Year of Release: 1935Country of Origin: USA
Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Lionel Atwill, Basil Rathbone
Plot outline: In seventeenth century England, Irish Dr. Peter Blood is convicted of treason, sentenced to slavery in the British colony of Port Royal, and is purchased by the beautiful niece of the local military commander Colonel Bishop, Arabella Bishop, who is attracted by his rebellious nature (IMDb).
Based on the novel by Rafael Sabatini, the story of Dr. Peter Blood is treated with visual beauty and a fine, swaggering arrogance. With a spirited and criminally good-looking Errol Flynn playing the genteel buccaneer to the hilt, the movie recaptures the air of high romantic adventure which is so essential to the tale. Providing a properly picturesque background for Blood's piratical career, the director skillfully reconstructs the England of the sanguinary Monmouth uprising, the West Indies of tortured slaves and savage masters, and the ships that sailed the Spanish Main flying the jolly roger. Basil Rathbone, who was grinding the poor of Paris in A Tale of Two Cities, here, with equal skill if slightly increased likableness, is quarreling with Blood over the disposition of the beautiful English captive, Arabella Bishop. Mr. Rathbone has a habit of dying violently in his pictures, but his demise in this one, when Blood punctures him at the conclusion of a desperately waged duel, seems more lamentable than usual. Perhaps it is because he lacks the proper seasoning of villainy this time. Mr. Flynn has an effective cast at his back. Olivia de Havilland is a lady of rapturous loveliness and well worth fighting for. Lionel Atwill, as the cruel governor of Port Royal, is as thorough a knave as Blood is a gentleman. (NYT)
My judgement: **1/2 out of 4 stars
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