home  |  About Us   |  About Fencing   |  Links  |  Photo Gallery Image Bank  |  Reviews   |  Fencing Fun  |  Contact Us