Flynnfest On Overdrive - The Big Boodle

It took me four hours to watch this 83 minute movie. Sorry, but it really is that bad. Errol looks bloated and tired. Released in 1957, he had less than two years to live. There can only be two reasons why Errol agreed to make this film. First, he needed the cash. Second, it was an excuse for him to hang out in his beloved Cuba.

Cuba, it turns out, is the actual star of the movie. The B&W footage of 1957, pre-revolution Havana is better stuff than any documentary footage you'd run across - especially the extensive scenes filmed at El Morro fortress. Irony indeed. One of the lines in The Big Boodle, related to Errol's character, Ned Sherwood, relying on the police for protection from criminals,is "We have a good government now." That "good government", of course, being the Batista regime that Errol, at the time, loved more for it's casinos and nightlife than for it's social programs. Two years later, in The Truth About The Fidel Castro Revolution, Errol was unapologetic when Castro's revolutionaries lined up Batista loyalists against the walls at El Morro and executed them by firing squad. Not much of a Velvet Revolution there, eh?

OK, back to the movie. Pretty bad. A meandering, and frankly pretty uninteresting, story line about an innocent schmo croupier (Errol) in a Havana casino who innocently get wrapped up in a counterfeiting scam. Ok, should I go into a further explanation? Well, no. This movie isn't worth it. One of Errol's last films, this movie was just so emblematic of his decline. On the road to a sad end.

How silly was this movie? There are two female leads, both playing Cuban/Latin beauties. Problem - the two actresses are Gia Scala and Rossana Rory, who were both Italian. For some reason, Rosanna Rory got top billing over Errol, though he's obviously the lead and has 95% of the screen time. Could have been worse, though. At least Rory decided to retire from movies in 1962, five years after The Big Boodle (after a few minor roles in mainly Italian movies). Gia Scala, on the other hand, didn't end her career quite so nicely. After her breakout role in The Guns of Navarone a few years later, her career collapsed when a series of personal problems led her to a life of chronic alcoholism, resulting in her being fired from the studio, a bitter divorce, a series of nasty, public legal problems. She hadn't had any acting roles in over three years (and even then, bit parts in TV shows) when her life ended in suicide by pills and alcohol in 1972. Very sad.

Co-star Pedro Armendariz also killed himself in 1963 after being diagnosed with cancer. He was one of the 91 people thought to have been exposed to nuclear radiation while making the movie The Conquerer with John Wayne.

You could say that Errol killed himself as well. In a Dylan Thomas sort of way. The end was near.