If Johny Depp's take on piracy has so captured our hearts - he's at it again this month in the release of the long-awaited Pirates of the Caribbean sequel - it is only because the die of the onscreen buccaneer was so definitively cast by a little-known Tasmanian that, until Depp's daring, the way of the revisionist was considered high treason.
The gold standard for onscreen piracy - in pieces of eight, naturally - was set in 1935, with Errol Flynn's portrayal of Captain Blood. Blood was conceived in the mold of Douglas Fairbanks Sr.; these were sizeable knee-high boots to fill, for up until that point, the talking cinema had not produced an actor with a comparable combination of athleticism, humor, graciousness and guile. Then, as if swinging exhilaratingly into frame from a high rope, to the rescue came Flynn.
He had appeared in a few films before, in England and Australia, but this was his first starring role. You'd never know it, though, from his onscreen manner; Flynn, despite a few flat moments in the film's first reel, exudes bravado from every pore.
As Blood, Flynn is a retired soldier of fortune cum country doctor, persecuted by England's James the Second for treating infidels. Blood is a slave in the West Indies when King Phillip's Spaniards take over, allowing he and his motley co-horts to shanghai a ship. Blood, now a revenge-wrecking pirate, thrives until the deposition of James and the ascension of William of Orange, who makes him a member of the Royal Navy. A redeemed sinner, Blood helps England defeat its newest enemy, France.
Captain Blood was such a success that its winning elements were repeated for years, in what became known as the Flynn formula: the mix of history, humanism and daring-do...the pairing with Olivia DeHavilland - whose saucy purity perfectly compliments Flynn's diplomatic impudence - the expert direction of Michael Curtiz.
In spite of a climactic sea battle, the film's most memorable moment takes place on a beach, where Flynn goes blade to blade with Basil Rathbone, cast here as the "hard fighting, hard gaming French rascal Capt Lavasseur", a fellow pirate with an accent more gooey than the crust on an order of French onion soup.
It's a spirited and perfectly paced romp, as alive and invigorating today as either installment of the current Caribbean franchise.
Fly the flag high, then, for Jack Sparrow, today's swashbuckler of choice - but forget not (to use Sabatini's 17th century-speak) he that sailed the onscreen seas before him. Rent Captain Blood; it's widely available on DVD...but please, no matter how much it might inspire you, don't pirate it
