March 14, 1938
Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express
A Florida Sea Scout is tentatively selected as one of the boys to accompany Errol Flynn on his cruise.
— Tim
March 14, 1938
Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express
A Florida Sea Scout is tentatively selected as one of the boys to accompany Errol Flynn on his cruise.
— Tim
March 13, 1936
Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express
The most dramatic movie premier of 1936 took place not in Hollywood or in New York, but in Belfast Ireland when Captain Blood opened there the other day with Errol Flynn’s father and mother in attendance. They hadn’t seen him since 1932 and, suddenly, there he was on the screen, their turned into a movie star.
Reporting the incident, the Belfast papers also carried an interview with R. L. Simpson, who adventured with Flynn to New Guinea. He told a story about the actor that not even the studio knew.
Seems that a motion picture troupe hired Flynn to take them in a 20-ton schooner up the unexplored Sepik River, a stream infested with crocadiles and transversing jungles crawling with hostile natives. Sure enough, the troupe was ambushed and five of the police escorts were struck by poisoned arrows. Flynn and the crew were able to repel the attack with rifle fire and to get the troupe back to civilization.
…
Superb video featuring multifarious primitive tribes and exotic cultures Flynn may have crossed paths with, if not crossed swords with, in Papua New Guinea – headhunters and cannibals included:
— Tim
March 12, 1938
Louella O. Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner
Lili Damita leaves for Palm Beach shortly to meet Errol Flynn and come back through the Canal with him.
And here’s a photo of Tiger Lil’ taking a “Palm Beach Cab” on what appears what might be the town’s world famous Worth Avenue. Probably taken after she divorced Fleen.
“The bicycle chair- sometimes called the “Afrimobile” or “Palm Beach Cab” was the only wheeled conveyance (other than a railroad or trolley car) allowed on Palm Beach at the turn of the century. The hotels employed drivers by the hundreds during the season.”
— Tim
March 9, 1938
Erskine Johnson
Behind the Makeup
Los Angeles Examiner
Errol Flynn’s ambition is to play Cyrano de Bergerac on the screen, but studio bosses frown on the idea of his appearing with a long, false nose.
— Tim
March 7, 1939
Hollywood Citizens News
Errol Flynn’s four assignments, in order of their production, will be The White Rajah, written by him; The Sea Hawk, The Knight and the Lady, with Bette Davis, and Don Juan. Each will be a $2,000,000 film.
…
Errol’s White Rajah contract with Warners:
Another swing and a miss in ’47”
— Tim
March 5, 1936
Harrison Carrol
LA Evening Herald Express
Movie location scouts have found a replica of Tennyson’s famous near Chatsworth, Cal., and the scene will shortly become one of Hollywood’s biggest sets. The picture, of course, is The Charge of the Light Brigade. Warner Bros had to find a valley floor big enough for the operations of 300 infantry and of 690 calvarymen. Tennyson’s poem had only 600 calvarymen in the charge, but studio research depts. are more accurate than poets and they have determined that 690 calvarymen actually stormed the Russian fortifications.
These fortifications, to be erected upon the top of the hills forming one wall of the valley, are to be on a grand scale. No miniatures for this battle scene, which, if you remember, finds the English the French and the Turks pitted against the armies of the czar.
Looking toward an English market for this Crimean War special, Warners is out to get a British cast to support Irish-born Errol Flynn in his second screen appearance. They have cabled Irving Asher to test the best available young actors in London for the role of Flynn’s younger brother.
…
“The Battle of Balaclava is one of the most famous battles of all time, despite being a comparatively minor engagement in the Crimean War. The futile heroics of the soldiers who fought there may have gone relatively unnoticed if not for a picture and a poem.”
“The battle itself is fraught with anecdotes and personalities that combine to make legend. The events of October 25th, 1854 evolve like the episodes of a Greek tragedy, with the fate of the soldiers hinging on the acts of a handful of characters.”
— Tim
March 4, 1939
Erskine Johnson
Behind the Makeup
Los Angeles Examiner
Morning after the Academy Awards banquet, Donald Crisp sent a telegram to Errol Flynn, vacationing in the South. “Dear Errol,” it read. “Last night the Academy Awards banquet was held. Your name was not mentioned.”
…
Deplorable that Flynn was not even nominated for his immortal portrayal of Robin Hood.
The nominees were:
Spencer Tracy, for Boys Town
Charles Boyer, for Algiers
James Cagney, for Angels with Dirty Faces
Robert Donat, for The Citadel
Leslie Howard, for Pygmalion
And the winner was:
Spencer Tracy, for Boys Town
Proper Evaluations of Flynn’s Greatness
The model of an action hero in 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood, the dashing star made the swordplay and wooing look so effortless that it’s easy to ignore the craft behind his derring-do. – Entertainment Weekly
He was the Tom Cruise of the 1930s, a global superstar whose natural charisma and box-office power put him at the tippytop of Hollywood — and he never won an Oscar. Unlike Cruise, Flynn was never even nominated, not for “Captain Blood,” “The Charge of the Light Brigade” or 1938’s still-dazzling “The Adventures of Robin Hood.” – Boston Herald
Unfortunately, at the time when Errol enjoyed his greatest success, the adventure film, as a genre, was not sufficiently appreciated and therefore [Errol’s] appearances therein were not as highly regarded as they [are now.] … [He] played his roles with unmatchable verve, conviction, and style. In doing so, he inherited the mantle of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., who was my favorite film star at the age of 9 and whose ‘The Black Pirate’ left an indelible impression on me. No one since Errol has worn that mantle; it is buried with him. – Lady Marian Fitzwater
— Tim