Dear fellow Flynn fans,
while watching an alltimer`s classic called “Pandora and the flying Dutchman” with two Errol Flynn related actors, Ava Gardner and James Mason, I thougt I had seen a ghost.
The ship the cursed captain is confined to, starkly resembled the “ZACA”. But as I found out in Ava`s biography “Love is nothing”, it was the “ORION” rented from industrialist family Bertrand.
Though much bigger in size, she still has the lookalike of Errol`s yacht. If you take a peek into the film, the interior is done in similar fashion.
Here is the Trailer: www.youtube.com…
As the the story ghosts, one can find the film, too, somewhere out there in the vast Internet Ocean.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Maria
March 20, 2015 at 12:37 pm
Well isn’t that neat! Thanks for posting!
shangheinz
March 20, 2015 at 12:58 pm
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/139.png[/img]
Ava indeed was neat. Thanks for responding, Maid Maria!
rswilltell
March 20, 2015 at 2:10 pm
Pandora And The Flying Dutchman is a very strange and surreal film with outstanding dramatic performances by James Mason and the gorgeous Ava Gardner. I think the film is a shade too loong and just missed real greatness. The color cinematography by Jack Cardiff is superb and haunting. Thanks Heinz, I’ll look for the film again. Ralph Schiller
shangheinz
March 20, 2015 at 2:29 pm
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/128.jpg[/img]
Jack Cardiff was the go-to camera man for the bloated and the beautiful. He`d always manage to show everything and everyone in the right light. Right, Rushstreet Ralph?
rswilltell
March 20, 2015 at 2:32 pm
Heinz; You peaked my interest in the film Pandora And The Flying Dutchman, and I was astonished to read that avant-garde artist Man Ray was involved with the set design. Man Ray was close friends with Dr. George Hodel, perhaps the number one suspect in the Black Dhalia murder case. Allegedly the murderer(ess) posed and doctored the body in the style of Man Ray’s works. Why does the Black Dahlia always pop up? By the way, I think the theory that Orson Welles was the murderer is rubbish. Ralph Schiller
shangheinz
March 20, 2015 at 7:20 pm
Ralph, what a rush! We had this talk before, remember?www.theerrolflynnblog.com…
Maybe we should look into the cast list of these two films (Blue Daliah makes three) and maybe come up with a visagist as our own prime suspect. Who`s that man penciling away at Errol?
rswilltell
March 20, 2015 at 5:49 pm
Heinz; Yes jack Cardiff was certainly the best color cameraman in the industry then and now. He was a good film director and William tell would have made Cardiff the top man for Cinemascope films. After if he could direct and film a beautiful adventure classic like Tell with that bad boy Errol Flynn, think what he could do with millions! By all means read Jack Cardiff’s own book Magic Hour which has several insightful chapters on Flynn and the Tell debacle. There is also something else in there. Cardiff could make photograph a female star so that she never looked more beautiful, younger or slimmer. Several of these big stars were grateful but one has to read between the lines. Ralph Schiller
Gentleman Tim
March 20, 2015 at 7:10 pm
It must be a hauntingly beautiful film, inspectre heinz. I can only vaguely recall seeing glimpses of it, many years ago, before I could more fully appreciate the Cardiff by the Sea photography. … I was not, however, too young or dumb to miss Miss Gardner’s immortal beauty. Evidently, neither did Mario or Frankie, both of whom lusted over Ava in the luxurious panarama of Tossa de Mar, where Pandora still gazes out to sea, probably hoping Errol will sail in on the Zaca and save her – from a perpetuity of Mario’s bull, and Sinatra’s serenadas, et al. (If Errol had set his sails for Ava, neither of these two would have had a ghost of a chance.)
[img]http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/20934669.jpg[/img]
shangheinz
March 20, 2015 at 7:31 pm
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Statue-Comparison.jpg[/img]
It`s true Goldman Tim, Ava, this barefoot godessa, would have been the perfect fit for the Baron, except he liked them blond and red after the Damita black out.
Gentleman Tim
March 21, 2015 at 12:49 am
Yes, what a colorful life he led, doppelheinz.
As long as conducting side by side comparisons, here’s one (or is it two) of the Zaca and Orion:
[img]http://www.zacatea.com/uploads/9/0/8/2/9082696/8860641.jpg?446[/img]
[img]http://www.fotovela.com/Fotovela/Orion_files/shapeimage_1.png[/img]
The Bertrand family apparently almost lost all its very considerable wealth by not supporting Franco and the “national” cause during WWII. They made most of their money in (Bertrand Serra) textiles, or at least that’s how the yarn goes.
shangheinz
March 21, 2015 at 7:28 pm
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/orion.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/orion_gallery_13.jpg[/img]
Yes, Captwain Tim, it`s Zaca Vu all over again
Gentleman Tim
March 21, 2015 at 10:23 pm
Thank u for that most colorful vu of the old IX-73, schoonerheinz. Portholes seem to be the secret.
Modeled on the Bluenose – originally white, then (within days) black, then a lovely couple of coats of wartime grey (purportedly never completely removed by El Capitan Flynn, despite assiduous effort), then back to white, with a final Flynn fade to black, or was it back to white by ’59? (The history of the ship’s colors are a bit checkered and shady.)
