Errol Flynn was known primarily for his smashbuckling movies, where he played a generally carefree guy with a sword. I know him primarily for The Adventures of Robin Hood, probably his best known movie. Heck, a short bit Flynn’s Robin Hood’s smiling face got into a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Essentially, if you want to know what swashbuckling looks like, check out Flynn’s work in that movie, a lighthearted adventure movie where really only the bad guys die and there’s a strong camaraderie between the main hero and his large team of loyal followers.
Granted, The Adventures of Robin Hood were certainly not going to be the only one of Flynn’s movies to fit that general formula, and then I found Captain Blood on HBO Max.
Peter Blood (Flynn) is an Irish doctor and a staunch pacifist, ignoring a rebellion against the English king James II. One night, he’s summoned to the estate of a wounded lord, a man who participated in the losing side. While there treating the injured man as a good doctor should, the authorities showed up and arrested Blood as a sympathizer. He’s soon tried and found guilty, despite his protests of innocence, and sent off to be sold into slavery in Barbados. He catches the eye of Arabella Bishop (Olivia de Havilland), niece to the local military commander Colonel Bishop (Lionell Atwill), and she buys him at auction, saving the rather impertinent Blood from working the mines. His medical skills soon catch the eye of the governor, and from there, he is able to organize his fellow slaves in an escape attempt, heading out to sea since enough of them had experience in the British Navy. Oh, and since they did so in a stolen Spanish warship and cannot return to England, they decide to become pirates.
It actually takes a while to get to the pirate stuff. The movie is half over by then, and the work before that was set-up to that. Granted, it is necessary set-up. Not only does it establish that Blood was grievously wronged, but it takes the time to establish Blood’s connection to his future crew, engendering loyalty to him, and setting up the eventual romance with Arabella. But the movie really takes off when Blood and his men steel the Spanish boat and set out for sea. The adventure and excitement that the audience no doubt came in for finally arrives. Blood and his men are clever, talents, and above all fair. Even as Blood is going over the additional loot for anyone who loses a limb in a battle, there’s never a sense of anyone being all that worried about it. Heck, even when it happens, none of the men missing limbs seem all that put out. They’re all just glad to be sailing with Blood.
Flynn is in his element here, and it helps that he is here with his future Robin Hood co-stars de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and director MIchael Curtiz. Sure, he sounds about as Irish as a box of Lucky Charms, but this is 1935. He has to say he’s Irish, and someone might call someone else “boyo,” but that is about the extent of it. It’s to be expected. You don’t go to a movie like Captain Blood expecting realistic depictions of life for pirates in this part of the world. You come for thrills, and Flynn delivers.
Now, my father is a big fan of Flynn’s Robin Hood, and he always said how the sword fight in that movie between Flynn’s Robin and Rathbone’s Guy of Gisbourne is one of the greatest sword fights in cinema because both men were accomplished fencers and really went at it. The two have what could be a prelude to that fight in this movie when Rathbone’s French pirate tries to break a partnership with Blood, making for perhaps the best single fight in the movie before the climactic attack on two French warships at the same time when all of Blood’s crew take on both crews in an all-out brawl. The final scene, when Arabella and Blood play a small trick on her uncle is essentially what kind of movie this is. It’s just a dose of fun. Not quite Flynn’s best (that is still Robin Hood), but very enjoyable in its own right.
Grade: B
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