As you become more familiar with older movies, you will understand that a lot of what strikes you now as unrealistic is really a matter of style. In the 30's, they showed less blood than would actually be spilled; today they show a great deal more. It is no less realistic for a person to grab his chest when shot than to fly twenty feet backward through a plate glass window. There are fashions in music, in clothing, and in film.
Captain Blood is largely based on two actual historical people: Henry Pitman, a doctor who, like Blood, was arrested for treating rebel troops, was sent into slavery, and escaped; and Sir Henry Morgan, a buccaneer commander who raided the Spanish and eventually was made Lt. Governor of Jamaica.
The movie opens with Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 in England. Monmouth's supporters were trying to overthrow James II of the House of Stuart, a known Catholic, and put the Duke of Monmouth on the throne instead. The rebellion failed, though James II was deposed in 1688 during the Glorious Revolution, and William of Orange and Mary Stuart were placed on the throne in his place.
Most swashbuckler aficionados include "Scaramouche" in lists of greats in that genre. And if you've not done so yet, "The Princess Bride" is a partial swashbuckler, but a comedy, a kid's movie, but mostly a love movie. The fencing teachers for actors in "Bride" also taught many actors in fencing roles in old movies -- as well as many Olympic fencers!
I love the duels...Basil Rathbone against every roguish hero in the movies. He fought Flynn in "Adventures of Robin Hood" and Tyrone Power in "Mark of Zorro." He always lost which is a pity because Rathbone was an Olympic class fencer, and even taught his fellow actors how to do it well. :)
'The Adventures of Robin Hood," "The Sea Hawk," and "Captain Blood" are my favorite Errol Flynn swashbucklers in that order. It's hard to decide between "Hawk" and "Blood" for second, but I think everyone has to see the costumes and sets and Dame Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth in "Hawk." A amusing aside, a martial arts magazine listed "Adventures of Robin Hood" among the greatest martial arts movies because of the fencing scenes in it.
I think you might like the big Technicolor production "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" With Bette Davis as Elizabeth I and Flynn as the Earl of Essex.
I'm glad that you actually watched CAPTAIN BLOOD. A truly great film and the FIRST time Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHaviland were paired together. A wonderful cast and a good script helmed by one of the BEST and most versatile directors of all time: Michael Curtiz!!!
At the end of movie, as Capt. Blood and crew are sailing into Port Royal while it's under French attack. A war had just broken out called The War of the League of Augsburg, or The Nine Year's War (1689-1697). It was an indecisive war, with an equally indecisive treaty. Incidentally, three years later, in 1692, Port Royal was largely destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami (and the Salem Witchcraft trials began in Massachusetts). The capital of Jamaica was then moved to Kingston.
Now that you've seen some Errol Flynn, you should check out Tyrone Power. The Black Swan, Captain from Castille, or of course, the great Mark of Zorro. #kayrequests
All excellent and fun suggestions. I got into history watching swash- bucklers like Captain Blood, The Seahawk, and the movies that you mentioned. I've been a history professor at the college level for the last 17 years.
#KayReacts One more swashbuckling movie that I can't believe I forgot! the 1973 version of "The Three Musketeers"! That's the best version (in sound, at least)! That's a great one, really fun, amazing cast: Oliver Reed, Michael York, Frank Finley, Richard Chamberlin, Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Lee, Charlton Heston, Spike Milliagn, Geraldine Chaplin, Roy Kinnear......and directed by Richard Lester, who had done the first two Beatles movies (not dissimilar, if you think about it!). You'll love that one! I may rewatch it right now!
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who did the music (and also that of ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD) created John Williams-type STAR WARS/SUPERMAN music. He did it all back in the 1930s and '40s. Love that you didn't realize it was black and white. You have reached the final phase of human existence. I would give anything to look and sound like Errol for maybe one week. One of my best friends was good friends with Errol near the end of his life, and wrote a book about him. We were writing a screenplay together about a Flynn-like actor near the end of his life, but unfortunately my friend died before we could finish it. James Coburn was interested in the role. Flynn had more charisma than almost any actor before or since.
"Peter Blood" that sounds painful. Awful afflictions aside, this film is very fun, it earns the claps it gets. If you haven't already, check out 'Master and Commander' #kayrequests for more boat drama.
