The Errol Flynn Blog

The famed Italian film actress and International movie star Gina Lollobrigida has died at age 95.  “Lollo” (nicknamed in her native Italy) starred in 67 films, including co-starring with Errol Flynn in the under-rated, comic swashbuckler, “Crossed Swords” (1954).  Miss Lollobrigida was by far a finer dramatic screen actress then her rival Sophia Loren.  On top of that Gina displayed a genuine, natural flair for comedy in such films as “Hotel Paradiso” (1966) with Alec Guiness and Robert Morley, the hilarious “Buona Sera Mrs. Campbell” (1967) with Peter Lawford, Phil Silvers, Telly Savalas, and Shelley Winters, and wartime laughs in “The Private Navy Of Sgt. O’Farrell” (1968) starring opposite lucky Bob Hope, with Jeffrey Hunter and Phyliss Diller!

Gina Lollobrigida’s passing means that as of this date there are only four, surviving leading ladies of Errol Flynn.  Whom?   Do not include the charming child actresses Patti Brady of “Never Say Goodbye” (1947), or Sherry Jackson from the unseen “Hello God” (1951), both of whom are still with us.

— Ralph Schiller

Obituary for actress Jennifer Hartig

By Baylis Greene
November 10, 2022
Jennifer Hartig arrived on these shores from her native England to act, having landed a role in a Broadway production of “Jane Eyre.” Going by the stage name Jan Brooks, she found herself opposite none other than Errol Flynn.

That was 1958, and the title of Flynn’s autobiography the following year, “My Wicked, Wicked Ways,” helps explain how the pairing went: He was drunk, he was unprepared, he was boorish, and his breath was bad.

Ms. Hartig was an actress until about 1968, a good portion of her work involving sketch comedy, and that’s how she met the man she would go on to marry in 1965, Herb Hartig, a songwriter and actor. The two formed a comedy team for a time. He died in 1991.

Later in life, around 2003, Ms. Hartig moved to Noyac. She died on Aug. 16 at the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Southampton. She was 85.

Jennifer Mary Hartig was born Faye Snape on Nov. 6, 1936, in Leeds, England, to William Edwin Brookfield and the former Hilda Malcolm. Her parents were actors, and had “changed their surname to one that was more attractive” for their careers, her family wrote. And then they decided they didn’t like the name Faye, either.

At boarding school in England she was Jennifer Brookfield, and then, for simplicity’s sake on the stage, Jan Brooks.

She and Mr. Hartig had two daughters, the family living on Manhattan’s Upper West Side for about 25 years starting in 1967. She also lived in Brooklyn Heights for a decade or so before moving to Noyac.

There she went to work as a proofreader for the Permanent Press, and in Bridgehampton she joined the circulation desk staff at the Hampton Library, where with a colleague she led a popular film discussion group for a number of years.

That colleague, Jill Burdge, called her “a true Renaissance woman. . . . I shall never forget how moved I was when Jenny, with a fervor only she could muster, recited by heart the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Shakespeare’s ‘Henry V,’ about her beloved England and its ‘happy few . . . band of brothers.’ ”

Ms. Hartig found a further creative outlet writing book reviews for The Star, starting in 2008 with a Budd Schulberg story collection and notably including Hal Holbrook’s memoir. She was a regular contributor through 2013.

“My mom was an extraordinary woman, with so much verve, intelligence, beauty, and humor,” Zandy Hartig, who lives in Los Angeles, said. “To know her was to be full of admiration for her elegance and curiosity.”

Her other daughter, Margaret Hovdey of Austin, Tex., also survives, as do two grandsons. She was predeceased by two brothers, Peter Brookfield and Brian Brookfield.

A funeral service was held on Saturday at the Shelter Island Funeral Home, with dispersal of ashes on the water. Memorial contributions have been suggested to the Hamptons Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing, 64 County Road 39, Southampton 11968.

— Ralph Schiller

Allegedly a copy of “Hello God”, Errol Flynn’s missing and unseen film from 1951 was found among evidence files and archived records of a New York courtroom.  The reels of film in cans were in bad condition.    Rumor said that this deteriorating film was shipped to the George Eastman House Film Archives and Preservation Center.

