Can’t do better than invite you to admire the delicious screen caps done by A Folded Umbrella of the Baz in CAPTAIN BLOOD. It’s said the British writer Daphne Du Maurier had a crush on Basil when she was a teenager and that she subsequently based the pirate/lover in FRENCHMAN’S CREEK on his incarnation of the dashing, crazy, devastatingly romantic Levasseur. So whatever was up with her in the self-esteem department (seriously, REBECCA is an essay on inadequacy and desperate over-compensation), there was nothing wrong with her aesthetic sense. If FRENCHMAN’S CREEK had happened ten years earlier, maybe the B would have been playing the love interest instead of horny Lord Rockingham.
The Baz 
Love him….such a hung.
LikeLike
Fantastic
LikeLike
F***ing hell he was a sexy devil
LikeLike
Oh lovely, made my day, sexiest pirate ever IMO
LikeLike
Pingback: Possible Movie RemAkes: Swashing Some Buckles! « the armitage effect
thank you for this lovely celebration of the Baz
LikeLike
Kicking myself for not buying an 8×10 of Baz kneeling on the beach from Captain Blood.OMG,gorgeous,saw it in a shop in Vegas.
LikeLike
Unfiiii…… Wow the pheromones. You just want to jump his bone.
LikeLike
Where has he been all my life?
LikeLike
In my spare bedroom, chained to the bed. No, you can’t have him
LikeLike
I hope yo have been feeding him well in all this time and unchaining him regularly.He was a handsome animal.If not i will call hillside SPCA on you.
LikeLike
..Granny,I’m coming to burgle you. But only for what you have said ;_;.
(And maybe your cookies too :3 )
LikeLike
He is SO sexy in this film, you can almost taste the pheromones
LikeLike
Hellooo sailor!
LikeLike
just basically want to ride him within an inch of his life…lucky bloody Ouida.
LikeLike
I love that long hair. you can see how he might have been if he’d been born fifty year later and been young in the sixties. The pics of him in Judas do that even more. Man I am so in a Basil phase right now, I would drain him dry if he was in reach. And alive. I’m not a necrophile.
LikeLike
HEHE
LikeLike
I love this site so much, please don’t stop!
LikeLike
Oh Levassuer, come and take me roughly right there on the sand 🙂 watched the film last night. Yup, accent is bizarro, but as someone said – who tf cares? The man is HOT and he oozes sexuality. He reminds me of Valentino in that way, though nothing like physically. Why the hell was he not playing lover-roles?
LikeLike
He did play romantic parts when he first went to Hollywood! And on Broadway. He had a huge fanbase
LikeLike
So,Arabella would’ve gone unmolested while Blood went for the ransom.If I were Olivia,I know who I’d pick Errol vs Baz,Baz every time for me
LikeLike
Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp can’t hold a candle to Basil and Errol.
LikeLike
No they can’t. Viggo maybe. 🙂
LikeLike
I actually cry sometimes looking at his lovely face
LikeLike
Pirate fantasies anyone? Daphne Du Maurier is not alone 🙂
LikeLike
Oh the fanfics I’ve composed in my head about Captain Levasseur and his female hostage (me) and what they get up to in his cabin 🙂 – don’t worry, I wont share, they are R rated in the extreme
LikeLike
Now I want to read them – put them on fanfic.com or tumblr.com!
LikeLike
Oooh tempting, maybe I will
LikeLike
Heard about that time Baz was considered handsomest on Brit stage,so Daphne knew well what other s did too
LikeLike
I have never seen Captain Blood, have to rent it or find a download tonight
LikeLike
He is magnetic in this film. Is it true Errol hurt his leg in the duel and Basil was stung by jellyfish in the death scene? I think you can see Errol favoring one leg in some of the fight scenes as if he might be a bit injured.
LikeLike
I never heard that before
LikeLike
Both actors had a difficult time doing the duel because the tide was coming in and they kept slipping on the rocks,and Rathbone slipped one time and cut Flynn on the cheek because Curtiz had the protective tips removed from their swords.they were friends,and seemed to admire each other.Baz was insecure about his looks and himself,prob explaining his appreciation of Ouida the Spender
LikeLike
He also spoke about the death scene in his auto.Curtiz did so mant takes,forcing baz to keep his eyes open while the water washed over his face lying there.That,i think,must have been a bitch!
LikeLike
Errol got cut a few times when Baz fell on the rocks in duel to the death,one was quite a bad cut
LikeLike
OMG I love him so much I don’t know how to express it. He’s on my desktop as Captain Blood and my friend in school, well she’s not a friend but she sits by me, said “wow, he’s hot” and she was like all interested when she thought he might be a modern actor, but when I said “it’s Basil Rathbone from the 1930’s” she was like “oh.” She only likes modern actors like Robert Pattinson, but the thing is she is always seeing my pics of guys like Basil and Errol and going “wow” only she won’t fan them because they were in old film which is just ridiculous. But then there are more girls my age liking the old time guys now than like a year ago, which makes me happy. I even got a girl started on fanning Anton Walbrook who NO ONE in America knows about.
LikeLike
I know it’s true there’s a few more who like the old time actors, but if it gets cool I’ll be like “no, you aren’t real fans, you’re just tagging along.” I like that I am different.
LikeLike
If any of my friends thought he was hot, I’d be like…
“NO!!! He’s mine!” xD
LikeLike
Basil really has that smoulder in his eyes doesn’t he. You get the impression he’s hot for it any time, you know? I bet he was dynamite in bed.
LikeLike
SEX ON LEGS. A beautiful arab stallion of a man. I want one to take home.
LikeLike
I totally love that description, can I use it?
LikeLike
Be my guest! 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks! I put it on my tumblr!