There actually was a "pirate" who became governor of Jamaica in the Pirate era...his name was Henry Morgan, eventually Sir Henry Morgan. He was Welsh and started out as a privateer. He fought the Spanish and took quite a few Spanish towns, including Porto Bello, Maracaibo, and eventually Panama. He was accused of piracy because some of his exploits took place after England and Spain had signed a peace treaty while he was off fighting...but then he had no way of knowing that at the time. He was arrested and taken to London. Most of this because Spain considered him a pirate and were talking about restarting the war. But King Charles II made him a Knight Bachelor and appointed him the Lt. Governor of Jamaica in 1674. Morgan died in Jamaica in 1688, a rich man.
I remember the first time I went to Disney World and rode Pirates of the Caribbean, and thinking "this is exactly like the pirate attack in Captain Blood". Turns out Disney based the ride almost entirely on this sequence.
There's a song called "Errol" by Australian Crawl which chronicles the life (rise and fall) of Flynn But it has a factual error "He's billing the Nazis" because there was a book that had come out suggesting Flynn sided with the fascists But he supported the left. He went to Spain in the Civil War and supported the Republican side In the late 50s he went to Cuba and met Fidel Castro (otherwise, it's a great song by an Australian band about an icon from Australia)
Thanks for the reaction. You have pick an Golden Era of filming. If you really do like some of the Golden Era of films, you can try "The Jazz Singer" (1927) #KayReacts. Probably the First Film with dialogue. A lot of music and dramatic expressions. But back then it was known as Talkie Films before filmmakers caught on board. Good film.
You need to see" My Favorite Year" with Peter O'Toole playing the drunken debauched version of Errol Flynn trying to deal with his bad reputation & back taxes doing a 50's TV comedy show.
I really do like this one. I'm still waiting for a solid Blu-Ray release for it. Basil Rathbone's Frenchiest of Frenchman is a highlight for me. He's just so ...French in this movie. The romance is the kind of over-the-top melodrama that you really just have to accept for what it is, and go along with to enjoy the movie. Also, this was still less than ten years after the first movies with sound, so I wonder if all the on-screen text is kind of a carryover from the silent film era. I still think the sea battles are fairly impressive in this. (They get decent sea battles in this, but have to film a horse awkwardly galloping in front of a rear projection screen? Oh well...) #KayRequests A good companion film for this one is "The Sea Hawk" (another Michael Curtiz / Errol Flynn swashbuckle venture).
I definitely need to watch more old movies. "There's Basil Rathbone." Right? I forget sometimes that actors (in those days) were in more than one role. I only saw Sherlock Holmes in a pirate suit. It's like when I see William Powell in a movie and say, "Hey, it's Nick Charles!" I should watch more of their filmography's. But, I hear there are a ton of films that didn't survive that era. Kay, are you up to see any of the Thin Man series?
Once you get into the mid-1930's, most films are still around. But before 1935, yeah, there's a lot of stuff that's missing. Gets really bad with silent films, but even some 'talkies' are gone. Several of Warner Oland's Charlie Chan movies for instance.
Just as an FYI, according to some sources, Irish rebels were sold into slavery in the Caribbean well before any Africans-and for a lower price as well. Like your reaction vids. I especially liked the one on "Duck Soup." You might want to take a look at "The Sea Hawk" as well. "Master and Commander" and "The Crimson Pirate" also are pretty good swashbucklers.
Not sure about earlier, but the Irish slaves WERE cheaper. That's simple fact and not just in the Caribbean. African slaves were considered valuable in the American colonies in the 1600's and were treated better than the cheaper, disposable Irish that, at point of debarkation (ie, where the English were dispossessing them), they were literally free to ship out. In Africa, you had to pay off the coastal tribes (or the European blackbirders) who gathered slaves from the interior. Having an African slave in your retinue in 1660's Boston was a status symbol, having Irish ones was no more impressive than owning a mule.
The reason there were so many flash-captions to read is because this movie was based on an epic novel by Raphael Sabatini. So, the script writers were trying to remain as faithful as possible to the source material in the limited screen time they were allowed.
And that was a bugler sounding the various calls to arms. Not a trumpet-player! Once upon a time, warships had buglers just as much as cavalry regiments. Of course, that was long before the invention of the klaxon alarms blared over an electrically powered loudspeaker system!
Female pirates in movies: "Against All Flags" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_All_Flags and "Anne of the Indies" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_the_Indies
"Swash Buckling aye...?" "Scaramouche," the '73 and '74' "Three Musketeers," "The Prisoner of Zenda" (1952) and "The Great Race," (1965) which has an epic scene spoofing the 1952 "Zenda." "Welcome to Sherwood me Lady!"
