Movie
Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons Photo shows actor Errol Flynn (1930s)
Captain Blood
Dr. Peter Blood, physician turned pirate, and the pencil mustache that made Errol Flynn a star overnight.
- Actor
- Errol Flynn
- Film
- Captain Blood
- Year
- 1935
- Medium
- Movie
- Style
- Pencil
- Fan Votes
- 0 legendary · 0 meh
Why Captain Blood's Mustache Matters
Captain Blood (1935) is the film that made Errol Flynn. He plays Peter Blood, an Irish physician wrongly convicted of treason, sold into slavery in the Caribbean, and reborn as the most dashing pirate captain on the Spanish Main. He was a near-unknown when Warner Bros. cast him, and by the end of the year he was a matinee idol.
The mustache is the thin, sharp pencil that Flynn would wear for the rest of his career — The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Sea Hawk (1940), and beyond. It suits a swashbuckler perfectly: neat enough for a gentleman, rakish enough for a pirate, and never in the way of a sword fight.
Michael Curtiz directed, Olivia de Havilland co-starred in the first of their eight films together, and Basil Rathbone was on hand to lose a duel. The mustache has been winning ever since.
- *Captain Blood* (1935) was adapted from Rafael Sabatini's 1922 novel and earned a Best Picture nomination.
- It was the first of eight films pairing Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland.
- Errol Flynn (1909–1959) was born in Hobart, Tasmania.
How to Grow the Pencil
Thin, sharp, and dangerous. The mustache of leading men, jazz cats, and people who own tuxedos.
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