Captain Blood (1935 film) range of interest. However, after watching the filming, with a dynamic new star, Errol Flynn in a heroic role, alongside Olivia de Havilland, who had her debut in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", he changed his mind. After he accepted, however, he learned that he needed to compose more than an hour of symphonic music in only three weeks. The short time frame forced him to include about ten percent of the score using portions of symphonic poems by Franz Liszt. Not willing to take credit for the entire film score, he insisted that his credit be only for "musical arrangement".
Captain Blood (1935 film) in the United States on December 28, 1935. The film received positive reviews and notices and wide public approval. "Variety", one of the entertainment industry's leading trade publications of the period, also praised many aspects of "Captain Blood". In its review of the film on New Year's Day in 1936, "Variety" does, however, cite weaknesses in the production, especially in its storyline: Despite finding some flaws in the "scripting" of "Captain Blood" and in the presentation of some battle sequencies in the film, "Variety" called Flynn's performance "impressive" and predicted that his work in the production would provide the young