Great Reaction!! I watched maybe over 30 of Errol Flynn last year (He's a Legend & his catalog didn't disappoint) ... a movie I watched this year and loved is 1951 Gregory Peck movie CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER ( Capt. Horatio Hornblower (Gregory Peck) helms the HMS Lydia for a treacherous transatlantic mission near the dawn of the 19th century, during which his faithful crew battle both a Spanish warship and a ragged band of Central American rebels.)
Since movies could only be seen in theatres (in the 30s), credits in the beginning also insured that everyone would be settled in their seats before the film began
I remember 'learning' how sail ships fought - how gunnery focused on disabling their mobility which could be, in open waters, a sentence to slow death. The Prop Department musta had fun doing wood explosions, the splintering, etc. "I just built and now destroy it!" A tad different than CGI.
I don't have this in my small swashbuckler collection but I do have 2 sequels starring Louis Hayward and Patricia Medina, Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950) and Captain Pirate (1952). I have Flynn in the classic "The Sea Hawk" (1940) and "Against All Flags" (1952) (with 3 other pirate films). From 1942 there's "The Black Swan". The '60s gave us "The Three Musketeers" and "The Four Musketeers" from Richard Lester who filmed enough scenes for 2 movies but tried to get away with only paying the actors for 1. Nice try. The last one I know is "Cutthroat Island" from 1995 with Geena Davis which critics seemed to hate but I like it. But then I like "John Carter" of Mars by Disney too. Best song by Emerson, Lake & Palmer: 'Pirates'
Untrue. Rathbone was an accomplished swordsman before crossing blades with Flynn. What he did say was that Flynn was the one man he was afraid to duel - not because the man was so good, but because he was so terrible and therefore completely unpredictable.
Charles II (of the House of Stuart) who was king of England, and Scotland (they had a single king, but were separate countries) had no legitimate child So the throne was to pass to his younger brother, and Catholic James II/James VII (II of England, VII of Scotland) Charles' illegitimate son James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth tried judging the mood of the land and assumed that England would rather have him a Protestant rather than his Catholic uncle His rebellion failed as they preferred a legitimate heir than a bastard. He was executed. Not long after James was overthrown anyway by his own daughter (Mary II) and son-in-law (William) - you will know of a college in the US called William and Mary College
I loved this movie when I was younger I wish movies were more real this was before computer effects so alot of this stuff had to be perfect the actors couldn't make many mistakes
I named my cat after Basil Rathbone. It's a long story but, sadly, he's terrible at acting... or solving crimes. My cat not Basil Rathbone. ;-) It's amazing that Olivia de Havilland died just last year. She made it all the way to 104 which is more than twice as long as Errol Flynn who died at only 49.
Another good thing about the credits in the beginning is that you get to hear the overture. This can be important to set the mood or give you a hint of the type of movie you are to watch.
It is worth noting that, until the fifties when the unions demanded more on screen credits, opening credits only lasted about a minute, unless it was an all star movie. When the opening credits got longer, there was a great deal of ingenuity in making them interesting. Please see the original Pink Panther for perhaps the best example. Personally I prefer watching opening credits than having to sit through a ten minute list of people who had little or no effect on the look of the film after the movie is over. I really don't care who drove the honey wagon.
My personal favorite pirate movie. Maybe objectively the best. Certainly the most political. Really delves into the whole Hobbesian versus Lockean thing that was happening then, and still is now.
Ah Errol Flynn. He played the least convincing Irishman ever to appear on the silver screen but a great actor and as you say the king of swashbucklers.
Ok, Kay.....I just finished re-watching "Captain Blood" (hadn't seen it since I was a kid so I needed a refresher), and now I'm ready to watch your reaction! I actually watched a slew of 1935 movies recently, so the year's style is pretty fresh for me. #KayRequests I can tell you that "Mutiny On The Bounty" is THE movie of 1935, as far as something that holds up as good as any movie, one of the greats of the 30s, and of all time. That's still outstanding. "The Informer" and "Crime And Punishment" are both excellent as well, and have really held up. (Of course, for comedy you've got "A Night At The Opera", and lots of Laurel and Hardy, Three Stooges, and Our Gang shorts! lol) I rate "Captain Blood" as formulaic Hollywood stuff, but elevated by some of the performances, and seeing Erroll Flynn and Olivia De Haviland together is always a treat. #KayRequests Olivia De Havilland is one of my all time favorites, so many great performances, but the back to back performances of "The Snake Pit" and "The Heiress" are particularly amazing. "The Snake Pit", oh my god....a woman in a mental institution and doesn't know who she is, unbelievable performance. Ok, on to the reaction!
