MovieChat Forums > Captain Blood (1935) Discussion > Sword fight filmed near Laguna Beach, CA

Sword fight filmed near Laguna Beach, CA

posted 14 years ago by silentmovie
11 replies | jump to latest

The fight scene was filmed at Three Arch Bay, California:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1C6Ts0ZJTU

I found the location using Google Earth (search term "Three Arch Bay, Ca"). Looks like there is a housing development there now. It looks pretty much the same now as it did 75 years ago (although the hills seem to have been worn down a bit from people walking all over them). You can use the Google Earth zoom and navigate features to locate where all of the shots of the fight scenes were filmed. Pretty cool.

[–] jstang411 14 years ago

Dude -- you are good. Guess that housing development should be named a national landmark.

[–] jpc8024 13 years ago

awesome

[–] Blueghost 12 years ago

Cool.

[–] silentmovie 12 years ago

Oops. Looks like Warner Bros. has blocked the youtube video of the sword fight. Oh well, watch the movie, then Google "Three Arch Bay, Ca" to see the location where the Flynn vs. Rathbone swordfight was filmed.

[–] sunshinesoda 12 years ago

I watched the video on youtube (other videos of the scene have cropped up in the meantime) and the swordfight is on a beach with the ocean in the background.

3 Arch Bay is landlocked, surrounded by a massive golf course, which could easily be mistaken as the ocean behind the houses. But I'm not seeing any comparison whatsoever. The cliffs, the huge rock formations, nothing is there. Most importantly, no ocean.

Unless I'm greatly misunderstanding something, I don't think typing "3 Arch Bay" and going straight to Street View is the location. Perhaps nearby, but I wouldn't know where.

[–] silentmovie 11 years ago

spritsl: <<<...3 Arch Bay is landlocked, surrounded by a massive golf course...>>>

??? Why would you assume that a geographical location called 3 Arch Bay is landlocked?

The swordfight was filmed on and around the beach, of course. The beach was chosen because it could double for a Caribbean island, and it was a relatively close drive from the studio in Burbank.

http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/2008/10/30/captain-bloodthen-now/

No matter. It's all an illusion anyway. Your imagination and the film maker's art tells you it's the Caribbean.

I just went on the Warner Brothers studio VIP tour in Burbank. There are lots of sets on the lot, and places around the L.A. area that harken back to the golden age of Hollywood.

I stood before a studio building, one of many, with a plaque that indicated that it had been built in 1927, and was used in such films as "42nd Street," "Golddiggers of 1935," "Petrified Forest," and you guessed it -- "Captain Blood.

These relics harken back to a long-gone era when dreams came to life on the silver screen. Hooray for Hollywood -- at least what it once was...

[–] kenny-164 11 years ago

Interesting thread. Having just seen Captain Blood again after not having seen it for decades, I wondered if that scene was in fact shot on the California coast, and lo and behold this thread addresses that very subject. Thank you.

[–] lightsinthedark 9 years ago

That's too bad, that link only seems to show one photo example. The comments seem to refer to many pictures but I can't figure the site out.

[–] cyninbend-149-610489 8 years ago

Three Arch Bay is listed with Laguna as a filming location for this movie. I had never heard of it--so thank you to the OP for this thread! I grew up in So. Cal. and can often pick out exactly where something was filmed, but that had me baffled. So did the many studio scenes. Old, old movies are always a challenge to identify locations!

[–] silentmovie 8 years ago

I've watched that Captain Blood Flynn/Rathbone duel many times, most recently this morning on TCM. The combatants and the rest of the pirates move around and change locations quite a bit. The sequence has great continuity (thanks to director Michael Curtiz), but many of the shots may be from different beaches. Laguna and Three Arch Bay are most likely locations. Not far north from there, by the way, is Newport Beach, where Gillian's and the Skipper's "Minnow" was filmed for the opening credits departing for its fateful "three hour tour."

[–] ebright99 7 years ago

The shot of The Minnow driving out between the two jetties is Newport Beach. The rest of the harbor scenes in the opening credits are another harbor, not Newport.