With a screenplay by Casey Robinson, the film is based on the 1922 novel Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini and concerns an imprisoned doctor and his fellow prisoners who escape their cruel island captivity to become West Indies pirates.

Flynn's performance made him a major Hollywood star and established him as the natural successor to Douglas Fairbanks and a "symbol of an unvanquished man" during the Great Depression.

In England in 1685, Irish doctor Peter Blood is summoned to aid Lord Gildoy, a wounded patron who participated in the Monmouth Rebellion.

By the whim of the king, upon his advisor Lord Sunderland's counsel, Blood and the surviving rebels are transported to the West Indies to be sold into slavery.

Attracted by Blood's rebellious nature, Arabella tries to improve his situation by recommending him as the physician to the colony's governor, Steed, who continually suffers from painful gout.

During the raid, Blood and his fellow prisoners seize the Spanish ship from its drunken night watch and sail away to begin lives of piracy in 1687.

Her ship, also carrying royal emissary Lord Willoughby, is captured by Blood's treacherous partner, the French buccaneer Captain Levasseur, who plans to hold them for ransom.

Although angered by her rejection, he orders his men to set sail for Port Royal, where he will deliver Arabella and Lord Willoughby, despite the danger to himself and his crew.

As they approach Port Royal, they sight two French warships attacking the city; Bishop has left it undefended in his single-minded pursuit of Blood.

With England now at war with France, Lord Willoughby pleads with Blood to save the colony, but the captain and his crew refuse to fight for the corrupt king.

After having had Arabella ferried ashore, Blood and his men approach Port Royal flying French colors, but soon that ensign is replaced with the British Union Jack.

Blood also has the pleasure of dealing with his hostile predecessor, having now returned from his pirate hunt and under arrest for abandoning his post in a time of war.

Warner Bros. was inspired to remake the film, which it had first produced as a silent picture in 1923,[7] after the popularity of Treasure Island (1934) and The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) revived the Hollywood swashbuckler genre.

Captain Blood features a stirring and romantic musical score, the first of its type for a sound film, by Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

The short time frame forced him to borrow portions of symphonic poems by Franz Liszt, which constituted approximately ten percent of the score.

[16]Despite also finding flaws in the "scripting" of Captain Blood and in the presentation of some battle sequences, Variety called Flynn's performance "impressive" and predicted that his work in the film would provide him with "future big marquee values.