I agree about opening credits. #KayRequests If you like swashbuckler movies, you simply have to do the best of them all, Douglas Fairbanks Sr....HE'S the king of swashbucklers, they're all his sons and in his shadow, the First King of Hollywood.....and "The Black Pirate" (which is only an hour long, and on RUclips for free) is a great way to start. Compare that movie to this. "The Black Pirate" is in color, the first color hit movie, the movie that put Technicolor on the map. It makes "Captain Blood" look like nothing. Fairbanks did his own stunts. He's got more charisma than anybody. All of his movies are amazing. You watch his movies and you feel something you can't get anywhere else. Highly recommending hitting Fairbanks above all others, he is the inventor of all this stuff. Your mouth will be agape in awe. "Mark Of Zorro", "Three Musketeers", "Robin Hood", "Thief Of Bagdad"....and all the rest.
Kay, you say you used to be quite a history buff. If no one has done so yet, I recommend you check out the History Buffs channel here on RUclips. The host analyzes how well movies depict historical events. I think you'll like it; you might find some new movies you'll want to see.
The movie begins with the abortive rebellion against King James II by the Duke of Monmouth in 1685. James had become king after the death of his more popular brother, Charles II. James II converted to Catholicism and married a French Princess previously. This was after England had been pretty staunchly Protestant since the reign of Henry VIII (1534...150 years!) and had fought a civil war against what they saw as a threat to the Protestant cause which ended in the execution of Charles I, the father of both Charles II and James II. Because of the rising unpopularity of James II, the Duke of Monmouth (who had a blood claim to the throne...he was the illegitimate son of James' brother and previous king, Charles II) rose in revolt...and lost really badly. He ended up getting his head chopped off.This is essentially where the movie begins. Monmouth falls and all the people who supported him in any way were executed, exiled, sold into slavery. Blood isn't on either side...he gets dragged in and charged with treason, not because he rebelled but because he was treating one of the wounded rebel leaders as a Doctor. That was enough for him to get put on the death list.
Errol Flynn just has effortless charisma, so I'll forgive him being one of the endless list of actors playing Irish and not remotely sounding it. Though he should have done better since he was from Australia and that's basically an Irish country.
@@Carandini They've always been mostly soulless corporate trash. It's just that the soulless corporate drones used to pay less attention to the movies they were paying for, and people slipped some great stories in while they weren't watching. Nowadays management is more efficient, so our movies will be mostly remembered as people yelling in front of green screens and no-longer-believable CGI.
Errol Flynn's Robin Hood is THE definitive Robin Hood.
As you become more familiar with older movies, you will understand that a lot of what strikes you now as unrealistic is really a matter of style. In the 30's, they showed less blood than would actually be spilled; today they show a great deal more. It is no less realistic for a person to grab his chest when shot than to fly twenty feet backward through a plate glass window. There are fashions in music, in clothing, and in film.
Mom mom who passed away 6 years ago at 87 , Always loved this Actor back in the day
They actually built a huge waterway and full size ships for this movie and The Sea Hawks.
Captain Blood is largely based on two actual historical people: Henry Pitman, a doctor who, like Blood, was arrested for treating rebel troops, was sent into slavery, and escaped; and Sir Henry Morgan, a buccaneer commander who raided the Spanish and eventually was made Lt. Governor of Jamaica.
The movie opens with Monmouth Rebellion of 1685 in England. Monmouth's supporters were trying to overthrow James II of the House of Stuart, a known Catholic, and put the Duke of Monmouth on the throne instead. The rebellion failed, though James II was deposed in 1688 during the Glorious Revolution, and William of Orange and Mary Stuart were placed on the throne in his place.
The magistrate who condemns Blood is none other than the infamous Judge Jeffreys, one of history's more notorious villains.
@@Carandini The original "Hanging Judge."
Most swashbuckler aficionados include "Scaramouche" in lists of greats in that genre. And if you've not done so yet, "The Princess Bride" is a partial swashbuckler, but a comedy, a kid's movie, but mostly a love movie. The fencing teachers for actors in "Bride" also taught many actors in fencing roles in old movies -- as well as many Olympic fencers!
I love the duels...Basil Rathbone against every roguish hero in the movies. He fought Flynn in "Adventures of Robin Hood" and Tyrone Power in "Mark of Zorro." He always lost which is a pity because Rathbone was an Olympic class fencer, and even taught his fellow actors how to do it well. :)
Errol Flynn is my favorite actor. I've watched this movie so many times I know it verbatim...
