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Warner Brothers caught lightning in a bottle when they took a chance on a relatively unknown Tazmanian actor and cast Errol Flynn as Peter Blood in the Oscar-nominated crowd pleaser Captain Blood. Flynn plays a British physician who gets wrongfully sentenced to slavery in Port Royal, Jamaica, after attending to a rebel’s wounds. When pirates attack Jamaica, Flynn leads his fellow slaves in the hijacking of a Spanish galleon and they begin a life of piracy across the Caribbean. Blood is quite fair and civilized for a pirate, which makes him attractive to Port Royal’s governor’s daughter — played by Olivia de Havilland in her first of eight films with Flynn. But his morality also puts him at odds with a less scrupulous French pirate played by Basil Rathbone. When the new king of England offers a pardon to Flynn and his crew, they ride to Port Royal’s defense against the French in a swashbuckling climax.

Captain Blood is the grandfather of swashbucklers, at least of the sound era, and is still remarkably entertaining 91 years after its initial release. Flynn became an instant star with his magnetic performance. The film also benefits from the refined direction of Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood), whose career was boosted to A-Level status after Captain Blood. Curtiz surrounds Flynn with a bounty of incredible talent. Beyond the obvious luster of Olivia de Havilland and Basil Rathbone, there are memorable turns from Henry Stephenson as a kind ambassador of the new king, George Hassell as the gout-afflicted governor of Port Royal, and Frank McGlynn Sr as one of Blood’s pirates who quotes scripture during battle.

The love story, like so many of the era, seems tacked on and superfluous to the narrative, but at least De Havilland proves more engaging than the typical decorative leading lady. Captain Blood is an example of when almost everything goes right in escapist fare. It’s dramatic, it’s exciting, and it’s exceedingly well made, but when you add the twinkle in Flynn’s eyes, it’s damned irresistible.

With Lionel Atwill, Ross Alexander, Guy Kibbee, and a rousing score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who created the sound of pirate movies for decades to come.

Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Score