The other night Lily and I watched Captain Blood (1935) and we LOVED it. What a great film. Honestly, I can’t remember if I have ever seen an Errol Flynn movie before (shock & disbelief), and if I have it must have been when I was a kid. Flynn is wonderful. Not only does Flynn live up to his swashbuckling reputation, and not only is he as handsome as any leading man has ever been, he’s quite a good actor. In all Captain Blood was somewhat of a revelation for me.

What impressed me the most, however, was the overall craft that went into the creation of the film. Michael Curtiz directed the film, which was also a surprise for me (this shows just how out of touch I am to certain aspects of film history), and I was struck again by what a master he was. Sure, Captain Blood can be considered just another big costume drama with model boats from an era with lots of such films, but, for what it is, it is still a stunner. Here are just a few observations and some favorite images of mine.

The film opens with action, as any good pirate movie should – aaarrggh. The first shot has Blood’s friend Jeremy Pitt (Ross Alexander)* riding his horse at full-speed.

Now this shot was obviously filmed in the studio, which makes it even more remarkable considering the horse has to be running on a horse-sized treadmill. But the dynamic nature of the shot with its combination of rear screen projection and foreground objects flying by, with lighting flashing, and the horse racing, is just a wonderful moment and a great way to set the tone for the story.

Then the battle scenes are wonderful. Here is a small example of the level of craft in the film. First is a shot from one of the Spanish ships firing on the town of Port Royale. We the have the canon fire with its flash and smoke.

Then, a full second later, we see the flash of an explosion in the distant town.

Then we have a match on action (or match on explosion) when we cut in mid flash to the site of the explosion.

And then we see people running from the blast.

It all happens so fast that one might not notice how well put together these kinds of little moments are throughout the film. It certainly would have been much easier to just show the canon fire then cut to an explosion. But here we have a sense of depth and a holistic world, a world that is made up of real things and flesh and blood, not merely the fabrication of montage. In the age of “montage or bust” Curtiz places his edits within a world of three dimensions.

Then we have the model boats. To our eye, and maybe to those of 1935 as well, these shots are clearly made of models and miniature sets. But what a great job. The shots are more than just to create the sense of the battle, they are also works of art. Look at how beautiful they are:

When it comes to filming on the boat with actors, we all know that many of the boat sequences in Jaws (1975) were filmed with a hand-held camera so that the rocking motion of the boat wouldn’t be too much and make the audience sea sick. Well, Captain Blood had the opposite problem. It was filmed without real ships, so how were they going to make the ships have that feeling of actually being on the water? I only noticed the secret when I was fast forwarding through he film with scenes such as this, where Captain Blood dictates the articles of piracy for his crew…

…and it takes place on the studio-bound ship and the action is slow. What Curtiz had his cameras doing was very slowly, almost imperceptibly, dollying back and forth to and from his subjects. It gives the feeling that one is standing there on the ship and subtly adjusting one’s balance as the boat rocks.

And then there is the use of shadows. German expressionism was still a powerful influence in 1935, and what better scenario to use it than a swashbuckling pirate story? Here a just three such examples:

I love this shot too, with the candles placed in the foreground:

Makes me think of Ophüls or von Sternberg.

And finally there is the wonderful Basil Rathbone as the dashing pirate Levasseur. Doesn’t he look great in this shot (also with candles in the foreground)? N’est pas?

Here is Levasseur dying in the surf, what another beautiful shot.

There are so many more great images and moments in this film. Captain Blood is more than just a pirate film, it is an example that a finely crafted film, with depth and richness, could get made during the studio system by a director under contract – as so many were.

Of course I am always a little worried showing such old films to Lily. Maybe she will be bored. Maybe the films will be too dated to be appreciated. But, not only did she show great interest in the story and even cringe during some scenes, especially the branding of the slaves scenes, but when it was all over she turned to me and said “that was a good movie!” Good job Captain Blood.
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*I have linked to Ross Alexander’s story on IMDB because it is fascinating and very tragic. I found his performance compelling in the film and Lily even remembered his character’s name the next day and had to remind me of it.