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Author Archive

Against All Flags — Blu-Ray On the Way

22 Jul

Could Be Today, July 22, 2020.

“In 1700, the pirates of Madagascar menace the India trade; British officer Brian Hawke has himself cashiered, flogged, and set adrift to infiltrate the pirate “republic.” There, Hawke meets lovely Spitfire Stevens, a pirate captain in her own right, and the sparks begin to fly; but wooing a pirate poses unique problems. Especially after he rescues adoring young Princess Patma from a captured ship. Meanwhile, Hawke’s secret mission proceeds to an action-packed climax.”

— Tim

 

Cruisin’ with Professor Flynn

21 Jul

July 21, 1946 – New York Times
“Errol Flynn’s Father Here For Expedition”

“Theodore Thomson Flynn, Professor of Zoology at Queens College, Belfast, Ireland, and the father of Errol Flynn, screen actor, arrived yesterday on the United States liner Washington, which docked at Pier 62, North River, from Le Havre, Southampton and Cobh.”

Cruisin’ on United States liner Washington

Pier 62 – Now the Northernmost of the Chelsea Piers

July 29, 1946 – Los Angeles Times.
“Errol Flynn’s Father Arrives to Join Cruise”

The Flynn Family to Research the Tuna Family

Cruise of the Zaca

— Tim

 

Errol’s First Jane Eyre?

21 Jul

On the weekend of July 18-20, 1947, Cry Wolf was played at the Strand in Manhattan. Was Cry Wolf Errol’s first “Jane Eyre” of sorts, his second being The Master of Thornfield? That is, was 1947’s Cry Wolf inspired by 1847’s Charlotte Brontë masterpiece? Perhaps Orson Welles and Joan Fontaines’ 1943 version of Jane Eyre is worth comparing…

Jane Eyre


Cry Wolf


The Master of Thornfield

— Tim

 
 

The New Faces

20 Jul

See the New Faces Below

July 20, 1935

The Snooper
LA Evening Herald Express

Not long after talking pictures had brought an influx of the world’s most famous actors to Hollywood, farsighted executives of the film industry began to speculate, “This is all very well, so long as we can raid the stage for talents, but where are we going to get the new faces? What will happen when the Broadway well runs dry?

Well several years have elapsed now since these gentlemen were heard muttering their dire forebodings, and subsequent developments have proved rather conclusively that Hollywood need have no fear about a dearth of fresh personalities to intrigue the admiration of moviegoers.

Seemingly, the well of new talent never runs dry.

Only the other day, audiences acclaimed a startling new personality, Louise Rainer, who flashed before them as William Powell’s leading woman in Escapade. She came from the continent.

Errol Flynn and Olivia De Havilland, who won two of the year’s sweetest acting plums –the romantic leads in the spectacular Captain Blood — were nonentities as far as Hollywood was concerned less than a year ago. Then Miss De Havilland, a seventeen-year-old high school girl from a small village in Northern California, won the big role of Hermia in Max Reinhardt’s Bowl production of “A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream,” and a new screen star was born. Flynn, a handsome, athletic, adventurous Irishman made his debut in an English film, and instantly was spotted by Irving Asher, a Warner executive, and shipped to California under contract. Now he wins the biggest male role of the year, outside of Anthony Adverse, as a swashbuckling Captain Blood.

Last But Definitely Not Least!

— Tim

 

Rough-Cut History

19 Jul

July 19, 1935

Harrison Carroll
Evening Herald Express

Filmland learned for the first time today the romantic history of the diamond that Errol Flynn, dark-haired Irish actor, put upon the finger of Lili Damita, who is now his bride.

It was five years ago that Flynn came into possession.

A young adventurer, he was working as a British agent in New Guinea to help preserve peace among the native tribes. One day, he made a gold strike in the jungle.

Trekking back to civilization, Flynn sold his discovery for $10,000 in gold. He decided to leave New Guinea, but couldn’t carry his new found riches. So he put the money into rough-cut diamonds.

It was one of these diamonds that the young actor soon to play the starring role in the Warner film, Captain Blood, had made into the engagement ring his new bride now wears.

— Tim

 

Helping to Fund the Fund

18 Jul

On June 18, 1946, Errol authorized the Motion Picture Relief Fund to reproduce his signature and likeness for “Hollywood Star Stamps”.

As President of the Fund from 1939 until his death in 1956, film and radio star Jean Hersholt conceived these stamps as a method of raising funds to assist ill and needy film industry veterans. Here is Hersholt with Errol, at the studio from River’s End, i.e. the studio from which he broadcasted his very popular Dr. Christian radio show:

— Tim

 

Sixty-Six Years Ago Quiz

17 Jul

Sixty-six years ago Errol selected the cover photo for a magazine because it reminded him of the location depicted below. Where is the location and why was it memorable to him??

Added Friday 10 p.m. EST

— Tim

 

The Show Must Go On — But with Whom??

16 Jul

Which of these two terrors would you pick for Errol- Bette or Tallulah??

July 16, 1936

Louella O. Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner

The witty, inimitable Tallulah Bankhead of Broadway and points West, is being tested like mad over at Warner Brothers Studio for the leading feminine role in Another Dawn, the film in which Errol (Captain Blood) Flynn is the hero. In fact, Tallulah is probably signed at this very minute.

This is the role originally slated for Bette Davis before she decided “to take a walk.” However, there is nothing but the friendliest of feelings at the Warner Brothers Studio toward Bette, and if she chooses to return she’ll find the door wide open and a big Warner welcome on the mat. But the show must go on with or without Bette.

Bette Before Another Dawn

Tallulah Before Another Dawn

O-Kay then, at the end of the day, who was in Another Dawn?

— Tim

 

Father Flynn’s First Visit to Hollywood

16 Jul

July 15, 1939

— Tim

 

The Escape

15 Jul

July 15, 1949

Armand Archerd
Evening Herald express

Susan Hayward has turned down, she says, $150,000, a chance to co-star with Errol Flynn and an Italy location for The Escape.

The fair lady’s reason: she would be required to cut her hair a la Bergman for For Whom the Bell Tolls. She refused to cut her hair for My Foolish Heart, which she’s now making. This gal’s haircuts come high.

Gorgeous, Talented, Courageous, Susan Hayward

>>>Susan of Locksley >

— Tim