Captain Blood

A British doctor is forced into slavery in the West Indies by the tyrannical King James, only to escape and become the most feared pirate on the high seas.

Captain Blood seems more like a warm-up for Errol Flynn and director Michael Curtiz than anything else. Flynn, with only 6 films under his belt prior to this, still outshines much of the cast, but was still mastering the charisma and stage presence that would define his classic roles.

The script crams a lot of story into 119 minutes, although the action doesn’t really get going until the halfway mark. The story of Captain Blood is an epic one, but the production values here simply don’t rise to that level.

The cast is altogether excellent, although later Curtiz collaborator Claude Raines would have been a welcome addition. Also, Basil Rathbone’s scandalous French pirate Levasseur clearly deserves more screen time, as he’s the only other actor who can come close to Flynn in terms of screen presence.