Charisma. Pluck. Daring. Skill with a blade. These are just a few of the traits necessary for continued success as a buccaneer. So it’s a good thing Peter Blood—kindly doctor-turned-pirate of the Caribbean—has been blessed with the tools for such a career. As played by a 26-year-old Errol Flynn (making his big-screen debut), Blood is a “good” pirate: fair to his crew, willing to answer the call of his country, and always able to find time to aid a pretty maiden in distress. The jaded and hopelessly sophisticated may laugh or roll their eyes at Blood’s beachside duel-to-the-death with the treacherous Captain Levasseur (a fiendish Basil Rathbone, who would again fight Flynn three years later in The Adventures of Robin Hood), but any true fan of film adventure knows they’re seeing a swell piece of history and an early star in the cool rogue pantheon.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uog-mJYyloQ]