Flynnfest Renewed - Crossed Swords

Released in 1954 in Italy as Il Maestro di Don Giovanni (released in the U.S. as Crossed Swords), this movie is a mixed bag of tricks. It was written and directed by Milton Klims, a talented writer who wrote the screenplays for Green Light and The Sisters. The story is a silly Adventures of Don Juan knockoff based in Italy, but done thoroughly farce-heavy and tongue-in-cheek. You get the idea that everyone involved, and mostly Flynn, had a fun time making it. Downside - the movie was filmed in a version of Pathe Color, an inferior color film method that was decades obsolete by the mid-1950s, and not used at all in the U.S. by then. For this Italian-made movie, the actors (all Italian, except Errol) spoke their lines in heavily accented English; then the entire film was then dubbbed with clearer-speaking native English speakers (all except Errol, and possibly Gina Lollobrigida, who spoke English fairly well). Overall, though, the quality of the dubbing is really quite poor, as were most other production values for the movie, with the exception of the fantastic castle and Italian countryside scenery, unfortunately squandered by the poor color film technique (what a stunning movie visually it would have been if filmed in Technicolor!).

Errol shows some age, and at times looks a bit haggard and tired - but certainly looks more spry and healthier than some of his other 50s movies. He seems to have really enjoyed making it. And the final fencing scene at the end of the movie shows Errol displaying both excellent fencing form and not-too-shabby physical prowess. And, I suppose if you're starring in a movie next to Gina Lollobrigida, what's not to enjoy?

Finally, history of the movie. This was one of three movies Errol made as part of his own Errol Flynn Productions company in Europe, the other two being the finished but not released Hello God, and the unfinished Story of William Tell. Flynn always did well in Europe, and the movie made some money there. Flynn complained that United Artists didn't release it adequately in the U.S. so it failed to make money here. I suppose you can see UA's point, though - the Pathe Color was far too outmoded for American audiences by the 1950s. Anyway, when Errol died, the rights to the movies made by Errol Flynn Productions reverted to wife Patrice Wymore. Roddy McDowell bought all the rights to William Tell, and donated the footage to Boston University upon his death, with the strange stipulation that it could never be shown commercially. The story behind Hello God is even more strange, though it's rumored that at least one 35mm print exists in Europe somewhere. As for Crossed Swords, it was considered by most devotees to be the "Holy Grail" of rare Errol Flynn movies (that reasonably still exist). No VHS copy existed, nor was there a DVD. 35mm prints are exceptionally rare. Someone found a rare, complete copy of the 35mm English version (who? who knows? who cares?) and transferred it to DVD (I don't think an Italian version has ever been located). It is available for purchase online, which is where I got it, for a very reasonably cost, no less. The quality of the original 35mm print was pretty scratchy and beat up, and it's hard to say if the heavy sepia toning of the DVD image is a result of Pathe Color, or the decaying 35mm film. You'd need a second 35mm copy to figure that out, and it's unclear if an available one (other than one possibly possessed and not distributed by Patrice Wymore) exists.

Anyway, this is #33 in my 2010 Errol Flynn Filmfest, and I've located a source online for rare DVDs, so I've got another 15 en route (all rare, and impossible to get through places like TMC or Amazon). And I'm still holding off on Objective Burma.