Led by Ray McKinley, famed drummer for Glenn Miller’s Army Air Force Band
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Babalu by Señor Babalu
A Sensational Vocal and Dance Performance!
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I Remember You
Lorraine and Ragnon
Lorraine’s husband and dance partner, Roy Ragnon, died in a plane crash during a WW II USO tour. Lorraine suffered very serious injuries from that same crash, and made an heroic comeback as a singer and comedienne, thus performing without her husband at the New York premier of Never Say Goodbye. This crash was depicted in the Susan Hayward film, With a Song in My Heart.
The Warners have been generous to a fault in paying their respects to General George Armstrong Custer. Certainly the man who is more famed for his celebrated last stand against the Sioux and allied tribes at Little Big Horn than for any of his several other exploits receives his due as a courageous soldier, and then some, in “They Died With Their Boots On,” which thundered into the Strand yesterday. Dismiss factual inaccuracies liberally sprinkled throughout the film’s more than two-hour length and you have an adventure tale of frontier days which for sheer scope, if not dramatic impact, it would be hard to equal.
Wave upon wave of cavalry charges packed with breath-taking thrills have been handled in masterly fashion by director Raoul Walsh, and they alone are worth the price of admission. Mr. Walsh, it is obvious, spared neither men, horses nor Errol Flynn’s General Custer in kicking up the dust of battle. But the director was not so fortunate in handling the personal drama and as a consequence “They Died With Their Boots On” has little verve between campaigns. With all the action of the Civil War sequences, it is not surprising that the intervening account of the General’s domestic life and his battle against political intrigue, which lacks genuine dramatic sustenance, should become a little wearying. After all, two hours and seventeen minutes requires a powerful lot of sustained drama. Mr. Walsh would have had a more compact and compelling entertainment had he whittled a half hour or so out of the script. But he more than makes up for this with his action shots.
From what the records show, “They Died With Their Boots On” is the screen’s first full-fledged attempt at spanning Custer’s remarkable career from his hazing as a West Point plebe, his almost story-bookish rise from second lieutenant of cavalry at the first Battle of Bull Run in 1861 to his appointment two years later as brigadier general of volunteers and commander of the Michigan brigade, which performed so brilliantly at Gettysburg. However fanciful the film’s account of his early Army career and the events in between his assignment as lieutenant colonel, Regular Army, of the Seventh Cavalry, may be, it nevertheless provides a broad view of a complex personality.
In the massacre at the Little Big Horn in 1876 the film credits Custer with knowingly sacrificing his small forces to prevent the warring Indians from swooping down upon General Terry’s unsuspecting regiment, a viewpoint in variance with certain historical accounts of the tragedy. Errol Flynn, who approximates the general in physical characteristics, is excellent as the dashing, adventuresome cavalryman. Olivia de Havilland is altogether captivating as his adoring wife. Others in the long cast who acquit themselves with credit are John Litel as General Phil Sheridan, Sidney Greenstreet as General Winfield Scott and Stanley Ridges as the fictitious Major Taipe who engineers Custer’s court-martial. George P. Huntley Jr. gives a magnificent performance as Custer’s fellow-officer and buddie.
THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON; screen play by Wally Klein and Aeneas MacKenzie; directed by Raoul Walsh for Warner Brothers.George Armstrong Custer . . . . . Errol Flynn – Elizabeth Becon (Beth Custer) . . . . . Olivia deHavilland – Fitzhugh Lee . . . . . Regis Toomey- Major Romulus Taipe . . . . . Stanley Ridges – Ned Sharp . . . . . Arthur Kennedy – General Scott . . . . . Sidney Greenstreet – William Sharp . . . . . Walter Hampden – General Phil Sheridan . . . . . John Litel – Lieut. Butler . . . . . George P. Huntley Jr. – Crazy Horse . . . . . Anthony Quinn – California Joe . . . . . Charley Grapewin – Sergeant Doolittle . . . . . Joe Sawyer – Captain Webb . . . . . Frank Wilcox – Captain McCook . . . . . Selmer Jackson – Senator Smith . . . . . Minor Watson – Lieut. Frazier . . . . . DeWolf Hopper
A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 21, 1941 of the National edition with the headline: At the Strand.
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We like to promote some of the off topic things our contributors are involved in from time to time. This might be a book, like a novel or a play, a documentary or film, and our own Gentleman (Tim Reid) supports an issue that is very important to all of us. He provides the lyrics, melody and audio co-production work for the following excellent video with a lovely song sung by Rosalind Beall and musical accompaniment by Jesse Finch …
#StopProbateFraudianships commissioned this song to draw attention to the issue of seniors who are isolated and dying in long term care facilities against their wills.
Errol had big plans for Thomson Productions, which he hoped would allow him greater control over the growth and direction of his career. Tragically, however, despite the superb production of Uncertain Glory, “a knock on his door had already changed his entire life” …a knock on his door from Los Angeles legal authorities in the Fall of ’42. The die had been cast and Errol was never the same.
Friend to all of us on The Errol Flynn Blog, and a friend of Earl Conrad, and everybody who knew her, she was in attendance at Jack & Louise Marino’s Centennial Party for Errol Flynn in 2009 where we all had a chance to meet and be instantly charmed by this lovely woman who we now hold in our hearts in a new way … what a blessing she was to all of us!
TP McNultyRemembering our dear friend Trudy McVicker: Trudy once said to me that she wondered if people go to the place they loved the most, and see again the people they loved the most when they die. She hoped that was the way it works out, that when we die we all get to be in some wonderful place we dreamed of with our most cherished friends and family. Trudy is with a Tasmanian swashbuckler now, and of her many friends, I know of several late writer friends she held in high regard, and you can bet their conversations are fascinating. Nothing I post here does Trudy justice, and in fact, she told me not to do this type of thing, because she knew there would be enough of that “type of thing” from certain others, so this will be my only public statement (for now) at her request. She was one of a kind. Wherever she is, there are mysteries to unravel, incredible characters to observe, and laughter to be had. She once described to me the rainfall hitting the sidewalks as being like “shiny dimes tossed into the street.” She told me how once, years ago, she watched a traveling carnival set up in town; and how it changed from a parade of grimy, gasoline smelling machines into a multi-colored light show of spinning Ferris wheels with a calliope whistling and sputtering steam to the delight of crowds of dancing children, and how amazing and wonderful it all was. She viewed the world as a wonderful place to explore, and so she did. Of the photos I’ve posted here, you’ll see her glass menagerie on her windowsill. This was a work in progress. She loved the way the light changed as it came through the trees and then touched the glass, illuminating even more of this incredible world we live in. May the wind be at your back, dear Trudy, and may the road rise up to meet you. That tall man up the path looks familiar. Why, yes, I’ve seen that grin before. He’s a good fellow, well met, and he has some stories to tell. As they walk up the hillside together I can well imagine the laughter echoing into the golden afternoon, and then, quite slowly, we fade out. Peace.
