Captain Blood (1935 film)

Captain Blood
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Curtiz
Screenplay byCasey Robinson
Based onCaptain Blood
1922 novel
by Rafael Sabatini
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography
Edited byGeorge Amy
Music byErich Wolfgang Korngold
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Release date
  • December 28, 1935 (1935-12-28) (USA)
Running time
119 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,242,000[1] or $995,000[2]
Box office$3,090,000 (worldwide rentals)[3][2]

Captain Blood is a 1935 American black-and-white swashbuckling pirate film from First National Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures, produced by Harry Joe Brown and Gordon Hollingshead (with Hal B. Wallis as executive producer), directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Ross Alexander.

With a screenplay by Casey Robinson, the film is based on the 1922 novel Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini and concerns an imprisoned doctor and his fellow prisoners who escape their cruel island captivity to become West Indies pirates.[4] An earlier 1924 Vitagraph silent film version of Captain Blood starred J. Warren Kerrigan as Peter Blood.[5]

Warner Bros. risked pairing two relatively unknown performers in the lead roles. Flynn's performance made him a major Hollywood star and established him as the natural successor to Douglas Fairbanks and a "symbol of an unvanquished man" during the Great Depression.[4][6] Captain Blood also established de Havilland, in just her fourth screen appearance, as a major star and was the first of eight films costarring Flynn and de Havilland. In 1962, Flynn's son Sean starred in The Son of Captain Blood.

  1. ^ John Sedgwick, Mike Pokorny, "Hollywood’s foreign earnings during the 1930s", 83 TRAC 1 (1) pp. 83–97 Intellect Limited 2010 p92
  2. ^ a b Warner Bros financial information in The William Schaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p 15 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
  3. ^ Glancy, H Mark (1995). "Warner Bros Film Grosses, 1921–51: the William Schaefer ledger". Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 15: 55–73. doi:10.1080/01439689500260031.
  4. ^ a b "Captain Blood (1935)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved March 3, 2013.
  5. ^ Janiss Garza. "Captain Blood (1924) - David Smith - Synopsis, Characteristics, Moods, Themes and Related - AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved April 19, 2016.
  6. ^ Schager, Nick (April 20, 2005). "Captain Blood". Slant Magazine. Retrieved March 3, 2013.