Reading List - "Diamond, Gold and War"

I picked up this incredible book, Diamonds, Gold and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa, by Martin Meredith for $2.00 at a Big Lots in Kansas City. Amazing to find it there. Long story short - an incredibly detailed, yet incredibly readable, history of South Africa from the time of the arrival of Cecil Rhodes through the establishment of the Union of South Africa following the Second Boer War.

Meredith could have easily subtitled the book "How Could These Guys Sleep at Night?". The main character throughout this history is Cecil Rhodes, and what's a recurring theme throughout, and stunning to the modern reader, is not just how cravenly dishonest, feckless, and brazen he and other British politicians and businessmen were in the conduct of their business and politics. Perhaps the only character less honorable than Rhodes was Sir Alfred Milner, the British High Commissioner and Governor of the Cape Colony, who almost singlehandedly started the Second Boer War, which killed tens of thousands (over 22,000 British troops) and resulted in a scorched earth policy by the British toward the Boers that drove thousands of women and children to suffer and die in miserable concentration camps, and paved the way for the unique cruelty of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

I could go on and on. Great book. Excellent history. Great read. Jolly good stuff.

Flynnfest #21 - Early Errol in The Case of the Curious Bride

Errol's fourth movie role, and first in the US, for First National Pictures. His first three include the rather strange and amateurish In the Wake of the Bounty, and the now lost UK Teddington Studio's I Adore You and Murder at Monte Carlo. Not much of a role - he plays a dead body on a slab, and in a three minute flashback scene with no lines. With a rather cheesy mustache. Oh well, we all have to start somewhere.

As for the movie, it was not your father's Perry Mason. Early Perry Mason movies have a completely different tone than that brought to TV by Raymond Burr in the role. With William Warren in the lead as Perry Mason (Warren played a lot of villians in the silent and pre-Code era), Mason isn't Burr's stuffed shirt do-good lawyer, but rather a partying, hard-drinking bon vivant man-about-town. The type of guy who invades his favorite restaurant with his drinking buddies to cook his own lobsters in the kitchen. He also has a significantly less upright view of the law, as he convinces the sister of a death row inmate to perjure herself, among other rather questionable legal tactics. And based in San Francisco (very good location shooting for 1935), rather than Mason's more familiar LA stomping grounds.

Good movie overall, though. Very well directed by Michael Curtiz, with skillful fade ins/fade outs and fast editing. This was the second Perry Mason film made, and in addition to the different persona of Warren (vs Burr) as Mason, there are other differences. Della Street is closer to a love interest, and his relationship with the District Attorney is more confrontational, less professional. His best buddy is the local coroner, who is the comic relief in this movie. Cool stuff overall, and a pretty good 1935 detective yarn, and a curious entry in the Flynnfest quest.

Rare, Minor Flynnfest Entry - Pirate Party on Catalina Isle

Pirate Party on Catalina Isle (1936) is sometimes listed as part of Flynn's filmography. Usually, it is omitted. For a good reason perhaps. This 19 minute short was a musical review. Errol and then-wife Lili Damita appear in about a three second cameo at the beginning of the film. No lines or anything like that. Errol was fresh of his Captain Blood success that shot him to stardom, and will married to first wife Damita. At the beginning of the height of his fame. There are other cameos in this short film, including Cary Grant, Randolph Scott, and Mickey Rooney. None of them have any lines either.

A musical review, the film was more travelogue for the island's tourism industry. It was shot in color - pretty rare for 1936. Long lost and forgotten, I had heard that it had been tacked onto the Warner Brothers DVD of David Copperfield as an added feature. But then some kind sould posted the entire 19 minute film on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czIGtYPpKrA

It can also be found online at:

http://www.avalonball.com/

Final note - Lili Damita - after her unhappy divorce from Errol, she married Allen Loomis, a retired Fort Dodge, Iowa dairy owner, and spent part of each year living there. She died in 1989, and is buried in Oakland Cemetary at Fort Dodge under the name Lili Carre Loomis (Carre was her maiden name). Since I'm soon off to run an office in Iowa for a few months, that sounds like a good reason for a road trip.

Rocky Mountain - Flynn's Finest Western

The Died With Their Boots On? Santa Fe Trail? Dodge City? No. Rocky Mountain is Errol Flynn's best western.

A huge surprise. Shot in B&W after the Technicolor Montana, Rocky Mountain was a low-budget film on the Warner Brother 1950 slate. It's been said that the lead was originally supposed to go to Ronald Reagan, but Warners took it away from Reagan because it was still pissed at him for the disastrous That Hagen Girl flop. This would explain why Flynn did two westerns back-to-back, and followed up a big Technicolor big budget film with a B&W low budget, almost western film noir movie.

