On DVD Tomorrow: The Sea Hawk and Captain Blood

My two favorite Errol Flynn movies are to be released tomorrow: The Sea Hawk and Captain Blood. (I've got both on order.)

Both were directed by Michael Curtiz (Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood), both are in black and white, and together they represent the best pirate movies ever made.

In Captain Blood (1935), Flynn plays Peter Blood, a consciencious doctor who is enslaved and transported to Jamaica for treating a rebel during the English civil war. As we all know, it's a hop, a skip, and jump from slave to pirate captain! Olivia de Havilland (at her most stunning) is the love interest, and Basil Rathbone is his French rival, Captain Levasseur.

The Sea Hawk (1940) casts Flynn as the Sir-Francis-Drake-esque Geoffrey Thorpe: the one man who can save merry olde England from the sorry fate of Spanish domination.

Though most fans favor Captain Blood, I think because it is much more of a pure pirate movie, I have to tip the balance in favor of The Sea Hawk, if but for the fact that it has a better villain. Though Basil Rathbone is wonderful in Captain Blood, there isn't enough of him. The Sea Hawk treats us to one of my favorite movie villains, Henry Daniell as the traitorous Lord Wolfingham.

Even if you haven't seen The Sea Hawk, you'll recognize Daniell's Lord Wolfingham. Christopher Guest patterned his performance as Count Rugen (the "six fingered man") in The Princess Bride on him, and precisely preproduced Daniell's voice.