OK - it could of been worse. 1954's Lilacs in the Spring (also released as Let's Make Up) was the first film Errol made in England for director Herbert Wilcox, the hack responsible for King's Rhapsody. His costar was again Anna Neagle, which makes sense, as by this point in his career Wilcox was pretty exclusively in the hopeless business of making Neagle a movie legend (they had been married since 1943). He probably would have succeeded, as despite Neagle's limited onscreen talent (and overproduced voice), she was hugely popular with post-war British audiences. What killed her chances? Well, probably Wilcox, who was an absolute disaster as a director and producer.
Alas, witness Lilacs In The Spring. Not the unmitigated trainwreck that was King's Rhapsody , it could have been a fairly decent movie in the hands of even a remotely competent director. But under Wilcox's direction, it includes bizaar ballet dream sequences, strangely out of place dance numbers, and appears in the first half to start off as a musical, and then drop most of the music in the second half. Burdened by an equally confusing plot, it involves Neagle as Flynn's daughter, who is unable to choose between two men, neither of whom are much more than cut-out roles in the movie. Then it weirdly reels back in flashback mode to Errol and Neagle in 1914 as husband and wife. Yeah. Neagle plays both Errols daughter and his wife. Since she was actually five years older than Flynn at the time (Errol was 45, she was 50), trying to imagine her as his daughter is one big leap. In the photo above, for example, Neagle is supposed to be Flynn's daughter. No. Really. I can't imagine it either.
But enough about that. Flynn is surprisingly good in the movie, with confidence and moves that make him look a bit like his younger days. And he can still act - not just flashing a smile and conning a laugh out of the audience, but is truly adept and exhibiting pathos, and sadness. Big surprise - his last singing role! He does a duet of "Lily of Laguna" while dancing (yes, dancing) in a vaudeville bit with Neagle. And you can tell (because Wilcox couldn't edit himself out of a paper bag)that it's actually Flynn singing (not dubbed), and he does a pretty damned fine soft-shoe dance number. He sings a short ditty ("Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty") later in the movie as well (when he finds out he's being sent back to London while in the trenches in World War I. Also a surprise - Stephen Boyd's first movie role, with a small, speaking part as a friend of Flynn at poolside. This is also said to be Sean Connery's first movie role, as an extra, but I'm not sure I want to watch this again to try to find him in the crowd. Watching this movie once - and then adding it to the Errol list - is enough for anyone.
Ah, one intended pun-ny joke: the bartender says to Peter Graves, Neagle's love interest, who is about to deploy to Burma during World War II, "Give my love to Errol Flynn if you see him in Burma." An obvious humorous reference to Objective Burma. A bit too obvious, actually. I'm sure audiences groaned instead of chuckled.
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