Captain Blood (1924)

Director:

David Smith

Writers:

Rafael Sabatini (novel)
Jay Pilcher (scenario)

Release Date:

21 September 1924 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Action

Tagline:

The Enthralling Tale of a Plunderer's Love for a Monarch's Daughter (original ad)

Plot Keywords:

Partially Lost Film | Colonel | Pirate | Based On Novel | Character Name In Title

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

J. Warren Kerrigan	...	Capt. Peter Blood
Jean Paige	...	Arabella Bishop
Charlotte Merriam	...	Mary Traill
James Morrison	...	Jeremy Pitt
Allan Forrest	...	Lord Julian Wade
Bertram Grassby	...	Don Diego
Otis Harlan	...	Corliss
Jack Curtis	...	Wolverstone
Wilfrid North	...	Col. Bishop
Otto Matieson	...	Lord Jeffreys
Robert Bolder	...	Adm. van der Kuylen
Templar Saxe	...	Gov. Steed
Henry A. Barrows	...	Lord Willoughby
Boyd Irwin	...	Levasseur
Henry Hebert	...	Capt. Hobart

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Filming Locations:

Newport Bay, California, USA

Company:

Vitagraph Company of America

Trivia:

When director David Smith took ill, producer Albert E. Smith (who was also his brother) took over direction of the picture until David became well enough to return.

Movie Connections:

Remade as Le capitan (1946)

Swashbuckling fun for thirty minutes!

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

The 1924 silent of "Captain Blood" seems to exist only in a very truncated version. I watched the Grapevine video release which runs just over 30 minutes (the original was 110 minutes!}. What remains of the film indicates that this was quite a reasonably exciting swashbuckler--typically short on relationships and strong on action sequences. After the rather abrupt opening scene in which the hero, Dr Blood, {J. Warren Kerrigan} is arrested for treason, we find ourselves in the Barbados where the hero is being sold as a slave. We meet the Governor {who soon decides to rely on the Doctor's services}. the vicious Colonel Bishop and his beautiful daughter {Jean Paige} who, of course, is instinctively attracted to Dr Blood!

The plot proceeds at a breakneck pace with Dr Blood leading a group of slaves to take over a Spanish ship, the Arabella. After sailing off, he proceeds to rescue the Colonel's daughter and King William's emissary to find that he is now exonerated, made Captain Blood and his slave crew freed.

The finale of the film is an effective sea battle with explosions, sinking ships, boarding fights, captures etc. This version is based on the same book by Rafael Sabatini as the 1935 remake and ends in much the same way.

The film gives an appealing thirty minutes of action, and one wonders what the original was like. But it is possible that we have the best sequences in this shortened copy. Perhaps the full length version would have been comparable to "The Black Pirate" made two years later in two-strip Technicolor or the great 1935 remake with Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, but I doubt it. Kerrigan is adequate in the role but he is a distant third to Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn. Olivia de Havilland completely outshines Jean Paige and there is no one in the 1924 silent who can remotely compare as a villain to Basil Rathbone.

So, in the end, it's an enjoyable way to swash your buckle for a half-hour but that's about it.