Lea Mariotte (Micheline Presle), a mistreated servant and social-climbing Creole woman, is arrested for murder. Captain Michael Fabian (Errol Flynn) gets her off by threatening the powerful Brissac family with a scandal because George Brissac (Vincent Price) was involved. While Fabian is at sea, Mariotte pushes Brissac to murder his uncle, and then blackmails him into marrying her.
This isn’t a Swashbuckler, but I’m reviewing it as everyone who hasn’t seen it thinks it is one. It stars Errol Flynn in a period piece, where the words “Adventures” and “Captain” are in the title and Flynn wrote the screenplay. It even starts with a sailing ship.
But what we have is a slow boiling melodrama with a single fight at the end. The main character is neither Flynn’s pseudo-adventurer nor Price’s evil weakling. It is the obnoxious and stupid Mariotte, whose power over men is hard to fathom. She’s pretty enough, but her actions would drive away any man (or woman, or horse). Time is not spent with deeds of daring-do, but with Mariotte scheming or throwing a fit or grousing about not having money and power.
There is no doubt a more interesting story behind the camera than in front of it. Time and an excessive lifestyle had caught up with Flynn, and his creditors were trying to. So he went to France to make this, where he apparently drank a lot and argued with his partner, who was also the director and husband of Presle. They all skipped the country after filming as they’d failed to make a French language version which was required by law.
The B&W cinematography is pleasant, though this is a film that cries out for color (and this was made in 1951). Flynn isn’t a noticeable detriment, and Price comes off quite well—though he had to sue for his unpaid salary—but the movie doesn’t work. Mariotte is a terrible lead and there’s no chemistry between anyone. Fabian and Mariotte are supposed to be in love but you can’t tell from actor or actress. Plus poor Agnes Moorehead is forced to run around in poorly applied brown-face. I’m sure everyone involved was happy to forget about Adventures of Captain Fabian, and I will be to.
Errol Flynn’s Swashbucklers/pseudo-Swashbucklers are: Captain Blood (1935), The Prince and the Pauper (1937), The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939), The Sea Hawk (1940), Adventures of Don Juan (1948), Against All Flags (1951), The Master of Ballantrae (1953), and Crossed Swords (1954), The Dark Avenger/The Warriors (1955).