— Tim
Author Archive
A Curious Pair
10
Mar
At the Wilder Theater on Wilshire, in Westwood
The Adventures of Robin Hood swoops into the Billy Wilder Theater to restore a measure of innocence to the jaded moviegoer. Splendidly operatic in style and resplendent in its Technicolor trappings, the film endeared Errol Flynn to a Depression-era audience and secured his place in the Hollywood pantheon. Director Michael Curtiz replaced William Keighley when Warner Bros. decided that the action needed more oomph, and the film certainly doesn’t lack for excitement, particularly during the climactic swordfight with Basil Rathbone. UCLA Film & Television Archive is pairing it with Flynn’s American debut, The Case of the Curious Bride, as part of its tribute to Curtiz. Alan K. Rode will sign copies of his new Curtiz biography in the lobby prior to the screening.
UCLA’s Billy Wilder Theater, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood; Fri., March 9, 7:30 p.m.; $10. (310) 206-8013, cinema.ucla.edu….
— Tim
The Shape of Errol
05
Mar
Errol’s connection to The Shape of Water? The extraordinarily talented and beautiful Millicent Patrick. Before she worked on the shape of Gil-Man in Creature from the Black Lagoon, she worked on the shape of Errol.
“She began working as a “makeup illustrator” on an Errol Flynn film and worked her way up from there. Patrick created and designed the look of Mr. Hyde in Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the Xenomorphs in the B-picture This Island Earth and of course the iconic Gil-Man himself from Creature from the Black Lagoon.”
* Lake Zaca near Santa Barbara, California, which may have inspired Templeton Crockett to name Errol’s future yacht “The Zaca”, is very frequently reported to have been the lagoon filming location in “The Creature from the Black Lagoon.” These reports however may be apocryphal. The true “Black Lagoon” may actually have been Wakulla Springs in Florida.
— Tim
A Spring Training Quiz
03
Mar
It’s 3/3, Baseball Spring. So here’s a FlynnQuiz involving the most famous No. 3 of all, Babe Ruth.
One was Ruthian, the other Errolympian.
Both were hugely popular and beloved stars, and still are.
One’s career ended in 1935, the other’s exploded in 1935.
It’s astonishing to me that there’s no record of Errol Flynn and Babe Ruth ever meeting. For example, it’s hard for me to believe that Babe never attended a party up at Mulholland. They did, however, both know a famous director. In fact, this director had a significant role in the film careers of both Errol and Babe. Indeed, it may be the case that Babe’s having worked with this famous director impeded Babe from meeting Errol. Whatever the reason here’s the quiz question:
What famous director did both Errol Flynn and Babe Ruth work with?
Pitch No. 1: It involved a very big and famous premier in New York.
Pitch No. 2: It did not involve the wonderful Harold Lloyd film depicted below.
Pitch No. 3: Nor did it involve the Gary Cooper and Teresa Wright masterpiece depicted below.
images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com…
Speedy: One of Harold Lloyd’s greatest, featuring Babe Ruth.
Pride of the Yankees: a heart-wrenching Super-Duper Gary Cooper movie, featuring the stunningly gorgeous and talented Teresa Wright. Look for Ruth in the beginning of this music video tribute.
— Tim
Spring Training has Sprung
02
Mar
With March now here, Baseball’s Spring is here. Errol was far more well known for his wicket, wicket ways than for baseball, of course, but, living in the States in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, he most certainly was familiar with the American game and religion of Baseball, which was significantly based on the game of cricket he knew and played so well. Here he is playing the two at once, the only batsman I know of having posed and performed in such an extraordinarily (wicket) way (with Mayo on the side): www.gettyimages.com…
And here is another baseball rarity!
— Tim
On Exhibit Now @ the LACMA
01
Mar
“It’s a stunning piece.” … [the poster for] the 1938 Errol Flynn classic “The Dawn Patrol.” The design, he said, makes you feel as though you’re in a cockpit of a plane during a World War I dogfight.
— Tim
’56 Errol: A Charming Rogue
27
Feb
February 27, 1956 (62 years ago today)
San Bernardino Sun
THE DAILY SUN
ON THE HOLLYWOOD BEAT
Errol Flynn, ‘Charming Rogue’, Denies Reports
By JAMES BACON HOLLYWOOD
Errol Flynn, a charming rogue who never has pretended to be anything else, wants to debunk all those reports that he has reformed. Since his return to Hollywood, after more than four years abroad, the columns have been filled with items about the new Errol Flynn. It’s true that he is shelling out a reported $900,000 for back alimony and back taxes. It’s also true that he’s been in town for several weeks without engaging in any of the famous one-punch Sunset Strip brawls for which he was famed a decade ago. But a reformed Flynn? Never. “It’s all a lie, a malicious slander started, I suspect, by Bruce Cabot,” Errol reassures. “Don’t believe a word of it.
HE’S MORE DISCREET
“The only difference between the so-called new Flynn and the old Flynn is that the new Flynn is the same as ever only more discreet. And please spell that with three E’s. Nothing else has changed.” It hasn’t either. A visit to the set of NBC’s Screen Directors Playhouse television films finds the same Flynn who used to give Jack L. Warner ulcers. He’s still sipping straight vodka out of a water glass between takes; charming every girl on the set from the leading lady to the wardrobe seamstresses and surprisingly his ex-mother-in-law. Mrs. Jack Eddington, mother of Nora Eddington Flynn Haymes, had this to say about her ex-son-in-law: “He’s such a wonderful man, please write something nice about him.” To which Flynn interrupted: “If he does, it’ll ruin me. There are only a few of us characters left.”
How does it feel to be back home after four and a half years? “To tell you the truth,’ he answered “I was served with so many summons the first day I thought I had only been away a week.” Now that Errol is settling all back bills, he’s here to stay, Flynn, besides being the last of the Rabelaisian characters in Hollywood, is also a realist. He knew that he had to pay up in order to work.
PLAYS FAMOUS ROGUE
In the television film, “The Sword of Villon,” he plays the famous rogue poet, Francois Villon who was a sort of medieval Errol Flynn. From there, he goes to Universal-International to play modern day intrigue in “Istanbul,” then back to England for a television series and then Hollywood for good. Offers are coming in fast be cause Flynn, for all his peccadilloes, sells tickets at the boxoffice. In the television film, leading lady Hillary Brooke tells Villon: “You’re a rogue.” To which Flynn answers: “I give you no argument there.” “How’s that for typecasting?” he smiles between takes.
The Sword of Villon,1956
Istanbul,1956
Errol Flynn Theatre, 1956
— Tim
Winter Olympic Medalist Freddie McEvoy
25
Feb
“I found that he complemented me. He was an athlete, a roisterer like myself, and he could be canny too, very. He had his eye for the main chance.” —
Errol Flynn MWWW
— Tim
The Olympiads
24
Feb
aka The Bundy Drive Boys and Hollywood Hellfire Club
John Barrymore
John Carradine
John Decker
W.C. Fields
Errol
Gene Fowler
Will Fowler
Sadahichi Hartmann
Ben Hecht
Norman Kerry
Thomas Mitchell
Alan Mowbray
Vincent Price
Anthony Quinn
Roland Young
— Tim