A surprisingly complex and well written story line, and a very unusual role for Flynn. There is no Errol female love interest. The female lead, Patrice Wymore, plays the fiance of his nemesis, Scott Forbes (ironic, since Flynn and Wymore later married). This was the first movie role for Slim Pickens and Sheb Wooley, staple actors in westerns for years to come. The cast included several seasoned horseback riders, including Flynn, and the horsemanship is one of the big attractions of the movie. The ending is unexpected, and not a typical happy ending you'd expect from the standard 1950s matinee western genre.

A really underrated film, this was one of Errol's best. Definitely looking a little older, it fit well with his character, a war-weary Confederate Army officer. Flynn gives an outstanding, understated performance, a big change from the campiness of some of his earlier westerns. Flynn was allowed to be an actor, and not just a matinee idol. This was Flynn's last western - he went out of the genre on a definite high note.

Feast O' Flynn Continues - Montana

#3 in the four disc Warner Brothers Errol Flynn Western collection - Montana. Late Warner Brothers for Errol - 1950, and one more without his trusty sidekicks Hale and Williams. But another movie with Alexis "Billboard" Smith. Like San Antonio, the real star of this movie wasn't Smith or Flynn, but on-location settings in Montana and Technicolor. Technicolor was a new and unique attraction at the time -so new, apparently, that the studios hadn't quite figured out the makeup and lighting yet. At times, Alexis Smith's makeup is so bad in this movie that it looks like they had made her up for The Bride of Frankenstein. Really terrible. The bad guy - Douglas Kennedy - was suitably noxious, but once again Errol had an overwhelmingly forgettable supporting cast. Not a bad movie. Pretty good, actually. But with a better supporting cast, and a better director, it could have been much better.

But not a bad movie. Better plot than the last. Errol is a sheep farmer trying to move his herd onto open-range cattle land. Very similar to Glenn Ford's 1958 The Sheepman, but more western-adventure and less comedy.

Big shocker in Montana - Errol Flynn sings again! A duet with Alexis Smith. Pretty good. And then they fall in love - after she shoots him. Really. Who wrote this stuff?

Flynnfest #17 - San Antonio

Perhaps Errol's weakest western. On the plus side, Alexis Smith was the attractive female lead. More attractive than Miriam Hopkins, anyway. Personally, I think Alexis Smith had a forehead the size of a billboard. Could just be bad hairstyles, though. But the rest of the cast! Two bad guys - Victor Francen and John Litel. Huh? Who? And his sidekick? Not Ronald Reagan or Randolph Scott, but ... Paul Kelly. Who? Paul Kelly's primary claim to fame as an actor is that he managed to revive his career after spending a term in prison for killing someone (he beat his girlfriend's husband to death). No Alan Hale! No Guinn "Big Boy" Williams! You know you're in trouble when the only recognizable name in the supporting cast is S.Z. "Cuddles" Sakall.

Underdeveloped story line. Silly fight scenes (the final bar fight leaves about 100 gunslingers dead), and an umimpressive screenplay with few memorable lines. Hmmm. Errol was not offered prime stuff with this one, though it did do very well at the box office, probably among the "small boy Cowboy-movie-going Saturday afternoon matinee" demographic.

Errol looks pretty good in this one. Definitely showing his age, but carrying it well. Released in late 1945, he was still pretty healthy at the time. The rapid decline was about to start.

Flynnfest #16 - Virginia City

DVD 1 in the four-disc Warner Brothers Errol Flynn western collection ($20 on Ebay). Awesome.

Errol Flynn. Randolph Scott. Together in a western. With, da da da da... Humphrey Bogart! As a half-breed Mexican bandit. Horribly miscast. Ah, Hollywood.

1940. Errol at his height. In between Elizabeth and Essex and The Sea Hawk. Randolph Scott was fully at his professional stride as a western movie icon (echoes of Blazing Saddles "Randolph Scott!"). And, ahem, Humphrey Bogart as a Mexican outlaw with a bad accent and a pencil-thin mustache. This was Bogart's last year a a B-star actor. Though he got wide acclaim in 1936 in Petrified Forest, his roles from 1936 through the end of 1940 were largely forgettable (The Return of Dr X) and playing a second-fiddle gangster to James Cagney. In less than a year, though, he would make High Sierra and The Maltese Falcon in 1941, and go from the second string to superstar. Virginia City might well have not only been Bogart's last western, but also his last salute before moving into the big leagues. In Virginia City, Bogart had fourth billing, under Flynn, Scott, and Miriam Hopkins. Would that ever happen again?

And, yes, Miriam Hopkins. By 1940, her career in movies, which had peaked in the mid-1930s, was petering out, and she devoted more time to the theater later in the 40s. Why? Well, lets be honest here. He was pretty homely. Better at a distance on the stage than in movie close-ups. Of all the beautiful actresses at Warner Bothers in 1940, she was the best they could do? Too bad. It would have been nice to see Flynn with, say, Patricia Neal. Ah, but to dream.

