Captain Blood | |
---|---|
![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Michael Curtiz |
Screenplay by | Casey Robinson |
Based on | Captain Blood 1922 novel by Rafael Sabatini |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | |
Edited by | George Amy |
Music by | Erich Wolfgang Korngold |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 119 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
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.