CAPTAIN KIDD (1945) **1/2 Charles Laughton is such a charming rogue, makes it all seem just another turn in the pirate life, you see. What, you thought there really was a pirate code of conduct? More like guidelines to be followed when convenient, you undestand. So it accomplished that difficult combination of depicting the pirate life with some element of ethical realism, while at the same time making it seem not so bad. I imagine that they weren't all, Charles for example, extreme and total assholes entirely bereft of elegance or charm. Rowland V. Lee brings the pace around just about perfectly, to the point where just as Laughton's few virtues are wearing thin the entire thing looks like it might possibly come tumbling down. Randolph Scott at your service, now there was a heroic actor, and not a bad manifestation of ethical ambivalence either. And what would any pirate voyage be without a beautiful damsel to distress? A position well filled by Barbara Britton, who, of course, as a noblewoman doesn't get too upset no what no measure of murder and lecherousness and blackguardism she might be subjected to in undue course. So the bad guys keep it interesting, the good guys keep the censors from getting too interested in any of it, and generally for the most part everyone gets what they want and deserve. Yay!
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