'The Adventures of Robin Hood," "The Sea Hawk," and "Captain Blood" are my favorite Errol Flynn swashbucklers in that order. It's hard to decide between "Hawk" and "Blood" for second, but I think everyone has to see the costumes and sets and Dame Flora Robson as Queen Elizabeth in "Hawk." A amusing aside, a martial arts magazine listed "Adventures of Robin Hood" among the greatest martial arts movies because of the fencing scenes in it.
I think you might like the big Technicolor production "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex" With Bette Davis as Elizabeth I and Flynn as the Earl of Essex.
You should also check out"The Sea Hawk" another good Errol Flynn movie 😊
Yes. Another great movie.
I'm glad that you actually watched CAPTAIN BLOOD. A truly great film and the FIRST time Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHaviland were paired together. A wonderful cast and a good script helmed by one of the BEST and most versatile directors of all time: Michael Curtiz!!!
At the end of movie, as Capt. Blood and crew are sailing into Port Royal while it's under French attack. A war had just broken out called The War of the League of Augsburg, or The Nine Year's War (1689-1697). It was an indecisive war, with an equally indecisive treaty. Incidentally, three years later, in 1692, Port Royal was largely destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami (and the Salem Witchcraft trials began in Massachusetts). The capital of Jamaica was then moved to Kingston.
Just saw the movie. Really good.
The birth of the STAR WARS soundtrack 🤣 This movie, and the theme song, make a cameo in THE GOONIES ("Heeey you guuuys").
Now that you've seen some Errol Flynn, you should check out Tyrone Power. The Black Swan, Captain from Castille, or of course, the great Mark of Zorro. #kayrequests
Hell yeah. Mark of Zorro boasts another great duel against Basil Rathbone too.
All excellent and fun suggestions. I got into history watching swash- bucklers like Captain Blood, The Seahawk, and the movies that you mentioned. I've been a history professor at the college level for the last 17 years.
Next try The Seahawk, also with Errol Flynn.
Oh man, this one is so good. A lot of fun.
Great to see someone review the oldies. Looking forward to you buckling more swashes.
#KayReacts One more swashbuckling movie that I can't believe I forgot! the 1973 version of "The Three Musketeers"! That's the best version (in sound, at least)! That's a great one, really fun, amazing cast: Oliver Reed, Michael York, Frank Finley, Richard Chamberlin, Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, Christopher Lee, Charlton Heston, Spike Milliagn, Geraldine Chaplin, Roy Kinnear......and directed by Richard Lester, who had done the first two Beatles movies (not dissimilar, if you think about it!). You'll love that one! I may rewatch it right now!
Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who did the music (and also that of ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD) created John Williams-type STAR WARS/SUPERMAN music. He did it all back in the 1930s and '40s. Love that you didn't realize it was black and white. You have reached the final phase of human existence. I would give anything to look and sound like Errol for maybe one week. One of my best friends was good friends with Errol near the end of his life, and wrote a book about him. We were writing a screenplay together about a Flynn-like actor near the end of his life, but unfortunately my friend died before we could finish it. James Coburn was interested in the role. Flynn had more charisma than almost any actor before or since.
"Peter Blood" that sounds painful.
Awful afflictions aside, this film is very fun, it earns the claps it gets.
If you haven't already, check out 'Master and Commander' #kayrequests for more boat drama.
There actually was a "pirate" who became governor of Jamaica in the Pirate era...his name was Henry Morgan, eventually Sir Henry Morgan. He was Welsh and started out as a privateer. He fought the Spanish and took quite a few Spanish towns, including Porto Bello, Maracaibo, and eventually Panama. He was accused of piracy because some of his exploits took place after England and Spain had signed a peace treaty while he was off fighting...but then he had no way of knowing that at the time. He was arrested and taken to London. Most of this because Spain considered him a pirate and were talking about restarting the war. But King Charles II made him a Knight Bachelor and appointed him the Lt. Governor of Jamaica in 1674. Morgan died in Jamaica in 1688, a rich man.
I remember the first time I went to Disney World and rode Pirates of the Caribbean, and thinking "this is exactly like the pirate attack in Captain Blood". Turns out Disney based the ride almost entirely on this sequence.
There's a song called "Errol" by Australian Crawl which chronicles the life (rise and fall) of Flynn
But it has a factual error "He's billing the Nazis" because there was a book that had come out suggesting Flynn sided with the fascists
But he supported the left. He went to Spain in the Civil War and supported the Republican side
In the late 50s he went to Cuba and met Fidel Castro
(otherwise, it's a great song by an Australian band about an icon from Australia)
Thanks for the reaction. You have pick an Golden Era of filming. If you really do like some of the Golden Era of films, you can try "The Jazz Singer" (1927) #KayReacts. Probably the First Film with dialogue. A lot of music and dramatic expressions. But back then it was known as Talkie Films before filmmakers caught on board. Good film.
