Olivia de Havilland, star of Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, and numerous other films, posing with stage rapiers and smallswords, fencing masks, and star-to-be Errol Flynn in a series of Warner Bros. publicity stills for Captain Blood (1935). Most of these photographs were taken on the same day in July 1935 behind the Warner Bros. administrative building prior to the start of shooting. Ms. de Havilland passed away on July 26, 2020 at the age of 104.
Not a fencing pose per se, but a reading pose, Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini, specifically, on the same day the photographs above were taken.Likewise not a fencing post per se, but another publicity still for Captain Blood (1935). As a side note, the Collins machete she holds is almost certainly from the collection of Dwight Franklin, the historical consultant (and costume designer?) on the film. Franklin notes that such machetes were often carried by overseers and mounted police in Latin America at the time.
First posted September 21, 2020. Last updated December 23, 2023.
A very quick look at the trial of Dr. Peter Blood as depicted in two film versions.
In support of the 1924 Captain Blood starring Walter Kerrigan, Vitagraph issued a series of advertisements in the form of newspaper headlines and articles, with text credited to author Rafael Sabatini:
Peter Blood is a bit too well-dressed in the scene, given his more than two months in a crowded jail. Sabatini’s original line is far more effective than the line in the film (see the image on the left above). From The Film Daily, Sunday August 31, 1924.Detail from the advertisement above.
The sets in the 1935 Captain Blood were intended to be more figurative than entirely accurate, reflecting more the psychological impact of the trial. The sense of law-run-amok under the guise of patriarchal law and order is inescapable. The downside is that the set appears more theatrical than authentic.
The Bloody Assize courtroom in the Great Hall of Taunton Castle as depicted in the 1935 Captain Blood starring Errol Flynn. From the blog The Blonde at the Film.The prisoners at the bar; Dr. Blood looks as if he has indeed been jailed for more than two months. From the blog The Blonde at the Film.
Copyright Treasure Light Press LLC, 2020. First published September 20, 2020.
Taunton Castle as it appears today, much as it did in 1685. Wikimedia Commons: photograph by Simon Burchell.
The 19th of September: On this day in 1685, Old Style, fictional Dr. Peter Blood was tried and convicted of treason at Taunton Castle, in spite of his having done nothing more than obey the dictates of his conscience and his profession in treating a wounded rebel.
The trial was in fact quite real. From a draft end note to the forthcoming annotated Captain Blood: His Odyssey:
The 19th of September was the second day of the Taunton Assize in Somerset, the “chief seat of the rebellion.” Held in the Great Hall of Taunton Castle and presided over by Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys, more than five hundred prisoners–514 to 534–were tried over two days. Four pleaded not guilty the first day; three of these men were sentenced to death but the fourth was set free. Approximately three hundred fifty more pleaded guilty the first day and were convicted. On the second day, many of the remainder pleaded guilty and were convicted. One hundred forty-six of those convicted at Taunton were sentenced to hang. Two were reprieved, but the rest were distributed among thirty-six nearby towns where they were hanged, dismembered, tarred, and their dismembered quarters hung from gibbets and various other convenient objects as a warning. Fifteen others sentenced to death were by accident left off Warrant for Execution. Two hundred eighty-four were condemned to transportation, and roughly seventy-seven were variously freed on bail, remitted to jail, recommended for mercy, or otherwise avoided the noose or transportation.
Peter Blood was one of the fortunate–or should we say, less unfortunate–ones, for he was, like the very real Henry Pitman who helped inspire his story, sentenced to be transported to Barbados for ten years in servitude.
Lord Chief Justice George Jeffreys attributed to William Wolfgang Claret, circa 1678 to 1680. Wikimedia Commons.
Copyright Treasure Light Press LLC. First published 19 September 2020.
Flibustier (a French buccaneer) from a Chart of Le Cap on Saint-Domingue, 1686, by P. Cornuau. French National Library. Similar images can be found in my post here.
A brief post in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day. 🙂
1. Active Duty Pirate Speech:
“[H]owever nothing daunted at the disadvantage of Fight, we made a resolution rather than drown in the Sea, or beg Quarter of the Spaniard, who we used to Conquer, to run the extreamest hazard of Fire and Sword, and after a sharp Contest, still birding with our Fusees as many as durst peep over Deck, we boarded one of them, and carried her; so with her we took the second; and the third had certainly run the same fate, had not she scoured away in time…”
–Buccaneer John Cox.
“Shee fierd a Harkquebus att us, att which wee presented them with a whole Volley; she fier severall small gunns at us, and wounded 3 men. one of them after-wards died. wee laid her aboard and tooke her. She had about 30 hands in her, fitted out for an Armadillo to come downe to the Isle of Plate, to see what a posture we lay in…”
–Buccaneer Edward Povey.
2. Retired Pirate Speech:
“In his drink Sir Henry [Morgan] reflects on the Government, swears, damns, and curses most extravagantly…”
–Calendar of State Papers, Colonial, America and West Indies.
“But fortunately romance never dies. The spiritual hunger of humanity seeks nourishment in ideals, which it is the business of romance to furnish. Romance is of no particular time or age. If it has usually preferred to lean upon the remote epochs, it is only because the remote is easier to idealise.”
–Rafael Sabatini, “My New Adventures of Captain Blood,” Pearson’s Magazine, December 1929.
“I hope no man will call me timorous; and yet I’ld as soon be called that as rash.”
Dr. Peter Blood, about to become Captain Blood, commenting on the dangers of blind faith in the face of contrary reality in Captain Blood Returns, “The Blank Shot,” by Rafael Sabatini, 1930.
In other words, wear your mask!
Het kanonschot (The Cannonshot) by Willem van de Velde the Younger, ca. 1680. Rijksmuseum.
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