Captain Blood (1924)
(David Smith, US 1924, 110 min., 35mm)
“Swashbuckler” films began with Douglas Fairbanks’ 1920 The Mark Of Zorro, but the trend really took off with screen adaptations of rollicking adventure novels by Rafael Sabatini (1875-1950), including The Sea Hawk, Scaramouche, and perhaps most importantly Captain Blood: His Odyssey, of which Warner Bros.’ 1935 version launched Errol Flynn’s starring career. Earlier, the pioneering Vitagraph Company produced its own lavish silent production of Captain Blood with matinee idol J. Warren Kerrigan, who also starred in the legendary The Covered Wagon (1923). Vitagraph’s Captain Blood was a smash hit and the company’s last hurrah. Rarely seen since 1924, it has extravagant settings, romance, thrills galore, and probably the biggest ship explosion of the silent era. We will show the Library of Congress’s beautiful new restoration, which shows that Kerrigan and Vitagraph could give Flynn and Warners’ a run for its money.
Live piano accompaniment by Philip C. Carli.