CAPTAIN BLOOD (1935)

Ahoy! Let's mate. I read in a book that pirates would sometimes hold a captive still, make an incision in his torso and pull out a little bit of the person's intestines then nail the intestine piece to the mast and then chase the poor guy around with a burning poker which would end up forcing the guy to disembowel himself. Nothing like that happened in CAPTAIN BLOOD, but one guy got branded on the face and another got a big hook in the back. For 1935 that's pretty hardcore. I guess.

Errol Flynn is Peter Blood, a doctor living a peaceful life in England when he's called out to help an injured man. The man is a rebel and since Blood was helping him he's arrested and sentenced to death. Right before has date with the hangman he and his fellow prisoners have their sentences reduced from death to being sold as slaves in the Jamaica colony.  Wow, thanks.

Once there, Blood and his pals are sold to an asshole who works the shit out of them on his plantation. All kinds of stuff happens and eventually they escape and steal a large Spanish ship which they use to run around all over the Caribbean robbing people and doing pirate stuff.

This movie was entertaining. I don't know how much it would hold up to repeat viewings, but for the one time I watched it I enjoyed it. Errol and Olivia were great, but Errol's men got on my nerves with their silly babel and comic relief. Other than that this was a pretty action-packed movie and a fun watch for classic movie fans.

LIFE WITH FATHER (1947)

[Update 03/28/2021: Need to redo this review completely. Fix the screenshots also.]

Way back in ye olde 1880's NYC there's a loud, domestic tyrant of a father/husband (William Powell) who bellows all the time and rules his family with an iron fist...or so it appears.  In reality, his dingbat wife (Irene Dunne) ignores his constant screaming and pretty much lives her life in complete dream world. They have four boys who do normal boy stuff. That's the makings of good film, I guess, but just a few minutes into it Dunne finds out her husband hasn't been baptized!  The horror.  So for the remainder of the film she makes his life a living Hell and pesters him endlessly to get baptized. Is that suppose to be funny?  I just found it depressing.  This dude provides for his family, so they can live in absolute luxury and then when he goes home he has to listen to his wife preaching to him nonstop.  Ugh.

Powell and Dunne both do fine with their terrible roles, but that ain't saying much.  The only reason I can think of watching this downbeat clunker is Elizabeth Taylor.  Maybe I'll revisit LIFE WITH FATHER one day, but as for now I was hugely disappointed with it.  Skip it.