“And that my friend ends a partnership that should never have begun.”

Okay, so the Star Wars prequels tried and failed to kill me. The Halloween Octoverride tried and failed to kill me. My laptop turning into a suicidal wreck failed to stop me. I survived, but not without leaving me with a limp and a visible shake in my left hand. Let’s wash the taste of that out with a good movie. A classic movie from 1935. A movie that was Errol Flynn’s first major role. With PIRATES! Buckle up your swashes, gents, and loosen those corsets, ladies. Its time for Captain Blood.

Plot
So, an Irish doctor gets in trouble with the crown for treating a wounded man who was part of a rebellion against King James of England (the second, presumably). Unfairly prosecuted and sold into slavery, he finds himself on a Jamaican plantation run by a jerkass governor and his hottie of a daughter. After a chance raid on the town of Port Royal allows the slaves (who, uh, all happen to be white actors: sadly a sign of the times the movie was made in) to go free and hijack a Spanish ship, the doctor, now the captain of the stolen ship, sets out with his crew to make a living of High Seas ADVENTURE!

Characters
Captain Doctor Peter Blood, MD: Errol Flynn (remember him from the glorious Adventures of Robin Hood?). Ok, so the good doctor’s a bit of a marty stu, but he’s also a perfect larger than life figure for the ADVENTURE! of the film. He’s heroic, no matter what situation, but he’s also got a sharp tongue, full of Irish impudence, particularly toward those who are corrupt or harbor (ha ha, nautical pun) fondness for King James. Rises to epic badass levels through sheer impudence and force of personality. And his name’s basically Captain Blood, MD.

Arabella Bishop: Olivia de Havilland (also from Robin Hood) plays the somewhat spoiled but by no means evil niece of the governor of Port Royal. She and Blood have some great courtly flirting scenes before Blood makes his escape, and after he’s become a pirate lord and comes across her again, she alone is the anchor (ha ha) that keeps him from drifting (ha ha) into villainy. For her, Blood turns away from his corsairing ways, and the chemistry between the actors convinces you that its worth it.

Levasseur: Basil Rathbone has a pretty small role as an amoral French pirate who becomes bro’s with Blood. The two produce a piratical partnership, but the pernicious Provencal plots to perfidiously profit from Blood’s placid patronage. This leads to a short but epic swordfight on a beach over (what else?) a woman. Arabella, to be precise.

Colonel Bishop: Lionel Atwill (from the Octoverride Frankenstein movies) plays the greedy, abusive governor Bishop, and Blood’s sworn nemesis. Not a whole lot to his character. He’s a jerk, the audience doesn’t like him. Instant villain.

There are a bunch of other characters, particularly Blood’s crew, but they only have a few quirks to differentiate themselves and its not really worth going into it. One’s a cowardly opportunist, one’s a deeply religious man, one’s a drunk, and so on. They get the job done though.

Visuals/Effects
Directed by Michael Curtiz (who also co-directed The Adventures of Robin Hood and Casablanca) the movie is shot in Glorious Black & White, which thanks to the set designs and camera angles, does not hamper the vitality of the ADVENTURE! Some of the miniature work is obviously so, but nothing game breaking. The movie itself is very episodic, covering a lot of ground quickly, often with the help of expository text blocks to help move things along past the dull parts. The end result is a rocket fast ride of heroism against the odds and redemption and forgiveness, along with the standard swashbuckling swordfights and ship-to-ship fusillades that are staples of the genre. Its also a joy to watch Flynn and Rathbone duel to the death again (though this is a much shorter fight than in Robin Hood).

Writing
Casey Robinson adapted a novel by Rafael Sabatini (an Italian author who wrote several pirate stories) and throws in a lot of great dialog. Rapid fire flirting, stirring speeches, and Blood’s stubborn Impudence all get delivered with aplomb. No, its probably not very historical, but my understanding of the Age of Sail isn’t exactly expert level anyway, and the movie isn’t trying to be historical.

Sound
Erich. Wolfgang. Korngold. ‘Nuff said. Made extra awesome by the fact that reportedly he scored the film in three weeks.

