Captain Blood lands in Laguna Beach, California to pay a visit to Three Arch Bay in this classic film that was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The swashbuckler genre had...
Captain Blood lands in Laguna Beach, California to pay a visit to Three Arch Bay in this classic film that was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The swashbuckler genre had been around long before Errol Flynn drew a cutlass, but the Tasmanian-born bit player reinvigorated the genre with his mix of dashing good looks, haughty insolence, and alluring confidence.
Staring: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone, Ross Alexander, Laguna Beach, Three Arch Bay Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Adapted from the novel by Rafael Sabatini (who also penned The Sea Hawk), this rousing adventure chronicles the travails of Peter Blood (Flynn), a righteous doctor unjustly sold into slavery for treating the wounds of rebels. Sent to a Jamaican plantation where he toils under the brutal whip of Lionel Atwill and seethes with passion for his fair niece (the astonishingly beautiful Olivia de Havilland), Blood escapes from bondage with his fellow prisoners and becomes a gentleman rogue pirate of the Caribbean.
Dr. Peter Blood is arrested and sentenced to hang for treating a wounded rebel. Instead of death, he is sent to Barbados as a slave. When the Spanish attack the port city of Bridgetown, Blood and his fellow slaves capture the Spaniard's ship and set out to sea, where he becomes the notorious pirate, Captain Blood. Blood's foe, Captain Levasseur, captures the son and daughter of the Governor of Tortuga, and takes them to the Island of the Virgin Magra (off screen known as Three Arch Bay) but Blood and Levasseur leave their buccaneer mark upon the island.
Director Michael Curtiz builds from one set piece to another, including a nimble beachside sword fight in Three Arch Bay with pirate nemesis Basil Rathbone, and then climaxing with a grand sea battle that belies the film's modest budget. Flynn's bravado and charisma are apparent from his entrance, but once he leaps into action he takes command of the picture, overcoming his still-green dramatic skills with sheer personality.
Captain Blood made stars of Flynn and de Havilland, catapulted Curtiz to the top ranks of Warner directors, and put Three Arch Bay on the map with Hollywood artists. Since then the gated community of Three Arch Bay has been home to a few hundred famous Hollywood actors, directors and producers including Frederick March (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Donald Crisp (How Green Was My Valley), Edith Head (costume designer), Sterling Holloway (voice of Winnie The Pooh), and director/producer Edward H. Griffith (The Sky's the Limit).
"You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf."
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The Tyrone power connection is slanderously false. Rathbone was only moderately friendly with Flynn. Considering Rathbone's Shakespearean background, he was hardly what you'd refer to as a MOFO. The injury Flynn received was planned by director Michael Curtiz, and apocryphal at that. Keira Knightly may be pretyy but she lacks the class and dignity of deHavilland. RF (Flynn Central)
For what it's worth, the IMDB trivia says not only that Rathbone openly mocked the then-unknown Flynn throughout the filming (often by boasting how much more he was being paid) but also intentionally injured him during the sword fight.
Oh yeah, I really would have NO problem being this pirates captive for a few weeks. None at all. Olivia was all class, wasn't she? Hard to remember she was cast as the "plain" Melanie Wilkes in GWTW. These people were the best.
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And I found that he was a (real) war hero (O_o!)
Rathbone was only moderately friendly with Flynn.
Considering Rathbone's Shakespearean background, he was hardly what you'd refer to as a MOFO.
The injury Flynn received was planned by director Michael Curtiz, and apocryphal at that.
Keira Knightly may be pretyy but she lacks the class and dignity of deHavilland.
RF (Flynn Central)
Olivia was all class, wasn't she? Hard to remember she was cast as the "plain" Melanie Wilkes in GWTW. These people were the best.