It should first be noted that this Captain Blood is not related to the classic 1935 Captain Blood starring the legendary Errol Flynn. Instead, Fortunes of Captain Blood draws from the same source material and stars Louis Hayward, an actor best known for his work on the series “Lone Wolf” as well as portraying the original Simon Templar (a role later reprised by Val Kilmer in The Saint).
Based on Rafael Sabatini’s novels, Fortunes of Captain Blood tells the story of Peter Blood (Hayward), a doctor who is exiled from England after treating an enemy of the King. While in exile, Blood turns to piracy and his crew becomes one of the most feared groups of pirates on the water. Blood’s adventures take him to Spain when members of his crew are captured by Spanish soldiers and forced to dive for pearls in shark-infested waters. After donning the disguise of a fruit vendor, Blood sets out to rescue his men. He soon runs into the beautiful Isabelita Sotomayor (Patricia Medina) and immediately falls for her. Unfortunately for Blood, she is the niece of the Maquis ds Riconete (George Macready), his arch-nemesis.
While it doesn’t quite match the level of the Errol Flynn version, Fortunes of Captain Blood is still a fun adventure movie. As with most pirate movies, the big draw here are the big sword fights that rival some of the best action scenes seen in present movies. In fact, if you look close enough after some fights the swords show minor warping, giving you an idea of how hard the actors are swinging them. Actually, I was kind of surprised at just how violent the movie was considering when it was made. In one scene, a soldier is set ablaze and another takes a bullet to the face. The scenes aren’t overly gory, but are sure to catch you off-guard since it isn’t something you’re expecting.
Captain Pirate is the 1952 sequel to Fortunes of Captain Blood and reunites Hayward and Medina as Blood and Isabelita. The movie picks up with Blood hiding in the West Indies as a doctor. The local authorities soon discover Blood’s true identity and he is accused of a murder committed by an imposter using Blood’s infamous name. After his arrest, Isabelita reunites Blood’s old crew and together they set out to rescue Blood and find the imposter.
Captain Pirate is a decent follow-up to Fortunes, but doesn’t quite match the same level. Though Hayward once again puts in a solid performance, the movie doesn’t have quite the pull of the original. Like many sequels, it builds more on quantity than quality. Rather than just don his one great disguise while sneaking around, Blood wears several that probably wouldn’t fool many people. Still, the movie does contain plenty of great battle scenes – so quantity isn’t always a bad thing.
Obviously, this double set of movies will likely appeal to older viewers more than younger viewers who see no merit in black and white movies (though Captain Pirate is in color). However, younger movie fans with an eye for classics will still enjoy the set.
