Premise: A physician, arrested and put into slavery by King James II, becomes a pirate captain on the West Indies.
This is a pretty perfect Hays Code adventure movie. It has a hint of scandal with the title. While Blood is actually the character's name, calling this "Captain Blood" immediately makes its 20% cooler than if it's was called "The Physician Pirate" or "The Swashbuckling Doctor". It's able to talk about the evils of slavery without discussing race. There's a bunch of big action. Best of all, they don't have to question the morality of the lead character being a pirate, because he's pardoned by the end. The only way this could be more Hays Code is if one of the ships Blood sank was run by communists.
It's easy to understand how audience saw Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland in this and thought "Yes, more please". Flynn is a great gentleman rogue. De Havilland is assertive in a non-threatening way. This was a star making turn for them both for good reason.
I was most impressed by the action sequences. The movie packed a lot of cannon fire into this and the minutes they used for the naval warfare were pretty good. I only really noticed they were models when a cannon ball would hit a life raft and send rigid bodies (clearly figurines) into the water.
This movie did a lot to remind me why that first Pirates of the Caribbean movie is so appealing. Give a couple rough but ultimately endearing leads and a pirate ship and I'm good for at least 2 hours.
Side Thought: Even more so in The Adventures of Robin Hood, I couldn't stop thinking about Cary Elwes when I saw Flynn in this. I realize I'm about three decades late to make this observation, but I wanted to mention it anyway. Is there a reason Hollywood didn't remake all of Flynn's movies with Elwes?
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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