Captain Blood (1935)

Directed by Michael Curtiz. Starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Ross Alexander, Basil Rathbone, Guy Kibbee, Robert Barrat, Henry Stephenson, Hobart Cavanaugh, Forrester Harvey, Donald Meek, Jessie Ralph, Frank McGlynn Sr., Holmes Herbert.

Errol Flynn went from virtual unknown to movie star in one fell swoop after Jack Warner cast him as Peter Blood, the unfairly-convicted physician-turned-slave-turned-pirate-turned-hero in the West Indies of the 17th century. First-class swashbuckler has about all you’d want from an Old Hollywood romanticized pirate picture: sea battles and sword fights, athleticism and gallantry, tumultuous romance and grand villainy, booming sound and rousing music (from Erich Wolfgang Korngold, his first). Anachronisms abound, and the hero is a little too high-minded to ever fully embrace the buccaneer part of the role, but it’s still spirited fun from start to finish, with one of Rathbone’s better devilish turns, slashing blades with Flynn against crashing waves. Based on Rafael Sabatini’s adventure novel; first of seven films pairing up Flynn with Olivia de Havilland that were also directed by Curtiz. Flynn’s son, Sean, starred in a “distant cousin” almost thirty years later called The Son of Captain Blood.

85/100