And then, thanks to sailing Dutchmen, there’s the Zaca a te Moana:
www.charterworld.com…
[img]http://www.charterworld.com/images/framework/1197/ZACA%20A%20TE%20MOANA%20-%20%20(2)-680.jpg[/img]
shangheinz
March 22, 2015 at 12:09 pm
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/black-pearl-zaca.jpg[/img]
With black sails on the ZACA Errol would probably have turned into Blackbeard, don`t you think Gentleman Kim?
shangheinz
March 22, 2015 at 12:11 pm
In 2011 I swam 2 miles all the way through the port of Villefranche (don`t do this at home, kids!) to the ZACA A TE MOANA mistaking her for the real ZACA. The Skipper had pity on us and let us board her for about 5 minutes to catch our breath before we returned to the beach, this time more swinging from anchor to anchor than swimming back. He told me he had seen the ZACA only recently, but said she was in a sorry state.
shangheinz
March 22, 2015 at 12:20 pm
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/137.jpg[/img]
The ZATM is slightly on the right side above that smaller boat. My pic is also in the library for a closer look.
Gentleman Tim
March 23, 2015 at 5:34 am
Herr martinstrelheinz, that is Epic! Flynn would be proud and I’m honored to know you!! I could have never made such a swim, but I would have loved to catch a glimpse of it from the lovely little lair of La Leopolda.
[img]http://static.skynetblogs.be/media/62156/dyn006_original_500_321_pjpeg__e50f5e16d718b00fc7a8412d39ee41b5.jpg[/img]
shangheinz
March 24, 2015 at 7:50 am
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/villa-leopolda.jpg[/img]
Yes, Traveller Tim, La Leopolda, was the big love of automobile industrialist Gianni Agnelli, participant of the Cresta Run, mountaineer on Mount Ekberg, Kennedy & Kissinger intimo and genuine Riviera playboy pal of Freddie McEvoy.
Gentleman Tim
March 24, 2015 at 3:28 pm
dangheinz, you’re a fountain of fabulous info – on Flynn, Freddie and far beyond!
Being the truly fairy tale location it is, La Leopolda was fantastic for Jack Cardiff’s beautifully filmed Red Shoes, not to mention Alfred Hitchcock’s perfect pairing of Cary & Kelly a few years later. Somehow I’m certain Errol made his way up to “the world’s most expensive home” also.
[img]http://veja.abril.com.br/081299/imagens/memoria2.jpg[/img]
Gentleman Tim
March 23, 2015 at 6:11 am
Being the suave and deboner character he was, heartieheinz, Captain Ed would have no doubt appreciated such casting.
[img]http://www.hauntedamericatours.com/ghoststories/WATERSMYGRAVE/blackbeardskull/images/blackbeard-the-pirate.jpg[/img]
shangheinz
March 23, 2015 at 2:26 pm
Who could tackle the topic better than one-eyed capt-ioner Raoul Walsh? Here is the 1952 Blackbeard biopic:
www.youtube.com…
Gentleman Tim
March 25, 2015 at 3:50 am
Speaking of colorful, Long John Silver does a great Blackbeard. No one has ever talked like a pirate better than Robert Newton. … The real shock about this film, however, is that William Bendix ever got another role after so embarrassingly striking out so badly as Babe Ruth! Flynn & Darnell would have looked good together. Here they are together doing USS Garter Belt in ’44, a fun radio performance, during which Errol brought the house down with his “On the other hand … ”
[img]http://i592.photobucket.com/albums/tt8/MovieJoe/MovieJoe050/6de7d6e11d_zps2e174aca.jpg[/img]
David DeWitt
March 26, 2015 at 1:14 am
I recall William Bendix as Babe Ruth with great affection. To each his own, of course!
Gentleman Tim
March 26, 2015 at 3:44 am
I feel like I’ve just entered Last of Robin Hood territory here again, David! I hope there are no more tomatoes left to throw at my apparently “cantankerous” opinions!! … At least the Last of Robin Hood had the great Kevin Kline in its title role!!!
I guess a lot of us youngsters from the 50s had so much unconditional fondness for The Babe that the movie went over well with us. Almost universally, however, it is now (and even then by many) regarded the worst baseball movie of all time. One thing for sure, it was no Pride of the Yankees.
It’s said that Orson Welles was lined up to play Babe, but late notice of Ruth’s impending death, combined with other commitments on the part of Welles, somehow resulted in what I see as the far, far inferior choice of William Bendix. No Gary Cooper was Bendix.
The movie was like the last nail in Babe’s coffin. I know someone (still living!) who was with him at the premier and it really hurt him very badly to watch it. He left the theater even more sick than when he arrived. He was the greatest ballplayer that ever lived, sent to his grave with a minor league biopic as a farewell.
It could have been, and should have been, so great – or should I say Ruthian. But the filmmakers rushed it out in order to capitalize on Babe’s dying.
Here’s what I regard to be a very informed and accurate and often humorous assessment of the film:
www.hardballtimes.com…
Here’s a promo shot of William Bendix taking a (not so) Ruthian swing. I believe it aptly reflects the caliber and accuracy of the entire film. A bit like having Don Knotts playing Errol Flynn.
Of course, opinions are by definition all subjective, and my opinion is only one. If others enjoy the film, that’s good and I’m happy to hear it.
[img]http://www.ew.com/sites/default/files/i/imgs/070703//brstory_l.jpg[/img]