Flynnfest Continues - It's A Great Feeling

It's Monday. It's a holiday. And an Errol Flynn movie missed my original list of TCM movies. Why? Because the movie is the Doris Day comedy It's a Great Feeling, a 1949 Warner studio piece with a lot of star cameos. Errol has a small, surprise part at the end of the movie as Doris Day's groom at her wedding, Jeffrey Bushdinkle. He wasn't listed in the on-screen credits, which is the way Hollywood contracts worked (and still work). It's on par with Tom Cruise's cameo in Goldmember or Kevin Bacon in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. This movie isn't listed on a lot of Flynn filmographies, though it should be. And it's #15 on our list in the Flynn Marathon, with five more DVDs on the pile at home (including a collection of four Flynn westerns)and two new TCM movies by the end of March.

Against All Flags - Flynn Meets O'Hara

Against All Flags is one of those Errol movies rarely shown on TV, and when it is, it's on at 3 a.m. or something like that. Why? Well, because it's not a particularly good movie, unfortunately. By 1952, Errol had left Warner Brothers, and Universal hired Flynn to bring his swashbuckling skills to a picture for them. Errol looks pretty tired, and a bit pudgy in this movie, and looks actually older than he really was. The plot of the movie is pure pirate movie fantasy, revolving around a mythical pirate republic in Madigascar. What's good about this movie? Some damned fine acting by Errol, Maureen O'Hara, Anthony Quinnn, and the inimitable Mildred Natwick (who steals several scenes rather handily). Given the extremely fictional plot, it's no surprise that the movie is rather campy and over the top. I mean, who knew pirates had such elaborate wardrobes?

What was bad about this movie? Well, for starters, it was directed by George Sherman (definitely not to be confused with director George Stevens), who was one pretty crappy director. He directed a whole bunch of entirely forgettable movies, mainly churning out cheap westerns. In 1941 alone, he directed nine films (all westerns), which is a ridiculous optempo. Pretty much every film he made was low budget, quickly churned out, amateurish, and undistinguished. After seeing Against All Flags, it's easy to see this. Cheap sets, horrible editing, crap action scenes - well, this movie had it all. Alice Kelley played a lead character, but really "played" is the right word - she couldn't act her way out of a paper bag. Really bad. Several of the extras with speaking roles were even worse. Fortunately for the film world, Alice Kelley married the heir to an industrial fortune not long after and graciously retired from acting, her last role coming in the classic Ma and Pa Kettle at Home in 1954. The movie world did recover from the loss.

What's surprising is that Maureen O'Hara agreed to do this movie, as she had just finished The Quiet Man. Some people actually really like this movie, and consider it their favorite movie in the pirate genre. This was the only movie Errol made with Maureen O'Hara, though they were both Irish. O'Hara was born Maureen FitzSimons outside Dublin, and Flynn to Irish parents in Tasmania. Anthony Quinn had previously been in a film with Flynn, playing Crazy Horse in They Died With Their Boots On.

Errol was a personal train wreck at this point in his life. This was his last movie made in the US for the next five years, as he took off for Europe to avoid tax problems in the US. His next movie attempt was the disastrous Story of William Tell attempt, which personally bankrupted him. Some of his weakest films were made during this period, and it wasn't until The Sun Also Rises in 1957 before he made another particularly good film.

Flynn Mini-Marathon Continues! #13 - Desperate Journey

Desperate Journey - a 1943 World War II staple propaganda film. And a pretty good one at that. But typical. It follows the ludicrously heroic exploits of a typically Allied flight crew shot down over the German-Polish border. The by-necessity international crew (Flynn-Australian; Ronald Reagan-American; Arthur Kennedy-Canadian, Alan Hale and Ronald Sinclair-British)was a familiar sight in the wartime film genre, and lasted long afterward (See Bridge on the River Kwai, made in 1957).

Plot - ludicrously improbable. Flynn and crew are flying a one-plane bombing mission to knock out a target that could have a huge impact on the war. Really. In WWII, the Allies sent 1,000 planes against single outhouses in Dresden. They manage to make their escape, largely on foot, train, and car THROUGH THE MIDDLE OF BERLIN at the height of the war. And while they are cooling their heels in Berlin, they manage to blow up a chemical/munitions plant. They get across the Dutch border (and all the way across Germany) on Errol's Aussie-accented German, and only kill extras. In most of the hand-to-hand combat, they knock out the evil Nazis with things like shovels and heavy flashlights (why they didn't kill quite as many Nazis as they could have is a mystery probably known only to studio historians).

