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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