User Reviews

Anyone watching this movie expecting epic sea battles and nonstop action will likely be disappointed, but for those viewers who grasp that it's essentially a black comedy, there is much entertainment to be found. Charles Laughton plays Kidd as a conniving buffoon who seeks to finagle his way into a peerage. John Carradine steals the show as Povey, the satanic looking henchman to Kidd. His basso profundo voice and intense eyes have seldom been put to better effect. The other scalawags in the crew include character actors Gilbert Roland, Abner Biberman and Sheldon Leonard, with a nice bit by John Qualen as hero Randolph Scott's loyal sidekick. Scott seems a bit out of place on a ship's quarterdeck instead of a horse, but he manages to do a good job with his heroic role anyway. The film shows its minuscule budget through the repeated use of stock footage, cramped sets and more talk than action, but it compensates with colorfully written and played characters.SPOILERS AHEAD: Two of the best scenes occur near the beginning and end. In the first, a crew of cutthroats led by Kidd haul a treasure chest into a cave to bury it. One of the rogues remarks that it's deep enough to bury a man in. An argument ensues when Kidd gets annoyed at his underlings having the nerve to demand to inspect the chest first. He finally loses patience with the most demanding sea dog, and shoots him. When the dead pirate falls into the hole with the chest, they bury him along with it. Later, Kidd, Povey and hero Adam Mercy ( Scott) dig up the chest. When Mercy finds a human skull, he asks, "Who might this be?" and Carradine replies in a menacingly polite growl, " Perhaps a man who asked too many questions!" There's great fun to be had with this movie for lovers of pirate flicks. Mention should also be made of the dry, comic turn by Reginald Owen as the valet hired by Kidd to teach him respectable society ways. He takes this small part and makes the character into a believable, appealing individual, and not just for comedy alone. Anyone who likes old pirate movies ought to check this one out for a very good time.

I'm always pleasantly surprised at how entertaining some of these era films turn out to be, and with it's stellar cast, "Captain Kidd" is no exception. As the title character, Charles Laughton is at his finest, playing both sides of the sea lanes as it were, in the employ of the King of England while marauding the King's treasure at the same time.

I got a kick out of one of Kidd's lines as King William (Henry Daniell) wishes him God speed for the voyage to Madagascar; the response - "I am but his unworthy sparrow". Shades of Pirates of the Caribbean!

All the while, Kidd plans on waylaying the Quida Merchant, laden with treasures from India. Those plans also include dispatching his closest pirate accomplices, celebrating each victory with a pen stroke through their names in his personal diary. I'm always amazed by that sort of plot device, as if the villain couldn't remember keeping track of a handful of his associates. It makes for mysterious intrigue though, as well as finality, though in the case of Orange Povey (John Carradine), his name had to be rendered twice.

Fans of Randolph Scott's Westerns will be aware of his many outfit changes during the course of a film, and it's no different here. Starting out in tatters as an imprisoned pirate, by the end of the story he's in a nobleman's attire with the lovely Barbara Britton on his arm. In between, we learn of Adam Mercy's masquerade as the King's informer to uncover his father's murderer; who else but?

Rounding out Kidd's luckless original band are Gilbert Roland and a virtually unrecognizable Sheldon Leonard, who's character Boyle is sent to his reward following a flattering eulogy by Kidd, and then an unceremonious 'pop him over' - beautiful!

If you set your history books aside, you'll have some swashbuckling good fun with this one. In particular, I enjoyed the language used by Kidd and the upper crusts, especially the scene at Hampton Palace. But for sheer delight, get a load of those pirate uniforms on board the 'Adventure Galley' - didn't they look good in stripes?

