Customer Reviews

Captain Blood: Classic Film Scores for Errol Flynn

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Many of Errol Flynn's movies were quickly dismissed as just "costume". I think time has proven that while Errol Flynn could not break away from the swashbuckler image, he was the best at that genre. Warner Brothers made a great deal of money from his films and, conversely, they utilized many of the best composers of the day to write music for his films.

This collection captures many of the classic scores and vividly brings back many of Errol Flynn's greatest screen moments. You do not need to have seen these movies or be a fan of Errol Flynn's to enjoy this music. It stands on it's own.

This album is magnificent-one of the best compilation albums out there. Instead of just focusing on the main themes, Gerhardt gives us suites of highlights from the movies, some as long as eight minutes. The performance and sound quality are first rate, which is the norm for any of the Gerhardt albums with the NPO. This album makes a perfect compliment to "The Sea Hawk: Film Scores of Erich Wolfgang Korngold" and "Now Voyager: Film Scores of Max Steiner". Some movies are repeated from those albums to this one (like Robin Hood and the Sea Hawk), but the music selections are different. You'll be sorry if you pass this up.

I had this on cassette as a film-fan teen, and can't wait to get my CD. Gerhardt's interpretations of these selections from great film composers (there's a whole series, see my other recommendations) are stunning, true to the original recordings, with all the passion and grandeur that they deserve without having to conform to a) screen timing, and b) the limitations of monaural optical film soundtrack methods of the time.

Finally, that these are available in Dolby Surround, is NO gimmick. These 1970s recordings, remixed for CD release in Dolby Surround, sound FABULOUS with a receiver in Dolby Surround, Pro Logic, or Pro Logic II Music decoding. (I don't recommend you use "movie" settings, as the music isn't really meant to be channeled to Left, Right, and Center.)