Thank you for this. Very few people react to classic film.
You need to see" My Favorite Year" with Peter O'Toole playing the drunken debauched version of Errol Flynn trying to deal with his bad reputation & back taxes doing a 50's TV comedy show.
I really do like this one. I'm still waiting for a solid Blu-Ray release for it. Basil Rathbone's Frenchiest of Frenchman is a highlight for me. He's just so ...French in this movie. The romance is the kind of over-the-top melodrama that you really just have to accept for what it is, and go along with to enjoy the movie. Also, this was still less than ten years after the first movies with sound, so I wonder if all the on-screen text is kind of a carryover from the silent film era. I still think the sea battles are fairly impressive in this. (They get decent sea battles in this, but have to film a horse awkwardly galloping in front of a rear projection screen? Oh well...)
#KayRequests A good companion film for this one is "The Sea Hawk" (another Michael Curtiz / Errol Flynn swashbuckle venture).
# Kay Reacts ... The Black Swan with Tyrone Power, Maureen O'Hara, and George Sanders as an excellent villain, is a terrific swashbuckler.
I definitely need to watch more old movies. "There's Basil Rathbone." Right? I forget sometimes that actors (in those days) were in more than one role. I only saw Sherlock Holmes in a pirate suit. It's like when I see William Powell in a movie and say, "Hey, it's Nick Charles!" I should watch more of their filmography's. But, I hear there are a ton of films that didn't survive that era. Kay, are you up to see any of the Thin Man series?
Once you get into the mid-1930's, most films are still around. But before 1935, yeah, there's a lot of stuff that's missing. Gets really bad with silent films, but even some 'talkies' are gone. Several of Warner Oland's Charlie Chan movies for instance.
Just as an FYI, according to some sources, Irish rebels were sold into slavery in the Caribbean well before any Africans-and for a lower price as well. Like your reaction vids. I especially liked the one on "Duck Soup." You might want to take a look at "The Sea Hawk" as well. "Master and Commander" and "The Crimson Pirate" also are pretty good swashbucklers.
Not sure about earlier, but the Irish slaves WERE cheaper. That's simple fact and not just in the Caribbean. African slaves were considered valuable in the American colonies in the 1600's and were treated better than the cheaper, disposable Irish that, at point of debarkation (ie, where the English were dispossessing them), they were literally free to ship out. In Africa, you had to pay off the coastal tribes (or the European blackbirders) who gathered slaves from the interior. Having an African slave in your retinue in 1660's Boston was a status symbol, having Irish ones was no more impressive than owning a mule.
@@Carandini Thanks for that extra information.
The reason there were so many flash-captions to read is because this movie was based on an epic novel by Raphael Sabatini. So, the script writers were trying to remain as faithful as possible to the source material in the limited screen time they were allowed.
And that was a bugler sounding the various calls to arms. Not a trumpet-player! Once upon a time, warships had buglers just as much as cavalry regiments. Of course, that was long before the invention of the klaxon alarms blared over an electrically powered loudspeaker system!
Plus, as this was the first swashbuckler of the talkie era, Hollywood had not yet established the trope of trading insults over crossed sword hilts.
Female pirates in movies: "Against All Flags" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_All_Flags and "Anne of the Indies" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_of_the_Indies
"Swash Buckling aye...?" "Scaramouche," the '73 and '74' "Three Musketeers," "The Prisoner of Zenda" (1952) and "The Great Race," (1965) which has an epic scene spoofing the 1952 "Zenda." "Welcome to Sherwood me Lady!"
Charge of the Light Brigade 1936 with Errol Flynn. The film that began outcry for humane treatment of animals in movies
Great Reaction!! I watched maybe over 30 of Errol Flynn last year (He's a Legend & his catalog didn't disappoint) ... a movie I watched this year and loved is 1951 Gregory Peck movie CAPTAIN HORATIO HORNBLOWER ( Capt. Horatio Hornblower (Gregory Peck) helms the HMS Lydia for a treacherous transatlantic mission near the dawn of the 19th century, during which his faithful crew battle both a Spanish warship and a ragged band of Central American rebels.)
I'm watching this for the first time!!! Thank's Kay!!!