Very good swashbuckler film from the mid 40s. Charles Laughton is at his best...deceitful, scheming and conniving as Captain William Kidd. The ruthless Captain Kidd buries treasure on Madagascar intending to never split the spoils with anyone. And that same treasure may never be found. The infamous pirate tries to pull a scheme on the King of England by offering to give protection to a treasure ship bound from India to England. Kidd will skillfully remove the treasure from the ship he is suppose to be guarding and then blows it to smithereens. But is the notorious scoundrel of the sea smart enough to keep escaping the law?

CAPTAIN KIDD features a talented and well respected cast: Randolph Scott, Reginald Owen, Gilbert Roland, John Carradine, Barbara Britton, John Qualen and Sheldon Leonard.

It's a very basic story – Laughton plays Kidd, a merchant captain who cons the King of England (Henry Daniell) into allowing him to take to the sea to recover a lost treasure and escort a ship back to London. And old fellow conspirator who he thought dead (John Carradine) and a mysterious young man (Randolph Scott) manage to get on board and cause problems for Kidd.

The production values are quite decent actually, but the photography is relatively straightforward (it had also deteriorated a lot in the copy I saw on DVD). Quite a lot of good use is made of the ship sets. The costumes are pretty well done – I'm used to seeing very flamboyant and extravagant costumes in these "period" pictures but this one had some resemblance to what I'd imagine to be real period fashions, even down to Scott's ridiculous (but fitting) Samuel Adams bobbed hairstyle.

The cast really makes this one stand out from the pack – Scott is a very sturdy and believable hero, and Laughton just reeks of immorality and that very British concept of "low" birth. Carradine never cut a finer figure than he does here.

Only real complaint would be that the direction and the photography were rather quaint – I hadn't seen the date on the print and I really thought I was seeing a film from about ten years earlier than when this one was actually produced. There was even a shot – when Scott and the heroine (Barbara Britton) land on the small island – that I think was probably done with front projection, possibly glass mattes from photographs or paintings. Those are kind of nice touches for the fan, but it speaks to how old-fashioned this film was even at the time of its release. It offers the kind of loose romantic thrills that you would hope it to, and I expected nothing more of the film.

A black-and-white pirate yarn with Laughton as the treacherous Captain Kidd and Randolph Scott as the aggrieved son of a nobleman, looking for revenge. Barbara Britton is the beautiful hostage.

First, what a cast. Every character actor in Hollywood must have a part in this production. Second, Charles Laughton is sweaty, plump, and relishes his villainy like Richard III. He turns evil into a joke.

The dialog is stilted, flowery, and a little intricate, which, I guess, is the way we think ordinary people used to speak in 1666, but it's fun to listen to. "More wine, you waddling toad" -- that sort of thing, but better. The whole movie is kind of fun, including the musical score which is definitely not by Eric Wolfgang Korngold, but rather less tuneful and with more dissonance.

If you're looking for a romantic swashbuckler, this isn't it. See "Captain Blood" or "The Sea Hawk" instead. This is more of a fictionalized passage from the life of William Kidd, terror of the high seas, liar compleat, and wily slob. Since Kidd is played by Charles Laughton, Captain Kidd does not swing from ropes.

The adventure movies' is a high art, this is obvious. Look at the annoyingly many failed attempts. KIDD is not a good movie,it fails to deliver what it promises; and in fact not only it is not a good movie—this is euphemistically stating it; it's rubbish. It begins as an adventure movie—pirates, a treasure, but it changes into something considerably less appealing and also less interesting. What we are nonetheless left with is Laughton's verve, his considerable instinct for the picturesque. In a quite large role, R. Scott is insipid.

What the movie lacks are style, pace, gusto. It can only offer a few melodramatic leftovers. It looks cheap, ugly, tern, stupid. Laughton was good beyond belief, in any role, I suppose. Such a staunchly reliable actor.

On paper, Captain Kidd looks quite presentable. Laughton, Scott, Owen, Carradine, Daniell in a scenario by Norman Reilly Raine (Emile Zola, Robin Hood, Elizabeth and Essex, Fighting 69th, Captains of the Clouds, A Bell for Adano, etc), directed by Rowland V. Lee (Son of Frankenstein, Tower of London, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, etc.).

