Monday, May 15, 2017

By the Gods!

The beautiful Alessandra Panaro and the handsome Sean Flynn in SON OF CAPTAIN BLOOD (1962)

Panaro and Flynn make a good looking screen couple. Flynn, of course, is the son of Errol Flynn. Sean had a short film career mainly in the PEPLUM / Swashbuckling genre before dying of tragic events. Panaro was a regular star in the genre and has appeared in 3 of my favourite films : ULYSSES VS HERCULES, THE BACCHANTES and HERCULES AGAINST MOLOCH. Love her! She quit full time acting in 1966. She still looks good today. 

The film itself is okay. Production is good but the story lacked focus and the natural disaster during the climax is a quick way of ending a film. It's still fun to watch but don't expect a masterpiece. 

2 comments:

Scott Ochiltree said...

I agree fully with your evaluation of this movie. Normally I love pirate flicks played straight, but this one is clearly second rate. However, it has a good ship.

Flynn was certainly handsome, and bore a striking resemblance to his dad.

He disappeared in Cambodia in the spring of 1970, where he was working as a photojournalist. Flynn was almost certainly killed by the Khmer Rouge, which had a standard policy of murdering all captured western journalists.

Flynn was declared legally dead in 1984. May he R.I.P.

gastrocnemius said...

Yes, by the 70's, times had changed, and the old romantic days of his dad were gone, there were no more heroes, handsome people nor real adventures.
It seems that this handsome boy didn't realize that it would have been better for him and for us that he would have continued shooting these cheap adventure movies, at least, at the end of the story, people were happy and not crying like those in Cambodya, even after all these years.
You should read "My wicked, wicked ways" by Errol, there, it is possible to see that change of times. The first half of the book is extraordinary (and the best).