Conclusion
Raucous High Seas ADVENTURE! Sometimes that’s all you really need to sell a movie and Captain Blood delivers it in spades. I will say that The Adventures of Robin Hood, which involves a lot of the same filmmakers and lead actors is a much more polished and in some ways better film, but Captain Blood is a great ride and a worthy precursor. Totally recommended as one of the defining Pirate ADVENTURE! films.

“One doesn't easily forget, Herr Baron, an arm torn out by the roots.”

Boris Karloff would play the Monster one last time in a Frankenstein film, a movie that would load up on a big name cast with Basil Rathbone, Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill joining the fray. So how does 1939’s Son of Frankenstein hold up compared to the first two?

Plot
A man and his family travel by train to the region of “Frankenstein” (I guess that’s how they work things into the “Baron von Frankenstein” thing they had in the last movie). He’s a scientist too, and the local burghers give him a cold welcome when he arrives. Why? Because, he is the Son of Frankenstein! (Dun, Dun, DUN!!) So the new Baron Frankenstein moves into the family castle, then he meets a crazy old hunchback who knew the old doctor and the Monster, bringing the new Frankenstein to the doctor’s ruined lab and an underground tomb where the Monster lies asleep, sick with some…malady or something. After some prodding, Ygor convinces Frankenstein that this looks like a job for MAD SCIENCE!

Meanwhile, the townsfolk are getting antsy and the local police inspector starts to ask questions as to what the new Baron is getting up to.

Characters
Baron Wolf von Frankenstein: Basil Rathbone is not a name I automatically associate with horror films, but here he is, the main character in a Frankenstein film. Amusingly, he expresses his disdain that the Monster is being referred to in uneducated circles as “Frankenstein” himself (well, I got a kick out of it at least). He does a really interesting job, too. At first, he’s more concerned with moving in and being a good family man, but when Ygor shows up, wheels start turning in the Doc’s head, as they often do in these films. The lure of Mad SCIENCE is just too good to pass up, and Rathbone tries to juggle trying to figure out how to “cure” the Monster with keeping the local authorities from snooping in places where they don’t belong. He never really goes into full villain status, but as the movie goes on, its great seeing Rathbone dangling wildly over the precipice of madness with only his fingertips still clutching desperately to sanity.

Elsa von Frankenstein: Josephine Hutchinson is Wolf’s concerned wife. She’s not a particularly interesting character, unfortunately.

Peter von Frankenstein: Donnie Dunangan is Wolf’s son, which also makes him the Son of Frankenstein (Dun, Dun, DUN!!). The kid’s not in it all that much, but he gets moments where he can be really annoying in a “pwecious” sort of way.

Benson: Edgar Norton is Wolf’s assistant/butler guy. Poor, poor Benson. Being an assistant to a Frankenstein is practically a death sentence, as Benson here proves.

Inspector Krogh: Lionel Atwill puts in a very interesting appearance as a local police inspector with a very valid reason to hate the Monster. When Krogh was a kid, the Monster ripped his right arm out during a rampage. Now armed with a fake arm that he has to move around with his good hand, his childhood dreams of becoming a general went out the window and he got stuck as a small town cop, so yeah, I’d say it’s a good reason to not like the Monster. Krogh, aside from a German accent that slips up occasionally, is one of the most interesting characters in the movie, and in terms of wanting to protect innocent folk, is the movie’s actual Hero.

The Monster: Boris Karloff one last time, except this time he’s traded in his ability to speak for a sweater vest. Its… actually disappointing that he can’t speak anymore. Anyway, the Monster isn’t much of a major player in this film. He’s sick during most of the film, and when he’s up and about, he’s more or less being controlled by Ygor. Still, there is a great scene where the Monster confronts Wolf in the lab and they both look in a mirror (this is after Ygor told Wolf that the Monster is effectively his brother) and the unspoken realization is that they are both Sons of Frankenstein! (Dun Dun DUN!!!)

Ygor: Bela Lugosi is the film’s true villain, and turns in a fantastic performance. Ygor apparently knew Henry (or the more Germanic Heinrich as the movies are calling him now) back in the day and Ygor himself has had a sketchy past. He was arrested and executed for stealing bodies, except they didn’t do a great job when they hung him, since he survived getting his neck broken. Now disfigured, Ygor is the town’s crazy old man who’s been sending the Monster to kill off the burghers who convicted him. Lugosi’s creepy and sinister performance, done in a haggard accent and covered with a beard is outstanding and barely recognizable as Lugosi. The film’s clear and creepy badass, especially because he upstages Karloff.