The novel this movie is based on is still one of my favorite books of all time! I'm so glad you enjoyed this movie. 🙂
Since movies could only be seen in theatres (in the 30s), credits in the beginning also insured that
everyone would be settled in their seats before the film began
I remember 'learning' how sail ships fought - how gunnery focused on disabling their mobility which could be, in open waters, a sentence to slow death. The Prop Department musta had fun doing wood explosions, the splintering, etc. "I just built and now destroy it!" A tad different than CGI.
There's SEA HAWKS next for you, too. And eventually, maybe you'll wander into PRINCE AND THE PAUPER with Errol, too.
Hey Kay....the great Olivia de Haviland was 19 years old in this movie. She just passed away this last July at the age of 104.
Disney's action-adventure ride, "Pirates Of The Caribbean" and the movie franchise it spawned owes more than a nod to this film.
17:10 Oooh! He got'im right in the wrath-bone!
Watching this as a kid growing up made me want to be a pirate! A great movie! I'm glad you reacted to it. Looking forward to the next reaction.
I don't have this in my small swashbuckler collection but I do have 2 sequels starring Louis Hayward and Patricia Medina, Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950) and Captain Pirate (1952). I have Flynn in the classic "The Sea Hawk" (1940) and "Against All Flags" (1952) (with 3 other pirate films). From 1942 there's "The Black Swan". The '60s gave us "The Three Musketeers" and "The Four Musketeers" from Richard Lester who filmed enough scenes for 2 movies but tried to get away with only paying the actors for 1. Nice try. The last one I know is "Cutthroat Island" from 1995 with Geena Davis which critics seemed to hate but I like it. But then I like "John Carter" of Mars by Disney too.
Best song by Emerson, Lake & Palmer: 'Pirates'
#kayrequests
The Black Swan - 1942, is a more obscure pirate movie of the same era. I recommend it, if you can find it.
This is one of my favourite swashbuckler films. Rathbone eventually got so fed up with getting "killed" by Flynn that he took fencing lessons.
Untrue. Rathbone was an accomplished swordsman before crossing blades with Flynn. What he did say was that Flynn was the one man he was afraid to duel - not because the man was so good, but because he was so terrible and therefore completely unpredictable.
Metropolis next! Metropolis next!
Cool to see you reacting to really olde movies can't wait for the next one
Charles II (of the House of Stuart) who was king of England, and Scotland (they had a single king, but were separate countries) had no legitimate child
So the throne was to pass to his younger brother, and Catholic James II/James VII (II of England, VII of Scotland)
Charles' illegitimate son James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth tried judging the mood of the land and assumed that England would rather have him a Protestant rather than his Catholic uncle
His rebellion failed as they preferred a legitimate heir than a bastard. He was executed.
Not long after James was overthrown anyway by his own daughter (Mary II) and son-in-law (William) - you will know of a college in the US called William and Mary College
I play a pirates game on my channel so this was a wonderful video for me to watch. Thanks so much for posting
I loved this movie when I was younger I wish movies were more real this was before computer effects so alot of this stuff had to be perfect the actors couldn't make many mistakes
I named my cat after Basil Rathbone. It's a long story but, sadly, he's terrible at acting... or solving crimes. My cat not Basil Rathbone. ;-) It's amazing that Olivia de Havilland died just last year. She made it all the way to 104 which is more than twice as long as Errol Flynn who died at only 49.
Another good thing about the credits in the beginning is that you get to hear the overture. This can be important to set the mood or give you a hint of the type of movie you are to watch.
It is worth noting that, until the fifties when the unions demanded more on screen credits, opening credits only lasted about a minute, unless it was an all star movie. When the opening credits got longer, there was a great deal of ingenuity in making them interesting. Please see the original Pink Panther for perhaps the best example. Personally I prefer watching opening credits than having to sit through a ten minute list of people who had little or no effect on the look of the film after the movie is over. I really don't care who drove the honey wagon.
It was a great movie. My mother loves it because of its cast. I spent two days looking for this film to my mother's birthday.
My personal favorite pirate movie. Maybe objectively the best. Certainly the most political. Really delves into the whole Hobbesian versus Lockean thing that was happening then, and still is now.
Treasure Island with Wallace Berry and Jackie Cooper is a great movie.
Ah Errol Flynn. He played the least convincing Irishman ever to appear on the silver screen but a great actor and as you say the king of swashbucklers.
