CATCH A CLASSIC
Captain Blood
TCM, 4:45 p.m.
Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland were relative unknowns when Warner Bros. took a chance on casting them to lead this 1935 swashbuckler that finds Flynn portraying a 17th-century doctor who, with other prisoners, escapes his cruel island imprisonment in the West Indies and becomes a pirate. The studio’s gamble paid off — Captain Blood became a hit and established Flynn as a dashing screen hero, he and de Havilland’s pairing was so effective and popular that they went on to costar in seven more films, and the film received two official Oscar nominations. Director Michael Curtiz was not officially nominated for an Oscar, but received the second-greatest number of votes solely as a write-in candidate. Likewise, composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold — who somehow was not officially nominated by the academy for his rousing, romantic and iconic musical score — was third on the final ballot due to a write-in campaign, as was screenwriter Casey Robinson in his category. The film did not win any Oscars but remains an action classic.