Review: Captain Kidd


Charles Laughton plays the title 17th century Scottish-born pirate captain tasked by England’s King William III (veteran character actor Henry Daniell) to protect a treasure-filled ship from unscrupulous pirates off the coast of Madagascar. He asks to choose his crew amongst men who have been condemned, including Adam Mercy (Randolph Scott). What the naïve King doesn’t know, being a pirate and completely lacking a moral compass, Kidd (who we see engaging in some plundering and murdering at the outset) decides to rob the very vessel he has been assigned to protect, along with his scummy cohorts Gilbert Roland and Sheldon Leonard. Turning up on the ship is Povey (John Carradine and his marvellous deep voice), a former comrade of Kidd’s, who was left for dead in the opening sequence, whilst there proves much more to prisoner Mercy than meets the eye. Reginald Owen plays Kidd’s attaché, whom the Captain hopes will teach him proper etiquette. Barbara Britton plays Lady Anne Falconer, whom Kidd and crew take as prisoner, along with her father. John Qualen has a small role as one of the less seedy crewmen.

 

One of the better pirate movies, this 1945 film from director Rowland V. Lee (“The Count of Monte Cristo”, “Cardinal Richelieu”, “The Three Musketeers”) would be even better if it had a more charismatic actor in the lead than Randolph Scott. He’s so wooden and Charles Laughton is so dominating on screen that even though Scott’s character is essentially the closest thing the film has to a hero, you almost feel like siding with Laughton’s title character. You probably wouldn’t have wanted to see Laughton do too many sword fights or stunts, but he and veteran Latin lover Gilbert Roland were born for this genre.

 

Playing a plundering, murderous pirate scoundrel is definitely in the great Laughton’s wheelhouse, and he’s clearly enjoying himself. He manages to get away with devouring the scenery because he’s a genuinely good actor, albeit a ‘big’ actor. Gilbert Roland and deep-voiced John Carradine are well-cast as his rotten cohorts, in fact Carradine manages to not get swallowed up sharing the screen with noted scenery chewer Laughton, which is remarkable. Reginald Owen puts in pretty good work, too as someone who hasn’t quite got the stomach to deal with such unscrupulous characters as he is faced with. There’s some truly great faces in this, including the always welcome John Qualen and one of my personal favourites Henry Daniell in (too) small parts. The latter is typically excellent in a rare non-villainous role, whilst the former’s tiny role is understandable given Qualen often took such tiny roles throughout his long career. Pretty much everyone else has a bit of villainy/unscrupulousness to them, actually. Even Scott’s character projects an opportunistic side to him early on. Sure, we know he’s going to eventually be the hero, but that bit of edge and the taint to many of the other characters makes the film stand out a bit, it’s very interesting for its time at least. I did think it was a little odd that it took 46 minutes for essentially the female lead (Barbara Britton) to turn up, but to be honest the film doesn’t even need her at all.

 

Fun pirate stuff, with the wonderful Charles Laughton dominating. Randolph Scott is a wooden plank, and any film could use a little more Henry Daniell, but otherwise it’s hard to complain. A jolly good romp, and only 80-90 minutes long to boot, this is one of the rare good pirate movies. A must for Charles Laughton fans at the very least. The screenplay is by Norman Reilly Raine (“The Life of Emile Zola”, “The Adventures of Robin Hood”, “The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex”), from a story by Robert N. Lee (“Little Caesar”, “Tower of London”).

 

Rating: B-

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