Visuals/Effects
Directed by Rowland V. Lee, the film goes for a big, almost staged look, though it looses some of that Expressionist feel that the first two had. Visually, its not bad at all though, and Frankenstein’s new lab in the ruined tower and located above a sulfur pit (because apparently it was the site of Roman Bath once upon a time, or something) is probably the most interesting new visual location in the franchise. The pacing of the film does feel a little slow though compared to the last two.

Writing
Wyllis Cooper handled the script this time, and doesn’t hold back on the wild ideas that a fertile ground like this provides. As Wolf is examining the Monster, we get all sorts of meta-science gobbledygook about how the Monster’s physiology is no longer that of a normal human’s and so on. Dialog is generally pretty good, and I really liked the cat & mouse thing that Krogh and Wolf had going when Dr. Frankenstein was really starting to crack from the strain of trying to hide his experiments.

Sound
The score by Frank Skinner is okay, but doesn’t match Waxman’s excellent work in the last film. It’d be just mean to try and compare the two.

Conclusion
Son of Frankenstein is not a bad film by any means. However, its rather long for the time period, and it definitely feels like it. Still, there’s a lot of good stuff in here, especially the performances by Rathbone, Lugosi and Atwill. I just wish there was more for the Monster to do in his own movie.

“I live in the forest with a few score good fellows who’ve everything in life save spiritual guidance.”

Now, a lot of the stuff I’ve been viewing at RMWC Headquarters has been made in the last thirty or so years. There are a couple of reasons for that. 1) Nostalgia for things I saw in my youth and/or for films that were made in that time period. 2) Price point. As much as I’d love to get a nice copy of Casablanca, the used video stores I frequent don’t get in copies of classic cinema often (or at an affordable price), but I will seek to view the classics at first opportunities. A boxed set of the Thin Man movies I’m looking forward to in particular.

That said, the Robin Hood story has been one of the cornerstones of my formative years. Not as much as the King Arthur legend, but the denizens of Sherwood Forest have been a part of my imagination since I saw the animated Disney version back when I was around seven. This review isn’t about the Disney version, but instead about the universally accepted granddaddy of Robin Hood films: the 1938 Errol Flynn vehicle The Adventures of Robin Hood, presented in GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR!

Plot
I am going to pretend that this film takes place in an alternate history of England, one where King Richard actually liked the place, didn’t spend all of his free time in France and said that he’d sell London if he could find a buyer. Ok, see, the historian in me is placated.

The film begins with the people of England discovering that King Richard, on his way back from the crusades, has been captured by Duke Leopold of Austria. The king’s brother, John, usurps the regency of the kingdom, effectively taking charge and heavily favoring the Norman upper class nobility over the Saxon lower class. One Saxon noble, Robin of Locksley, takes serious offense to this, and impudently vows to make John and his lackeys suffer for their misdeeds. ADVENTURE! and IMPUDENCE! ensue for 102 minutes.

Characters
Robin of Locksley/Robin Hood: I usually like saving the film’s baddest badass for last, but when it’s the main character, I’m okay with exceptions. Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood is called “impudent” so many times that he becomes the living embodiment of it. Impudent, according to dictionary.com means offensive boldness, insolent or impertinent. Robin is all of these in spades. He storms into a feast Guy of Gisbourne is having for Prince John, dumps a deer carcass on the table, sits down and talks trash to the Prince until he has to fight his way out of the castle. Before recruiting Friar Tuck, he harasses the clergyman by both pranking him awake and then making Tuck carry him across a river on his back. It would be difficult to explain everything that makes Robin such a tights-wearing badass in this film, but it can be accurately summed up by calling him a magnificent bastard.

Lady Marian Fitzwalter: Olivia de Havilland plays a Norman noblewoman, the ward of King Richard, but under John’s current care. Marian is beautiful, but starts the film off as kind of an ice bitch. She doesn’t take kindly to Robin’s IMPUDENCE at the feast and only starts to like him when the merry men kidnap Gisbourne’s baggage train (with Gisbourne and Marian with it). She sees what Robin’s really fighting for, and it softens her up.