However, in actual fact the script is awful, the direction pedestrian and excitement somewhat meager. The acting is atrocious too - but at least it's entertaining. Laughton must have signed for the film without first reading the shooting script. Certainly it's great to see him in the star part (the hero played by Randolph Scott is definitely subsidiary, while the heroine doesn't even come on till the halfway mark), but handed such impoverished lines and woeful business! However much this assignment would have defeated a lesser actor, Laughton sets to with a will, hamming up the part with such lively gusto and infectious enthusiasm as to turn the bird-droppings of an almost featherless screenplay into a veritable feast of robust entertainment.

Laughton is greatly helped in his endeavors by Reginald Owen, another seasoned performer who knows all the tricks of inflection and demeanor to strike sparks of histrionic excitement from the driest pasture. John Carradine also has a nicely insinuating way with words, but the rest of the players are far less able to spin their spidery lines into threads of gold. Henry Daniell is miscast as good King William. Gilbert Roland tries hard and does most of his own fencing (while an obvious double substitutes for our hero) but misses the ingratiating charisma of a true-born villain. Mr Scott's resourceful hero signally lacks a tongue in his cheek. Miss Britton is a bland and featureless heroine.

As for the production itself, it sweeps high on promise but considerably short in actual achievement. A few of the sets are remarkably lavish, but a general air of cheese-paring pervades. The pacing is slow, the action spots few and far between, the direction flat and the photography colorless. In short the film bears every sign of being soldered together in budget-conscious haste.

For Laughton fans who are oblivious to all else, Captain Kidd offers a reasonably entertaining romp through the pages of piracy. For the rest of us, it's a definite disappointment.

While there's action and plenty of villainy, the lack of color (both physical and metaphorical) makes this a dull adventure. Charles Laughton, captain at sea in "Mutiny on the Bounty" and pirate of sorts on land in "Jamaica Inn", combines both as the title character, hamming it up to try and enlivening things, and is assisted in nefariousness by John Carradine, but theirs is a flaccid attempt to enliven a lackluster screenplay. Interest wanes as he goes up against the king's plant, Randolph Scott, who of course gets the heroine (Barbara Britton) as he sets out to expose and bring Laughton to justice. By the time Laughton gives a final curse in his broadest thespian manner, you'll have lost interest. Laughton would do better in this role when he got the bumbling team of Abbott and Costello to lighten things up for him.

The pirate movie "Captain Kidd" opens with narration over an explosive battle at sea that establishes the setting, the characters, and the rationale for action on the part of the Randolph Scott hero. Interestingly, this sea battle is the only one that occurs in this otherwise formulaic pirate movie that concerns stolen treasure, an abducted female aristocrat, and honor. Indeed, "Captain Kidd" has more dialogue sequences than it has action sequences with cannons being fired and ships sinking into the briny deep. Granted, it isn't the best, nor is it the worst.

"Madagascar," booms the narrator, "for centuries the bloodiest cockpit of all the seas where the infamous brotherhood of the damned waited to plunder the treasure laden galleons of India and . . . then return drunken with slaughter to their pirate stronghold of the last hope. Most ruthless of all was Captain William Kidd. He encountered the great London galleon The Twelve Apostles commanded by Admiral Lord Blaine and approaching unsuspected in the guise of a peaceful merchant by a sudden treacherous salvo reduced her to a burning hulk. When night fell, the Twelve Apostles was only a blazing funeral pyre on the placid surface of a Madagascar lagoon." At this point, Captain Kidd (Oscar winner Charles Laughton of "The Private Life of Henry VIII") and his accomplices bury the booty from The Twelve Apostles as well as prizes from other ships. Before they lower the treasure chest into a hole that they have dug in a cave, Kidd's cutthroats want one more glance at the treasure that they have acquired through acts of piracy. No sooner does one pirate observe that the pit is deep enough to bury a man than Kidd shoots him and they bury the dead man with their loot.