Interesting use of language. Raymond Massey plays the evil Nazi offcer who chases them across Europe (curiously, the more pissed off he gets, the better his accent - go figure). Much of the movie is in German, with no subtitles. To get around the language thing, Errol's Australian character speaks fluent German, which wasn't all that improbable in 1943. Improbable, though - Massey and another German officer switching to English in order to discuss secret topics they don't want other Germans to hear. That was kinda nuts. The German - quite a few native speakers, Massey and Flynn have OK accents, and there were only a few extras with speaking roles with horrible accents.

As for the costars, Flynn and Reagan teamed up well together. A definite good match. Arthur Kennedy, who played the bad guy in a couple Flynn westerns, plays a curmudgeonly Canadian good guy in this one. Alan Hale, standard comic relief figure in many Flynn movies, uncharacteristically dies heroically in this one while fending off Nazi pursuers. The female lead - with not a big role, as this was largely an all-guy war movie - was Nancy Coleman. A pretty, talented actress who left the movie world on her own accord. She made a string of decent movies in the late 1930s and 1940s. But she was married, and gave birth to twins in 1944, a year after her role in Desperate Journey. She stopped doing movies altogether in 1947, and concentrated instead on TV (which was less taxing on her home life). She did soap operas until the mid-1970s. As for Reagan, this was his last movie before his deferments ran out and he reported for active military service. He had been a reserve cavalry officer before the war, and had gotten three deferments after Pearl Harbor. He saw some duty in Australia as a staff officer, and then was transferred back to Hollywood to do propaganda and training films for the Army.

Memorable lines:

Ronald Reagan delivers a humorous line early in the movie - "Why do you have to wake me up every time I'm on a date with Ann Sheridan!" Ann Sheridan, who in addition to her acting career, was a popular pin-up girl for the troops during the war. It's not clear if Reagan or the script-writers knew at the time that Errol and Sheridan had been 'involved' (to put it gently). Let's just say Errol had more than just a few dates with Ann Sheridan. If nothing else, it must have been a great inside joke.

The last line in the movie, Errol saying "Now for Australia and a crack at those Japs!" was cut after the film was released in England. I think the idea was that Errol, who played an Australian in the movie, was anxious to transfer back to his home in Australia and fly fighter planes instead of bombers (this was a theme mentioned early in the movie). Audiences in Britain, though, laughed out loud at the line - two Americans and a Canadian (Errol played an Aussie, but was known by all to an American citizen) seemingly just killed half the German Army (with minimal British help), and were now off to finish the war single-handed. Oh, well. The line is on all curent DVDs and prints, though.

Flynnfest Mini-Marathon - Captain Blood (#12)

A red letter day at TCM -three Errol Flynn movies in one day. A geed reason to wake up early - Captain Blood at 0615. A great way to start the day.

Flynn was still an unknown when he got the Captain Blood role. He only got it, so the story goes, because the original actor cast for the leading role, Robert Donat, didn't show up for shooting when the movie was set to start filming. This was typical of Donat, who had a history of quirky, unpredictable actions like that (it wasn't the only time he failed to appear after being cast in a role), which he blames on bad health. Warner Brothers decided to take a big risk, casting two unknowns - Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland - in the lead roles of a film with a $1 million budget, which was big bucks in 1935. DeHavilland, had previously had only bit parts in three other 1935 films, and was only 19 at the time.

What is surprising is, when watched a couple of times, just how good a movie Captain Blood is. The cinematography and film editing is outstanding. The sea battles were a mix of small model shots, and clever editing of live action scenes from the 1924 silent classic The Sea Hawk. For a new actor, Flynn showed admirable skill, and he and Olivia had a genuine screen rapport that is obvious. Basil Rathbone, though he thought he was miscast as French pirate, provided what became almost a stereotypical movie pirate role. It would be a while before Flynn really got his fencing skills up to par, though, and rathbone is obviously better at it, though he loses the duel to Errol in the end.

For most Errol fans, Captain Blood was the first movie that made us devoted Flynn fans. "Family Classics" on Sunday afternoon, or the late movies on Saturday night TV. Great stuff.

Oh, final note. This was the first film scored by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Part of the German exodus to Hollywood in the late 1930s following the rise of the Nazis to power, Korngold fled Austria in 1938 just ahead of the German annexation. A gifted classical composer in Europe, he supported himself writing movie scores for most of the rest of his career. Captain Blood was his first Hollywood gig (prior to him emigrating, though it is also said he worked on another film in 1934); in all, he wrote the scores for seven Flynn movies (which no doubt added much to the movies). At the end of World War II, he attempted to get out of the movie business and back into classical composing, but he found that the music world had "left him behind". After a heart attack in 1947, he retired and lived quitely until his death in 1957.