The Errol Flynn Blog

— David DeWitt

Here is a list (see attachment!) of what Peter's EF Club has on offer from his extraordinary Flynn Collection…

— David DeWitt

By Prof. Lincoln Hurst

As promised, here are a few preliminary, personal thoughts on
HOLLYWOOD'S HELLFIRE CLUB. This, mind, you, is based on a VERY quick, preliminary reading.

First, on the negative side. The author seems to be a Hollywood beat reporter, not a scholar or a film historian. That was a huge disappointment to me. He begins his treatment of Flynn by applying to Flynn the dreadful Deitrich phrase, “Satan's Angel.” There are traces of Bret's influence here and there. The book is written in HOLLYWOOD BABYLON style, and focuses largely on the scandalous, the sensational, and the morbid. I had hoped for something more scholarly and less tabloid in approach; something like THE CASABLANCA MAN, or, in terms of Flynn's own life, your book, or Meyers's, or Valenti's. No such luck. The writer doesn't have those genes within him.

Nor could I could find one original fact or thought about Flynn; it is all culled from well-known, and well-worn, books and magazine articles, such as those by Meyers, and the autobiographies of Vincent Sherman, Rathbone, and a few others. The old Sherman story about the fake penis, Flynn, and Alan Hale (“I'll take a pound and a half!”) is of course trotted out. It's all pretty rudimentary stuff, and gives an overall tawdry impression of Flynn's life.

Flynn was, in short, a hellraiser, as befits the book's title. The author has totally missed the other Flynn, in my view – Flynn the quiet, reflective writer and percipient observer of life's drama, who is at the same time the acutely tragic Flynn. Had he dug a bit more, and not been so dedicated to shocking the senses out of his readers with morbidity and scandal, he might have found that other Flynn – at least a bit. The real Errol is notably absent here.

On the positive side, on a quick first reading I spotted only a few errors and mistypes – Aranella for Arnella (a confusion of Arabella Biship with Arnella?), the awkward and embarrassing running together of a long quote of Rathbone with the writer's own text (which should have been caught by an editor), the claim that Flynn wanted to be cremated and his ashes scattered at sea off the coast of Jamaica, the getting of a few dates wrong, etc. These are only slightly distracting and irritating.

Also positive, the author doesn't have the Bret disease of putting his foot in his mouth on every page. He also doesn't seem to be enamored with the idea that Flynn was bisexual or gay. Generally the photos are okay, a decent selection, but the ones of Flynn are all well-known. There are a few photos of the other Bundy people I hadn't seen. I did especially like one – a full-page close-up of Phyllis Decker. She's nice to look at. I'd seen a photo of her a long time ago, which led me to believe she was a looker, and the photos in this book support that. It's hard for me to put her together with Decker somehow. There's also a great pic of Barrymore and Fields, in profile, doing a mock stare-down. It delightfully illustrates the opposite extremes that the human nose can take.

Anyway, for those who like to read the tabloids at the supermarket, or who loved HOLLYWOOD BABYLON, or who know nothing at all about the lives of Decker, Barrymore, Flynn, Hartman, Fowler, Fields, Mitchell, Skelton, Carradine, etc. – this will be the book for them. But for those who already know a fair bit about these people, and have read Fowler's vastly superior MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING, they will probably want to tear the cover off the book, frame it, and then throw the rest into the nearest trash bin.

Yours,
L

— David DeWitt

Today was the day that was fini for the Fabulous Flynn… he would have been 98 had he lived a long, long life. But his short fifty years were packed with he experiences of two lives as he himself said. If you want to have a good look at how this day was spent read Tom McNulty's account of Errol last days in his wonderfully thorough Flynn bio, The Life and Career of Errol Flynn from McFarland and Company, published in 2004…

Flynn shows up in the most unusual places, I have noticed, on this day for me. This evening I was watching a film noir movie called Night and the City, starring Richard Widmark and Gene Tierney, two favorites of mine.

With Richard Widmark, in a clinch! Richard is a small time tout who gets in over his head and ends up of the target of Herbert Lom, a wrestling promoter in England who has it in for Widmark. Night and the City is a classic of its type and quite engrossing until its tragic ending…

And wouldn't you know it?

FLYNN inserts himself into the movie in the form of a billboard for Escape Me Never with Ida Lapino and Eleanor Parker!

Reminding me again that today was the day a drab world lost a bit of color…

— David DeWitt

Chums! I have now been Spam Monitored at least twice on the blog, so please don't be upset if your comment post gets a spam notification, too! The darn thing is trying to do us a favor – even though it can't tell one of US from a stinking spam bot!

It seems the longer the posted comment is the more likely it will be flagged and then I must go in and approve the comment. In my other life (the one where I was not the Administrator of such things) I tore me eyes out if my comment was monitored in any way. How dare they? Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, after all! But this is just part of keeping out stuff about the joys of penis enlargement and what various ladies do on their webcams that don't concern us Flynn-o-philes!

Believe me, I have spent a good deal of time blocking trackbacks to Viagra sites and much worse… So please, be patient if your comments are moderated. They will get onto the blog as soon as I am notified there might be another posting for some unlikely products or services that are better left to the imagination…

Your Humble Servant, Sir Spammed-a-Lot

Admin/Blog Owner

— David DeWitt

We look forward to your thoughts and comments about Errol! Check out Andrea's Fabulous Errol Flynn site, too!

— David DeWitt

We look forward to your thoughts and comments, Jim!

— David DeWitt

Fellow Flynn-o-philes! The Errol Flynn Blog is pleased to announce the publication of Lea Hulse Harth's new book: “Her Rambling Heart: A Journey Through Love” available at Amazon.com…, via Lea's website (you can order an AUTOGRAPHED copy on her website!) or by ordering a copy from your local bookstore!

If the name sounds familiar, our own C.Ernst Harth of Peter's E.F. Club is Lea's husband! There is a lot of TALENT in their family!

         Check it out on Amazon!

         Lea Hulse Harth

— David DeWitt

We are happy to announce the latest New Author on the blog, Ernst! Check out his Peter's EF Club! We are all looking forward to your comments and thoughts about that dear Ol' Boy, Flynn!

— David DeWitt

Welcome aboard, Becky! We are all looking forward to your thoughtful posts and comments!

— David DeWitt