Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Today is also the first full day of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year). That can mean only thing — this weekend we’ll be pairing clips from classic pirate movies with scenes from 1971’s “Fiddler on the Roof,” Norman Jewison’s film version of the gigantically successful Broadway musical about ordinary Jews living in pre-revolutionary Czarist Russia. That makes sense, right?
So, we begin with with this clip from 1935’s “Captain Blood” starring Errol Flynn as a good guy doctor forced into the life of a buccaneer. In this scene, Flynn begins his habit of killing character acting great Basil Rathbone in swordfights. The irony was that Rathbone was actually an extraordinarily good fencer, far better than Flynn. Still, can’t let the hawk-nosed baddie kill the handsome hero, right?
This longish sequence features some really great pirate (over) acting from Rathbone, some nice moments between Flynn and gorgeous female lead Olivia de Haviland and stunning location photography (actually Laguna Beach in South Orange County). Still, if you want to cut straight to the sword fight — which is pretty cool — it starts at about 5:45.
And now, Tevye the Milkman (Israel’s Topol) explains it all for you.