The year is 1699. At Hampton Court Palace, one of King William II's advisors proposes that His Majesty authorize Captain Kidd to sail under the British flag. At this point, the English believe Kidd has attacked only Spanish ships. Kidd tells the King that he fell into the hands of a ship commanded by Blaine, a high-ranking British officer that had turned pirate. Of course, Kidd is lying. Nevertheless, William outlines Kidd's task: "And now captain, the main mission of your cruise is to meet a great ship, the Quida Merchant, sailing from India with vast treasures and to give her safe conduct in my name past the waters of Madagascar." As his reward, Kidd requests that William give him Admiral Blaine's castle and lands. Initially, William reacts with horror at the notion that Kidd plans to recruit a crew from Newgate Prison. Kidd defends himself, "There's none would be so loyal, nor fight so desperate, as cutthroats under sentence of death... if they knew that at the end of the voyage a royal pardon would be in their pockets." Among the pirates imprisoned in Newgate Prison is Adam Mercy (Randolph Scott of "Virginia City") and his best friend Bart Blivens (John Qualen of "The Searchers).

Meanwhile, the scheming captain contemplates more than merely protecting one of his Majesty's ships. He keeps a list of comrades that he aims to kill and tries to figure out a way to serve best the King and himself. No sooner has Mercy come aboard than Kidd suspects that he is an agent of the King William, particularly when Mercy refuses to drink a toast to the sovereign. Meanwhile, the treacherous Kidd whittles down his accomplices so that none will survive to share the booty from The Twelve Apostles. At the same time, we learn that Mercy isn't really Mercy, but he is the son of Admiral Blaine. Mercy/Blaine wants to clear his later father's good name. It seems that William branded him as a pirate, as a result of the encounter between Kidd and him.

Anyway, Kidd has an ocean rendezvous with the treasure ship. He sends his cohort Jose Lorenzo (Gilbert Roland of "Any Gun Can Play") into the powder magazine to supervise the transfer of ammunition. In fact, Lorenzo leaves a burning candle attached to several fuses. Not long afterward, the British ship vanishes in a terrific explosion and sinks. Before the ship goes down, the captain, Lord Fallsworth (Lumsden Hare of "Rogue's March") and the comely Lady Anne Dunstan (Barbara Britton of "Bwana Devil"), are climbing aboard Kidd's ship. Kidd doesn't waste time with Fallsworth. As the treasure chest is hoisted up in a net, Kidd pushes it and the net with its chest flies back and strikes the captain, knocking him overboard to his death into a long ship below. Appropriately, Lady Anne is horrified. Later, Lorenzo makes a play for her affections. She screams, and Mercy comes to her rescue. Kidd and another comrade Orange Povey (John Carradine of "The Grapes of Wrath") watch as Mercy defeats him in a swordfight.

"Captain Kidd" boasts a fine, first-rate cast including Gilbert Roland, horror icon John Carradine, and several notable character actors, but the action is confined to ship sets, prison interiors, and no sea battles take place after the battle at the beginning of the story.

Laughton later reprised his role as the nefarious pirate in the 1952 Universal Studios' comedy "Abbot and Costello Meet Captain Kidd." Director Roland V. Lee, who directed a hodgepodge of every genre in Hollywood, keeps the action moving ahead—especially when there's nothing but dialogue—so that "Captain Kidd" is more than tolerable entertainment, nothing great, but watchable on a rainy day. Laughton with his hammy chops chews the scenery with relish, while Randolph Scott does nothing to conceal his Virginia accent. Interestingly, this was director Roland V. Lee's last movie to direct and the last one that his brother Robert N. Lee to provided with a story. Norman Reilly Raine, who penned two Errol Flynn features "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex," wrote the screenplay that contains some clever dialogue.