Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950)
1h 31m | PG-13
When he unwittingly sends some of his men into a trap, pirate Captain Peter Blood decides to rescue them. They've been taken prisoner by the Spanish Marquis de Riconete who is now using them as slave labor harvesting pearls from the sea.
Director: Gordon Douglas
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Genre: Action, Adventure
Video: 720p
Cast
Louis Hayward
as Captain Peter Blood
Patricia Medina
as Isabelita Sotomayor
George Macready
as Marquis de Riconete
Alfonso Bedoya
as Carmilio, Prison Overseer
Dona Drake
as Pepita
Lowell Gilmore
as George Fairfax
Reviews
I think it's fair to say that Louis Hayward was just a little bit past his best when he made this rather dry pirate adventure. He picks up the character from Errol Flynn (which maybe doesn't help either) as "Capt. Blood" and works on a complicated plan to go into the town incognito, and rescue some of his crew captured by the wicked "Marquis" (George Macready) now used to fish for pearls - quite a dangerous activity in the shark-infested waters. Along the way, he falls for the slightly aloof "Isabelita" (Patricia Medina) who is the daughter of his antagonist and the apple of the eye of the ambitious "Fairfax" (Lowell Gilmore). What's really missing here - save for, maybe the last ten minutes, is action. For an action film it's positively stolid. Hayward tries hard to hold it together and Macready was ever a good baddie but nobody is firing at all well here as they have to plod through the interminable dialogue with just nowhere near enough swash, buckle or swinging from the yardarm. This is one of my favourite genres and though it's not the best, it's still watchable enough. You'll never remember it, though.