(Alex Raymond)
I don't think there has ever been a movie star with the allure and romance of Errol Flynn save perhaps for his predecessor Rudolph Valentino. He was dashing, handsome, and communicated a sense of devil-may-care that illuminated any room he walked into.
Errol Flynn might well have been the greatest "movie star" ever. Of course, part of that fame is really the infamy of his personal life which is the very stuff of Hollywood legend. This movie is also the breakout for Olvia De Haviland, and she and Flynn had crazy chemistry on the big screen. Lionel Atwill plays a baddie in this jaunt, and I love Atwill in anything.
This story from Rafael Sabatini's 1922 novel Captain Blood is a simple but tragic one. Peter Blood is a doctor who gets swept up in the political strife of his country when he's falsely accused of being a rebel against James I of England. His punishment is to be made a slave and sent to be sold as such. He is forced to serve as a slave for some time though his skills as a doctor give him elevated status. Nevertheless, when a Spanish warship is overtaken, it creates the opportunity for Blood to become a daring and dashing pirate with intentions of revenge on those who imprisoned him. This movie also sets up a clash between Flynn's Blood and Basil Rathbone's pirate Levasseur. It would prove to be the template for more such clashes.
Captain Blood was Flynn's debut movie as a leading man in 1935, and a magnificent one it was. The character of Peter Blood as portrayed by Flynn is at once noble and selfish. Blood is a great vehicle for the viewer into the battle for freedom. He just wants to be left alone, but he is drawn into the war because of his noble ethics and finds no one in leadership possessing any ethics. He is what we'd call today radicalized by his imprisonment and harsh treatment. In our real world, the current savage conflict in the Gaza Strip will almost certainly have created lifelong enemies for the state of Israel. Certainly, villains exist and must be dealt with, but just as doubtless men are made enemies by what they see around them. Injustice is blind to a flag -- any flag.
This is a must-see classic. More derring-do when The Sea Hawk docks later this week.
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I recently mentioned the unicorn on Britain's royal coat of arms (which is also the symbol of the British government) and it was King James I who created that coat of arms. He'd previously been King James VI of Scotland and when he inherited the English throne too he needed a new coat of arms to show he was now king of both England and Scotland.
ReplyDeleteGood info. Thanks.
DeleteYour comment comparing Flynn (whose charismatic aura cannot be denied) to Valentino took me down an interesting rabbit hole. When I tried to think of a possible silent rival to Valentino, I only came up with Douglas Fairbanks Senior, who deserves credit for founding the swashbuckling film genre from which Flynn profited. As it happens, Wiki preserved some interesting comments on contemporaneous comparisons between the two stars, stating that some critics didn't think Valentino was "masculine" enough to compare favorably to Fairbanks. That aside, I think Fairbanks had a strong following as a romance-icon as well as one of adventure, and Wiki does quote some examples of fans pursuing Fairbanks and his then-wife Mary Pickford. However, Valentino had the "advantage" of dying at 31, when he was still "hot" (in both senses of the word), which resulted in the legendary 10,000 fans who attended his funeral. Fairbanks was 37 when he broke out in 1920's ZORRO, and though he was similarly impressive in 1924's THIEF OF BAGDAD, he had to strain to play two characters, one his own age and one his twenty-something son, in 1925's DON Q SON OF ZORRO. He did better with his last three swashbucklers of the 20s but talkies hit him hard and he didn't pass until he was in his fifties, in '39, when his image had sadly been superseded by the younger screen heroes. Still, Valentino or someone who worked on the '25 THE EAGLE sought to compete with the same-year DON Q by having the EAGLE's hero dress up in a Zorro-esque mask, which is apparently not in the source material. Also, I should mention that I read Sabatini's novel way back in my thirties, and my memory is that the film adaptation was remarkably close to the source book.
ReplyDeleteIf I've read the novel it was long ago, but the critics I've checked say the movie is quite close to the original. Not so much The Sea Hawks which I'll get around to tomorrow.
DeleteA great movie! One of the greatest swashbucklers ever! Flynn was perfect for the role.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised this was his breakout role. He seems very polished.
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