This weekend TCM aired ‘Captain Blood’, Michael Curitz’s terrifically entertaining 1935 Errol Flynn star vehicle–it was Flynn’s first major role and shot him to stardom–which kicked off a wave of ‘swashbucklers’ that lasted well through the 1950s. The sword fight between Flynn and Basil Rathbone is effective but relatively modest, given the improvements and higher stakes brought to the increasingly elaborate and lengthy entries into the genre that followed. Of course sword fights were nothing new to the movies–Douglas Fairbanks was doing them a dozen or more years earlier and there are no doubt others that pre-date even those. But Warner Brothers had a secret weapon that contributed something singular to their sword fights. It was Erich Wolfgang Korngold, the man whose expert scores knitted together these elaborately staged scenes and doubled/tripled/quadrupled the tension. Above I’ve posted the climactic fight from ‘The Sea Hawk’ (1940). The use of stunt doubles isn’t exactly a secret but the tremendous pace, the fast cutting, the cunning move of having Flynn slice the candles off the walls, thus plunging the room into a Michael Curtiz-land of shadows and darkness, make one forget the trickery and admire the accomplishment. Certainly Henry Danielle is as unbelievable as any actor could be as a swordsman yet we buy it. Below I’ve reprinted (with no permission whatsoever) a nice little summation of what movie sword fights really have to offer written by an anonymous scribe for ‘Screen Rant’. More fights to follow this week…

There’s no better way to end a movie in epic fashion than with a great sword fight. While an intense shootout or hand-to-hand fight scene can leave its mark on an action film, a sword duel offers the perfect combination of elegant weapon skill, high stakes fighting, and personal confrontation. From lightsabers to fencing foils to katanas, films have offered the best of different sword fighting styles for their epic, final showdowns.

A great movie sword fight is both well choreographed and story driven. Stunt work can truly make or break an action sequence, and sword fights require a particular skill in front of the camera, as well as strong direction behind the camera. The best sword fights also offer something to a film’s narrative, like a hero overcoming some great hurdle or finally vanquishing their seemingly unbeatable foe.