Prince John: Claude Rains brings a sophisticated weaseliness to the role of John. A cold blooded schemer who surrounds himself with men who will do the dirty work for him, he is the film’s real villain.

Sir Guy of Gisbourne: Basil Rathbone is the local lord who rules Nottinghamshire, Surprisingly enough, he’s much the impotent villain throughout the movie. Sure he glowers with the best of them, but he doesn’t really score any points for getting anything done. Most of his scenes with Robin Hood before the climactic fight scene are about trying to Hate Robin to death. Still, that climactic fight scene is quite epic, and Rathbone & Flynn get major points for doing most of it (aside from a few dives) themselves. It is among the great epic swordfights, and guess what? No slow motion laziness.

The Sheriff of Nottingham: Melville Cooper is the bumbling fool to Rains & Rathbone, the comic relief to their villain trio. He actually gets villain points for coming up with the idea to hold an archery tournament to capture Robin Hood.

Little John: Now, when I saw that Alan Hale was playing him, I thought, “no shit, the Skipper’s in this?” Well, no. Turns out it was Alan Hale Sr., the FATHER of the Skipper, though you can see the family resemblance. Aside from that, he’s an early recruit and probably the only one who bested Robin Hood in a fight.

Friar Tuck: Your standard Friar Tuck stuff; chubby friar, gets recruited, helps out. Turns out he’s a decent swordsman in this film and actually he & Little John become bro’s.

Much the Miller’s Son: A dumb peasant caught poaching deer on royal lands. Rescued by Robin Hood’s IMPUDENCE and one of his most stalwart recruits. He’s a comic relief character that didn’t do much for me and came close to irritating me at places.

Will Scarlett: Wears bright red, always by Robin’s side in big group shots, has a lute. That’s the extent of his characterization.

Visuals (Direction/Effects)
Two directors listed for it. William Keighley was the first, until he was booted off the picture, Michael Curtiz was brought in to finish things off. Filmed in California in Glorious Technicolor, the movie pops off the screen vividly. It is hyper-theatrical, but its done so exuberantly that it works. In some ways, the costumes look a lot like the kind of clothing that appears in manuscripts from the middle ages. How accurate it is to actual peasant dress, I’d say is pretty weak, but as far as the fancy pants nobles go, well, they liked dressing up in bright, pretty colors. While the movie chooses interesting visuals over gritty realism, I have to say, watching the explosion of colors in a medieval film is a welcome breath of fresh air from the bukakke of brown in more modern takes on legendary heroes. Yeah. I said it.

The action scenes are great, and there are a great many of them. The swordplay is of the theatrical kind, but even that’s an art form in itself, and the climactic fight is one for the ages, including some nice silhouette scenes (that have been copied by other movies since). Moreover, the archery stunts were all real, including the famous “splitting an arrow in the bull’s-eye” and performed by a master archer.

Writing
I can’t really blame the team of Norman Reilly Raine and Seton I. Miller for being a part of the King Richard the Lionheart cheerleading squad. The legend of Robin Hood has pretty much always been a PR spin machine for Rich. Besides, the movie more than makes up for it with awesome banter, fantastic pacing, and the sheer IMPUDENCE of Robin Hood. Even in his classic love scene with Marian, he’s a cocky bastard, and its outstanding.

Another thing the movie does is use text cards to bridge gaps between events. It’s fallen out of favor in recent times, but I think having a brief moment of text is a great way of maintaining the pacing by skipping over the boring stuff with a recap. The regent that Prince John kicks out, Longhcamps? He exists only in those recap cards.

Sound
The sound effects are fine, but the real winner here is the score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, which is a stirring piece of ADVENTURE! music. Korngold was one of the prolific golden age Hollywood composers, and the score for The Adventures of Robin Hood is a fine example of one of the masters of the form.

Conclusion
This movie really delivers on the title. It features ADVENTURE! and Robin Hood. The Adventures of Robin Hood is one of those gems of classic cinema that lives up to they hype I’ve read and actually impressed me with its staging, pageantry, wit and downright IMPUDENCE! Its rightly regarded as the gold standard of Robin Hood films, and the other films in the genre are going to have their work cut out for them.