     I sent a formal e-mail request to the George Eastman House stating that I wished to see the “Hello God” footage for a book project.  Five days later I received this polite e-mail from an archivist at the George Eastman House:

Thank you for your email and for your interest in our collections. We do have Hello God in our collections, however we do not have a complete version of the film. We only have the first reel of a work print and a reel or so of outtakes and trims. Preservation work did start on these two items, but has been put on hold and I do not know if and when we may resume preservation. It was expressed to me that a more complete version of the film may exist elsewhere; if that is the case then the keeper of those elements would be better suited to pursue more complete preservation. At this time we do not have any access elements for either the outtakes or work print, so we are unable to provide access at this time.

If I may be able to answer any other questions about our collections or research access, please do not hesitate to ask.

My response to the Eastman House archivist was:

   Thank-you so very much for getting back to me on my inquiry.   I regret to say that no other copy or fragments of this film exist anywhere else in the world.   A film storage company in Los Angeles had a complete print and negative of the film but no one had paid the processing and storage fees.    This company did reach out to the film’s director/producer William Marshal who was in financial straits in the mid-1960’s.   Then out of desperation, they even tried Marshal’s estranged wife, film star Ginger Rogers, who wanted nothing to do with the film and her soon to be ex-husband.   I contacted the company and was informed that since the bill was never paid, the film print, and negatives were destroyed, and discarded.

This is the end of the story.  Only a few minutes of “Hello God” have survived with a few other out-takes and film scraps.   The Eastman House is debating whether or not it is even worth the expense to save these fragments.   Errol Flynn screened “Hello God” and was appalled at the poor quality of the film.   He decided for the sake of his Hollywood career that he must destroy “Hello God” so no one will ever see it.    He got his wish.   Pity he didn’t torch “Cuban Rebel Girls”.

— Ralph Schiller

I am reading this remarkable book “Natalie Wood:  The Complete Biography” by Suzanne Finstad about the life and mysterious death of the tragic film star.  It is impossible to put down and Errol Flynn is not mentioned in it at all.   Flynn has always been brutally criticized and attacked for many things, especially his relationship with the teenage Beverly Aadland.  In this book, author Finstad details a sordid relationship with a 15-year-old Natalie Wood and a famous crooner actor star who was 39, and in the middle of a divorce from his glamorous movie star wife.   His illicit  relationship with the underage Natalie Wood actually had the full approval and blessing of her ruthless mother who thought this Oscar-winning film star/singer would elevate her career to full movie stardom.

I have no illusions about Errol Flynn who was no saint.  Neither was he a hypocrite unlike many others in Hollywood then and now.

— Ralph Schiller

Yesterday after burning the midnight oil for three days I finished Robert Florczak’s superb and meticulous book “Errol Flynn: The Illustrated Life Chronology”, reading it from cover to cover as  it was impossible to put down.  At 320 large-size pages, with over  800 rare photographs, this is easily the finest, best written book on Flynn, that captures his heart and his very adventurous, restlessly, troubled soul, since Earl Conrad’s masterpiece “Errol Flynn: A Memoir”

For author Florczak this was a Herculean if not impossible task but he rose to the occasion.  Yes, we see Errol Flynn the screen movie star whom we loved on the big screen but also the deeply caring and adoring father to his children.   Unlucky in marriage to three of the world’s most beautiful women,  the readers  will come to admire Errol Flynn the man thanks,to this book.   Robert Florczak, who  acknowledges invaluable help from Flynn scholars Inga Klein and Josef Fegerel, has unearthed an enormous treasure of never before seen new material that will astonish the readers, including Errol Flynn’s lost (except for the first adventure) radio series “The Modern Adventures Of Casanova” and his ‘ghost’ film “Hello God”.

“Errol Flynn: The Illustrated Life Chronology” is both profound and brilliant and makes for unforgettable reading.  One thing is certain, Errol Flynn’s first wife Lili Damita was the most gorgeous star in Hollywood then and now.

