Master Animator Hayao Miyazake’s classic anime caricature of Errol Flynn on Blu-Ray, with a nod to the great Glenn Curtiss. Voice by Carl Elwes.
“They share a jaw line .. his buccaneering derring-do, willingness to fight, and overall demeanor combined with romantic ardor.”
— Tim
I was so happy to see that Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga won a grammy award last night with their beautiful duet album. One of the songs on the CD is “But Beautiful” written (as the story goes) by Jimmy Van Heusen as an expression of his affection for Nora Eddington. Sigh.
— Maria
The school newspaper surveyed the students at the North Buffalo private school and found that math was their favorite subject, Errol Flynn was their favorite actor, Bob Hope and Jack Benny were radio favorites, and Barbara was their favorite girl’s name.
“Students prefer name of Barbara”
— tassie devil
We have a SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT today on The Errol Flynn Blog! Two new Author accounts have been created to bring News and Information to our members and readers about exciting events taking place here in the US, and around the world in 2015 to honor Errol Flynn!
We Welcome Captain Blood Brotherhood!
We Welcome The Sea Hawk Society
— David DeWitt
Nothing to do with Errol but just wanted to show how proud I am as a Canadian that the past and present members of the “Devil’s Brigade” will be honored today with the Congressional Medal of Honor.
This is for my American fellow-bloggers today!
Thank you! Next should be the Order of Canada.
The 1st Special Service Force (also called The Devil’s Brigade, The Black Devils, The Black Devils’ Brigade, and Freddie’s Freighters),[1] was an elite American–Canadian commando unit in World War II. The unit was organized in 1942 and trained at Fort William Henry Harrison near Helena, Montana in the United States. It fought in the Aleutian Islands, Italy, and southern France before being disbanded in December 1944.
The modern American and Canadian special operations forces trace their heritage to this unit. In 2013, The United States Congress passed a bill to award the 1st Special Service Force the Congressional Gold Medal.[
— Maria
Lost 45 Years Ago in “the Heart of Darkness”
In Today’s News: Book with Photos of Sean in California:
Video Tribute to Sean, with Great Photos:
— Tim
Last night I saw on TCM to my great surprise and enormous pleasure, Rory Flynn honoring her father with an outstanding and wonderful presentation!
TCM presents such remembering productions of stars from time to time, narrated by the stars children or another star. I am sure you have seen these presentations of Henry Fonda, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Gary Cooper, Cary Grant etc.
AND now Errol has his spot too amongst his peers on TCM and the few greats of the Golden Era of Hollywood, which he was one of them!
He deserves to be remembered amongst his peers and by all his fans as he sure was one of the best of the elite!
On February 5th at 8:00 pm est TCM is showing “The Adventures of Robin Hood” again and I am sure during this time they will show Rory’s presentation.
So sit down on the 5th at 8:00 pm est, see the movie, see Rory’s presentation and enjoy it all very thoroughly!
— Tina
The 1940 version of Sea Hawk takes it’s name from the 1915 novel by Raphael Sabatini.
There was a 1924 silent film of the same name.
The 1924 version is faithful to Sabatini’s book. Except for it’s title, the 1940 version has very little if anything to do with Sabatini’s novel.
Errol became an overnight superstar starring in Sabatini’s “Captain Blood”.
An original plan was for Errol to star in a faithful production of Sabatini’s novel, as a follow-up to Captain Blood, but delays changed plans.
Seton Miller, a prominent screenwriter, who worked on several Flynn films, including Robin Hood, wrote “Beggars of the Sea”, based somewhat on Francis Drake. It’s that story that formed the non-Sabatini film in which Flynn eventually starred.
Though Errol Flynn’s character is known as Geoffrey Thorpe, he was actually predominantly a representation of Sir Francis Drake.
The Sea Hawk was deliberately designed to help rally support for the defense of Britain against Nazi Germany.
It was co-written by anti-fascist (some say pro-Communist) screenwriter, Howard Koch, who was later blacklisted and used the alias Peter Howard. Koch was also a writer for Sergeant York (1941) and Casablanca (1942).
It was one of Winston Churchill’s two most favorite movies, the other Being “Lady Hamilton”.
Philip of Spain is portrayed in a manner evoking Adolf Hitler.
The Spanish Armada is an allusion to the Nazi War Machine.
The film uses Nazi symbolism during the Inquisition scene.
This was Michael Curtiz’s tenth movie with Flynn, who hated making movies with Curtiz.
Curtiz knew and directed Errol’s wife Lili Damita in Europe, years before Errol met her.
Sea Hawk has strong plot similarities to the 1937 film, Fire Over England, starring Flora Robson, Laurence Olivier & Vivien Leigh.
Flora Robson plays Elizabeth I in Fire Over England, also.
Her performance in Fire Over England helped Vivien Leigh secure her role as Scarlet in Gone with the Wind.
Brenda Marshall’s real name was Ardis Ankerson. She was born in The Phillipines. She was married to William Holden for thirty years and was Matron of Honor at the Wedding of Nancy & Ronald Reagan.
Olivia De Havilland turned down the part of Dona Maria to avoid Type-Casting, and because she was at odds with Warner Bros. over Gone with the Wind.
Basil Rathbone turned down the part of Lord Wolfington, also to avoid being type-cast.
Claude Rains played in ten feature films, and one short, under the direction Michael Curtiz. He received four Best Supporting Actor nominations.
Henry Daniell, who played the villainous Lord Wolfington, is nowhere in the league of Basil Rathbone as a fencer. Fencing legend Fred Cavens thus handled much of the famous duel between Flynn and Daniell. Errol’s cutting of the candles helped obscure that Fred Cavens stood in as Wolfington.
This is one of Erich Korngold’s greatest and most exciting scores. He was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to Alfred Newman, who scored “Tin Pan Alley”.
The title music of the cartoon Peter Pan & the Pirates is derived from Korngold’s Sea Hawk.
The scene where Errol is knighted on the Albatross replicates a famous depiction of Queen Elizabeth I knighting Francis Drake.
Scenes from the 1924 silent film version of The Sea-Hawk were used in this 1940 version of Sea Hawk.
Sol Polito’s black and white cinematography is very highly regarded by film experts and historians. He worked with Curtiz 14 times.
The Sea Hawk was re-released by Warner Bros. in 1947 on a double bill with The Sea Wolf. Fifteen or so minutes were cut from the original film for that re-release, mostly footage with Donald Crisp.
Elizabeth’s speech at the end of the movie was in obvious reference to the threat of the Third Reich against England and the world.
There was a plan to end the movie with a clip of WWII British ships, but ultimately that was abandoned.
Production costs were approximately $1.7M, with possibly double that taken at the box office.
Some regard Errol’s Sea Hawk the greatest “pirate” movie ever made. Others regard Captain Blood as such.
The film received four Oscar Nominations: Art Direction (B&W) – Anton Grot; Original Musical Score – Erich Korngold; Sound recording Nathan Levinson; Special Effects – Byron Haskins & Nathan Levinson
The 1947 release of The Sea Hawk in France was a huge success.
— Tim
