Capatin Blood

With a surname like his, there were only three career paths for Peter Blood and he took them all. First a soldier, then a doctor and then - thanks to a treasonous act of compassion - a pirate.

In seventeenth century England, Irish Dr. Peter Blood is convicted of treason against the King for aiding a wounded friend who had participated in the Monmouth Rebellion. He is sent to Jamaica, sold into slavery, and purchased by the beautiful Arabella Bishop. Doctor Blood and his fellow slaves escape, steal a Spanish ship and begin a life of piracy.

Based on the piratical exploits of Sir Henry Morgan and Thomas Blood, Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood redefined the genre when it was published in the early 1920s.

Captain Blood was an enormously popular work, and Sabatini wrote two additional novels featuring Peter Blood: Captain Blood Returns (1930) (retitled The Chronicles of Captain Blood in the British publication) and The Fortunes of Captain Blood (1936). Both of these books are episodic tales of Blood's pirate career rather than true sequels. (All the episodes are contained within the timeframe of the original novel, although Sabatini mistakenly dated one story "1690" despite the fact that Blood's piratical career had been established as ending in 1689, and two stories in Captain Blood Returns: "The War Indemnity" and "Blood Money" may be viewed as continuations of events that took place in the original novel.)

In 1935, First National Pictures and Warner Brothersthe had the novel adapted for the silver screen. Directed by Michael Curtiz, the film starred Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland with Lionel Atwill and Basil Rathbone. The movie launched Flynn's career and was the first of eight feature films he made with co-star De Havilland. In 1938, the pair would be re-united with Rathbone in The Adventures of Robin Hood.

The film debuted in New York City in December 1935 in time for the holiday season and Errol Flynn became an overnight sensation. That distinction quickly spread throughout the world as the film met with success abroad.