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- Movie Night at the Playboy Mansion - Captain Blood
Movie Night at the Playboy Mansion - Captain Blood
| July 31, 2009 FRIDAY MOVIE NOTES Tomorrow night: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan and Warren Oates in Sam Pekinpah’s ***** western “THE WILD BUNCH.” On Sunday: By popular request: Michelle Pfeiffer in “CHERI.” Plus a special episode of “KENDRA” with Kendra’s wedding at the Playboy Mansion. Next Friday: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the comedy classic “SONS OF THE DESERT.” There will be no movie on Saturday night, because we’ll be holding our Midsummer Night’s Dream Party. Our favorite party of the year. Tonight: Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, with Basil Rathbone and Lionel Atwill, in the **** romantic swashbuckler “CAPTAIN BLOOD.” This is the film that made a star of Flynn--and de Havilland, as well. Errol Flynn was born in Australia in 1909--not in Tasmania as some biographies suggest. The son of a distinguished Australian marine biologist, Flynn attended a number of fine schools in Australia and England, and was expelled from most of them. At 15, he began clerking for a Sydney shipping company. At 16, he sailed to New Guinea to enter government service, but his adventurous spirit soon drove him to private enterprise--a search for gold. In 1930, he returned to Sydney, purchased a boat he named SIROCCO, and sailed back to New Guinea with three friends. He later described the seven-month sea voyage in the first of three books, titled “BEAMS END,” published in 1937. In New Guinea, he became the manager of a tobacco plantation and wrote a regular column for the Sydney Bulletin. Back in Australia, he was offered the role of Fletcher Christian in a semi-documentary feature length film, “IN THE WAKE OF THE BOUNTY.” Together, they formed a motion picture company called The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company. DeMille traveled across the country to California, to produce their first venture, “THE SQUAW MAN,” in 1914. The film proved to be a tremendous commercial and critical success for its time. The Lasky Company grew into Paramount Pictures, a giant in the industry, with DeMille as its acknowledged creative driving force. Not only did he personally produce and direct many of the Company’s early films, he also supervised the studio’s other productions. He was largely responsible for Hollywood turning out longer, more elaborate feature films. And is generally acknowledged as the man who, more than any other, helped to make Hollywood the film capital of the world. In 1933, he went to England where he gained some acting experience with the Northampton Repertory Company. This led to a role in a low budget mystery produced by Warner Bros.’ London branch, that earned him a Hollywood contract. Flynn arrived in California in 1935. Before the end of the year, he was married to actress Lili Damita and an established star. Warner Bros. saw the potential success in MGM’s “MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY” and decided to produce a swashbuckler of their own, with a remake of “CAPTAIN BLOOD,” originally produced as a silent by Vitagraph in 1923. British actor Robert Donat had scored in a similar film--“THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO” (1934), and was originally chosen to play Peter Blood, with Jean Muir as his co-star. But Donat suffered from a chronic asthmatic condition and, after reading a rough draft of the screenplay, decided that the aerobatic role would be too taxing. Jack Warner needed a last minute replacement and, out of desperation, decided to take a chance on the unknown Flynn. Lili Damita, who had just finished co-starring with Jimmy Cagney in “THE FRISCO KID,” recommended Flynn to Jack Warner’s wife. And the studio’s top director, Michael Curtiz, who had seen promise in Flynn when directing him in a brief cameo role as a murder victim in a Philo Vance mystery, “THE CASE OF THE CURIOUS BRIDE,” agreed that Flynn should play the role. In an inexplicable move, Jack Warner also agreed to give newcomer Olivia de Havilland the co-starring role originally intended for Broadway actress Muir. Olivia had made a brief appearance earlier that same year in the Warner Bros. production of “MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM,” and Warner thought that she and Flynn would be well suited to one another on the screen. How right he was! Flynn and de Havilland would co-star in seven films together. Flynn would pursue her off-screen as well, but to no avail. She would later confess that she had a real crush on him, but he was married. He was a rascal and a playboy. “The public has always expected me to be a playboy,” he said. “And a decent chap never let’s his public down!” A pre-“Sherlock Holmes” Basil Rathbone excelled in “CAPTAIN BLOOD” as a sadistic French pirate and a worthy adversary. He and Flynn appeared together again in “THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD” and “DAWN PATROL” in 1938. Rathbone was the best swordsman in Hollywood, and his duel with Flynn in “CAPTAIN BLOOD” is a highpoint in the film. When the sadistic director Michael Curtiz insisted on removing the protective tips on their swords, it made the duel a truly electrifying experience. As swordsmen go, Flynn was an expert as well--on the beach or in the bedroom. “In like Flynn” became a famous catch phrase after the actor was accused of sexual improprieties with a pair of teenagers in 1942. “CAPTAIN BLOOD” was budgeted at $750,000, but Curtiz was able to increase the final figure to $950,000. To keep the budget under control, miniature ships--18 feet long, with 16 foot masts--were used in the battle scenes. Some footage from the 1924 “SEA HAWK” and the original 1923 “CAPTAIN BLOOD” was also used. Shooting began on August 15, and concluded on October 29, 1935. Brief location trips were made to Palm Springs and to Laguna Beach, where Flynn dueled with Rathbone. MGM’s “MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY” opened at the Capital Theatre in New York on November 8, 1935 and “CAPTAIN BLOOD” premiered on Christmas Day at the nearby Strand. Both films were artistic, critical and commercial successes--becoming classics! “BOUNTY” won the Academy Award for Best Picture, but “CAPTAIN BLOOD” was nominated too. It also earned an Oscar nomination for Sound Recording. This was the first full, original film score by Austrian composer ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD. He wasn’t nominated on this one, but he went on to do six more memorable scores for Flynn films, including “ROBIN HOOD,” for which he won an Oscar. “CAPTAIN BLOOD” generated $2,475,000 in its initial release, with an $800,000 profit, for a whopping 80% return on investment. With Errol Flynn, Warner Bros. had a magnificent new star, worthy of wearing the mantle of silent era swashbuckler Douglas Fairbanks. Flynn’s off-screen persona as a rogue and a Casanova only enhanced his immense popularity. He rushed through life with a reckless abandon--dying in 1959, at the age of 50! So, here now--Errol Flynn in his first starring role in the 1935 classic: “CAPTAIN BLOOD” Plus a cartoon. |
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Mar 22, 2010
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