It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Captain Blood loses some of his pirate crew when they are ambushed landing on the Caribbean island of La Hacha seeking supplies. Against the advice of his second in command he eventually goes ashore and disguising himself as a fruit seller (called Pedro Morales) engineers the rescue of his enslaved comrades. Which is the main problem with the film as it is set mostly ashore as Blood intrigues to release his men. This takes in the Marquis de Riconete who has been tasked to catch him, Isabelita Sotomayor who wants to leave the island with her beau George Fairfax and a helpful girl at an inn named Pepita Maria Rosados. It is slow going until the last half hour when it comes to life with action in the main town and a battle at sea.Louis Hayward is adequate as Captain Blood, as is Patricia Medina as Isabelita and Lowell Gilmore as Fairfax.George Macready is unfortunately a bit subdued as the Marquis. He has done villainy much better in other films. Billy Bevan plays Billy Bragg. Much needed liveliness is injected into the film by the lovely Dona Drake as spitfire Pepita. Based on a novel by Rafael Sabatini the last third of the film almost makes up for the duller early two-thirds of the movie.

To be perfectly honest, I was not expecting a lot from this one – I was under the impression it would be a remake of the seminal Michael Curtiz/Errol Flynn CAPTAIN BLOOD (1935), but Rafael Sabatini did actually pen a novel bearing its title – since neither the film under review, nor the sequel CAPTAIN PIRATE (1952; whose own viewing would follow presently), have much of a reputation within the genre concerned!; still, their Rafael Sabatini pedigree and the presence of swashbuckling regular Louis Hayward ensured my interest regardless. For better or worse, the fact that both are now available in virtually pristine (if non-anamorphic) editions is due to the massive box-office takings of the recent overblown "Pirates Of The Caribbean" saga!Anyway, I had already watched Hayward's previous buccaneer venture – namely Edgar G. Ulmer's THE PIRATES OF CAPRI (1949) – and, frankly, was wary of his making a convincing Peter Blood (truth be told, even Flynn's star-making turn had been somewhat overrated!); given that he usually tends to play fops harbouring a revenge agenda, the narrative contrives to put the actor in his element by having the former doctor don a South American disguise for a sizeable part of the duration! Plot-wise, it is – admittedly – no great shakes: a handful of Blood's gang are ambushed when they go ashore and put in chains, so he determines to free them. In the course of the 90-minute duration, he is helped and hindered (often both) by a number of other characters: a bartender, a saloon-girl, a prison warden enamoured of the latter (Alfonso Bedoya), a shifty nobleman, his girlfriend (leading lady Patricia Medina – clumsily named Isabelita!), and the obligatory chief villain (played by the ubiquitous George Macready). Blood's brawny crew, then, typically encompasses all sorts – from Scots to Swedes…and, perhaps mercifully, I only counted two negligible instances of comic relief on their part throughout!While it may appear half-hearted in black-and-white (especially in comparison with the glowing Technicolor afforded the sequel), director Douglas was practiced enough at this sort of thing (for the record, he had already guided both Hayward and Macready through the monochromatic paces of the R.L. Stevenson adaptation THE BLACK ARROW {1948} and, involving Macready yet again, would follow this with the colourful ROGUES OF SHERWOOD FOREST {1950}) to render the essence of the material via the modest means at his disposal. With this in mind, amid the sheer amount of fun to be had, it was possible to include such striking images as a hanging body casting a sinister shadow over a wall, a guard being set ablaze during the mass prison escape and, in the exciting seafaring climax, a bloodied Macready at the helm of the hero's own vessel "Avenger"(!); interestingly enough, Hayward will be forced to blow up his ship again in the sequel! By the way, I had been led to believe this involved the English King Charles II, but the royal by that name here (appearing in the guise of Curt Bois at the start of the film) actually presides over the French court!

Gordon Douglas at the time was redoing Erroll Flynn's adventures movies :for instance "rogues of Sherwood" showed Robin Hood's son (!)battling against his wicked uncle ;Hayward was sluggish but Mc Ready was delightful as the villain.Another character portrayed by Flynn (gloriously) :another Hayward /McReady pairing and another battle.Six men from captain Blood's crew have been sold as slaves and they have got to dive for pearls in waters infested with sharks (too bad,those scenes are not shown;it would have added some suspense to a story which is terribly in need of it) The story is barely entertaining ,compared to the great Blood of Flynn and De Havilland (replaced by Patricia Medina who tries her best but who is not Olivia )

Louis Hayward stars in this tale of Captain Blood, not a remake of the Errol Flynn movie, but an altogether separate story with the same fictional hero. This involves an episode where Blood has to free six of his men who were captured and enslaved as pearl fishermen -- a lethal line of work considering the sharks. Under the able direction of Gordon Douglas this movie was far better than you'd expect -- actually much better than the cocaine-inspired junk they make in 2008. Now in DVD.In 1950, good adventure movies were commonplace, so this movie was given some extra hype by Columbia Pictures pairing it double feature with "Beauty on Parade" a semi-sexy saga about beauty contests and how the girls get abused. Odd that I'd remember this second feature after 58 years; not on DVD, cable, or anywhere.