Ok, Kay.....I just finished re-watching "Captain Blood" (hadn't seen it since I was a kid so I needed a refresher), and now I'm ready to watch your reaction! I actually watched a slew of 1935 movies recently, so the year's style is pretty fresh for me. #KayRequests I can tell you that "Mutiny On The Bounty" is THE movie of 1935, as far as something that holds up as good as any movie, one of the greats of the 30s, and of all time. That's still outstanding. "The Informer" and "Crime And Punishment" are both excellent as well, and have really held up. (Of course, for comedy you've got "A Night At The Opera", and lots of Laurel and Hardy, Three Stooges, and Our Gang shorts! lol) I rate "Captain Blood" as formulaic Hollywood stuff, but elevated by some of the performances, and seeing Erroll Flynn and Olivia De Haviland together is always a treat. #KayRequests Olivia De Havilland is one of my all time favorites, so many great performances, but the back to back performances of "The Snake Pit" and "The Heiress" are particularly amazing. "The Snake Pit", oh my god....a woman in a mental institution and doesn't know who she is, unbelievable performance. Ok, on to the reaction!
Errol Flynn made you believe that All Of The Bullsh*t that you know Could Never Happen Be So In Reality. LOL
Olivia DeHavilland was very young when she did this movie. 18 or 19 I think.
The history in this film was accurate.
I agree about opening credits. #KayRequests If you like swashbuckler movies, you simply have to do the best of them all, Douglas Fairbanks Sr....HE'S the king of swashbucklers, they're all his sons and in his shadow, the First King of Hollywood.....and "The Black Pirate" (which is only an hour long, and on RUclips for free) is a great way to start. Compare that movie to this. "The Black Pirate" is in color, the first color hit movie, the movie that put Technicolor on the map. It makes "Captain Blood" look like nothing. Fairbanks did his own stunts. He's got more charisma than anybody. All of his movies are amazing. You watch his movies and you feel something you can't get anywhere else. Highly recommending hitting Fairbanks above all others, he is the inventor of all this stuff. Your mouth will be agape in awe. "Mark Of Zorro", "Three Musketeers", "Robin Hood", "Thief Of Bagdad"....and all the rest.
Check out "The Black Swan" from 1942. It's a lot of fun.
Kay, you say you used to be quite a history buff. If no one has done so yet, I recommend you check out the History Buffs channel here on RUclips. The host analyzes how well movies depict historical events. I think you'll like it; you might find some new movies you'll want to see.
Excellent film. Thanks for the reaction.
This movie used to bore me when I was a kid so I've never watched it from beginning to end. I guess I should give it another shot.
Maybe I'm just squeamish, but I wouldn't be comfortable with a physician called Dr Blood... 😅
I'm watching your channel for the first time, it's cool... Badoof 🤩🤝👍
The movie begins with the abortive rebellion against King James II by the Duke of Monmouth in 1685. James had become king after the death of his more popular brother, Charles II. James II converted to Catholicism and married a French Princess previously. This was after England had been pretty staunchly Protestant since the reign of Henry VIII (1534...150 years!) and had fought a civil war against what they saw as a threat to the Protestant cause which ended in the execution of Charles I, the father of both Charles II and James II. Because of the rising unpopularity of James II, the Duke of Monmouth (who had a blood claim to the throne...he was the illegitimate son of James' brother and previous king, Charles II) rose in revolt...and lost really badly. He ended up getting his head chopped off.This is essentially where the movie begins. Monmouth falls and all the people who supported him in any way were executed, exiled, sold into slavery. Blood isn't on either side...he gets dragged in and charged with treason, not because he rebelled but because he was treating one of the wounded rebel leaders as a Doctor. That was enough for him to get put on the death list.
To watch this, I have to actually WATCH THE MOVIE LOL. It's on my Vudu!
The king of swashbucklers is of course.... sloth
#KayReacts “The Island of Lost Souls” (1932)
Loved the book, loved the movie!
Based very loosely on true events. Well done.
This one is good but I thought EF's other pirate movie The Seahawk is a bit better.
Errol Flynn just has effortless charisma, so I'll forgive him being one of the endless list of actors playing Irish and not remotely sounding it. Though he should have done better since he was from Australia and that's basically an Irish country.
Makes me wonder what they'll think of movies made now in 85yrs..
99% of it is soulless corporate trash and won't be remembered at all.
@@Carandini They've always been mostly soulless corporate trash. It's just that the soulless corporate drones used to pay less attention to the movies they were paying for, and people slipped some great stories in while they weren't watching. Nowadays management is more efficient, so our movies will be mostly remembered as people yelling in front of green screens and no-longer-believable CGI.
Try watching "the master of Ballantrae"...
😳 whaaaat noo 3 stooges 😂
the book is better