— Ralph Schiller

In the current issue of the outstanding quarterly magazine Films Of The Golden Age,  issue number 105 Summer 2021, is an extensive article with actor, dancer, choreographer Christopher Riordan, who happily is still with us.   He worked with many of Hollywood’s top stars in films, television, and behind the camera including Barbara Stanwyck, Fred Astaire, Elvis Pressley,  Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Audrey Hepburn, Frank Sinatra, Nancy Sinatra and many others.   Christopher Riordan said, “I did, at one point, I found myself working as a funeral consultant at Forest Lawn Cemetery!  I was involved in several celebrity funerals.  The first star I “buried” was Humphrey Bogart in 1957.   He is interred in the “Garden Of Memory”, which is not open to the public.  I also handled Franklin Pangborn’s funeral in 1958 and Errol Flynn’s in 1959.  As for Errol’s funeral, I distinctly remember Patrice Wymore, Errol’s long estranged wife, coming up to me and requesting that Errol’s teenage girlfriend, Beverly Aadland, be barred!”

— Ralph Schiller

In late 1956 Errol Flynn went to pre-Castro’s Havana, Cuba to film “The Big Boodle” (1957) with Universal studios’ starlet Gia Scala, on loan to United Artists. In the absolutely fascinating but often heart-breaking book “Gia Scala: The First Gia” written by her loving sister Tina Scala, an incident occurred near the end of filming. Gia was a guest on Flynn’s two-mast schooner “The Zaca”, and enjoyed every minute of it. Flynn learned from Gia and Tina that their mother was dying from terminal Cancer. All her life their mother had dreamed of sailing to Hawaii.  When Flynn heard this he said “Say no more.” Errol Flynn then sent Gia and Tina to sail on the Zaca with a full crew to take her mother to Hawaii! Flynn insisted on picking up the entire cost of this journey which was a dream come true for their mother who loved the entire voyage. She later died at peace. Gia Scala and Tina were eternally grateful to Errol Flynn. Tina also writes that it was common knowledge that gorgeous movie stars who took private cruises on the Zaca were seduced by Errol Flynn! Tina said “I never asked Gia, and besides she would never tell me anyway!”

— Ralph Schiller

I have just read the outstanding biography “Gia Scala: The First Gia”, as told by her younger sister Tina Scala to author Sterling Saint James. This is a compelling, haunting, page-turning book with many shocking revelations of behind-the-scenes Hollywood, which was already in decadent decline. Gia Scala quickly became a top film star and co-starred in major studio productions opposite Robert Mitchum, Glenn Ford, Gregory Peck, George Sanders, Anthony Quinn, David Niven, Rock Hudson, Richard Widmark, and even Doris Day.  So why did she suddenly drop out at the box office peak of her career?  The death of this accomplished dramatic actress in 1972 at age 38and still a ravishing beauty,  was labeled by the film industry and law enforcement as a ‘suicide’. However just like the death of George Reeves it was anything but.  Yes Gia Scala co-starred with Errol Flynn in the under-rate ‘film noir’ “The Big Boodle” (1957) and the authors tell a surprisingly wonderful story about Errol Flynn, who came to Gia’s and Tina’s rescue when they needed a guardian angel.

— Ralph Schiller

Has anyone here at the Errol Flynn blog read the outstanding book “King Of Fools” by John Parker which reveals the true story of King Edward VIII who abdicated his throne for American divorcee Wallis Simpson? Once his brother became King George VI, and Edward was merely the Duke Of Windsor, the former king was under constant surveillance of British intelligence MI5.  By pure happenstance someone else was also observed by MI5 through his connection to the Duke.  Conjecture?  Maybe? John Parker had access to now de-classified British Intelligence files and Home Office files. I read this book twice from cover to cover and was astonished! Ralph Schiller

— Ralph Schiller

The book entitled “Death Valley Superstars” by author Duke Haney has an excellent chapter on the life and death of Sean Flynn. It is also one of the saddest to read in a great book filled with many sad chapters. Has anyone else here read it? Ralph Schiller

— Ralph Schiller