LikeLike
And no form fitting pants in Captain Blood.Ouida,did you get it on with this gorgeous man much or just spend his money on parties.I’d say she should’ve made a choice between raising a child or paries,I would’ve gone for motherhood,esp w/Baz as daddy,whether bio daddy or adoptive dad.At least he was mature in accepting responsibility for all his kids,even if Rodion had to go w/o Baz around.Beatrice could’ve stepped in as Rathbone presence if she was so concerned about her brother walking away from crumbling marriage.I agree,1st marriage seemed to have lost it’s luster in very short time,as he said,romance went soon after wedding,but he almost was an instant father at a young age with little time to adjust before parenthood.And WWi just put the final nail in it.Marion did okay to go on after WWI service of hubby,his family losses,his being lost and trying to carry on with tremendous psych burdens Post-WWi,I don’t think it sounded like she had anything but understanding for him,my interpretation,as maybe she came to realize he was too deeply affected by it all to trash him in any way.I’m sure Rodion toughened up because of whatever garbage the other kids said to him about his parents’ bust-up.Anyone else,today,would’ve been insensitive to their partner/spouse after breaking-up.They both seemed to have class about his walking away,which I suspect was about all he could think to do w/o seriously hurting them all.Bea should’ve minded her own beeswax,his sister that is.Prob exactly like whatever prob w/OR occured after them settling down togethr,but I doubt anything settled well for Baz
LikeLike
Super sexy mister
LikeLike
LUUUUURVE Sunday Pic day. 😀
LikeLike
Holy crap this man is gorgeous! Sorry BelovedBasil for saying crap! The third picture has me SWOONING!
LikeLike
So does anyone think Basil swore? I can’t decide. Part of me thinks he was really gentlemanly and part of me thinks he looks like he could have been kind of liking to booze and party you know?
LikeLike
I am not sure of the swearing,but,i read he liked to tell dirty stories at parties He .also gossiped alot with Nigel Bruce.I say he was human amd i like him .
LikeLike
He used the f-bomb when frustrated after a performance onUncle Miltie Show with all the ad-libbing,nevaneva again would he appear with those_people.
LikeLike
Way too much Flynn.Not enough Basil.Nuff said!
LikeLike
Except that Carmen Miranda did not become popular until after 1940. My favorite line is “Thees ees the rosary of pein….Eet ees posseeble (spitting on the p’s) to scrrrewww out a man’s eyeballs.” Sis and I used to do Errol wiping the spit out of his eyes when we played that one. Yeah, the long hair and open shirt are hot, but I think Errol’s hotness wins out in this one. Mark of Zorro is tops for me because of all the double entendres with Ty Power and Gale Sondergaard. I actually think he looks hotter in that one, too, kind of macho to Ty’s androgynous Zorro.
LikeLike
If he’s an arab stallion in Captain Blood, he was a testosterone-crazed mustang in Zorro – so masculine, so strutting, so genital-flaunting and tight-trousered it was insane. But hot! Oh God yes.
LikeLike
The thoughts needed to be controlled when he comes up with the Rosary Of Pain,esp “it’s possible to screw a man’s eyes out”.Wonder what reaction in theater was to that line.
LikeLike
Sorry, not my favorite Basil performance. My sister and I used to play at Captain Blood when we were pre-adolescent (I used to wear my mother’s old 50s petticoat and play Arabella Bishop), and we would mock his rather awful French accent (we’re of French Canadian descent). Yeah, sis and I fought over who would be Captain Blood because we thought Flynn was the most beautiful actor we had ever seen. I think Basil’s performance is more campy fun than great acting. My favorite Basil performances are probaby Esteban in The Mark of Zorro, Sherlock Holmes in the Fox pictures, and Major Brand in The Dawn Patrol (beautiful ensemble acting by Basil, Flynn, and Niven).
LikeLike
Oh God yes, his French accent sounds like he’s putting it on for a dare -“I speet upoon your arteeecle” 😀 – but tbh he could be doing a bad imitation of Carmen Miranda and I’d still want to watch him cavorting around in that open-necked shirt
LikeLike
TOO RIGHT!
LikeLike
Gorgeous caps
LikeLike
Love his expression in the one where he and Errol are facing off. It’s almost sexual, the way their eyes are locked.
LikeLike
BARROL!!!!!!!! BARROL 4EVA!
LikeLike
Sorry, what is Barrol?
LikeLike
It’s Errol/Basil slash!
LikeLike
One can only wish that Rathbone’s Levasseur had been introduced earlier in the Blood script and given more depth of character. As a matter of fact, it is heresy in some circles to say this, but I wish JL had spent his million on a project called Captain Levasseur and starring BR because it would have been a lot more interesting, if not Code prohibitive due to sex and violence.
LikeLike
Ah but I like CAPTAIN BLOOD! I’d go for him being introduced earlier and having more screen time though.The most electric bits are between him and Flynn. They always sparked each other somehow.
Ooh – a prequel – Levasseur before he meets Blood :). They’d do it now like a shot. But when B returned to Hollywood after his three-year absence it seems to have been decided he wasn’t going to be offered leading man status again. I think Basil’s biographer is going to have to figure out why this was. Not age. Not looks. Not charisma. What?
LikeLike
His smouldering allure was too pre-code! Top censor Breen’s heavy-handed era started in 1934. Coincidence or what?
There, that’s sorted. (I wish.)
🙂
LikeLike
I wonder if he pissed off someone by leaving Hollywood the way he did. Perhaps that’s why they weren’t keen to reinstate him as a leading man
LikeLike
Are you not a fan of this film? I always think Errol is awkward in it and even slightly embarrassed. Rathbone is far more at home in the milieu and projects far more confidence in their shared scenes, but Errol was learning on the go here and he does a great job considering and is very eye-pleasing!
LikeLike