My hot take for the day: Captain Blood is the most important film Warner Bros. ever made.Before you sweet folks lock me up in a dungeon and throw the key away, hear me out. The stakes for Captain Blood were very high. It was the most expensive Warners production since 1928's Noah's Ark. In casting the star of such a costly production, studio head Jack Warner took the big, then unheard of gamble in picking an unknown for the leading role: Errol Flynn. For context, this was a studio in the middle of the Great Depression that was known for its gangster movies, not period adventure fare. Nevertheless, Captain Blood was a smash hit that literally launched a star overnight, while redefining a studio and kinda setting the template for all pirate movies to come. Not too shabby. But why do I really think this is the most important Warner Bros. movie of them all? Simple. The man behind the camera: Michael Curtiz. The film established him as the top director at Warner Bros. and he made a bunch of other big pictures at the studio as a result of its success. One of them being Casablanca. And Mildred Pierce. And... you could go on an on. I was going to write up a much longer review but it basically boiled down to me talking about how integral Captain Blood was in shaping movie history. Sell me into slavery, throw me overboard, poke me with a hot iron, subject me to Basil Rathbone's campy French accent all you want (actually...), I just think this Errol Flynn swashbuckler was pretty darn critical and befitting of my bold claim. Oh, finally, if you know of any other actor who could deliver the line, "Break out those sails and watch them fill with the wind that's carrying us all to freedom!" with the gusto that Flynn did, then I've got a really gnarly dungeon for you. No one else besides him could it then, nor anyone since.
