— Tim
Archive for the ‘Co-Stars’ Category
Doggone!
16
Jun
Harrison Carroll – Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – June 16, 1938
Errol Flynn’s dog, Arno, is barred off The Sisters set. Flynn has been training him as a protector and, when Bette Davis had to make a pass at Errol in a scene, the dog lunged at her, bit her leg and chased her up on a chair.
— Tim
Russian Here, Russian There
15
Jun
An EFB Four Score Anniversary News Report
Harrison Carroll – Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – June 15, 1937
Another weekend party, the Basil Rathbones’, was enlivened by all the stellar guests doing impromptu turns at entertaining. Marlene Dietrich really startled the cinema folk with a Russian dance. Errol Flynn, who knows not a word of the language obliged with a Russian song.
Party was a surprise celebration for Rathbone and all the guests hid their automobiles a block away.
Errol’s Russian Man Friday Manning the Mulholland Bar:
— Tim
Cricket Anyone?
03
Jun
Green Light for Errol & Olivia
03
Jun
Louella O. Parsons – Los Angeles Examiner
June 1, 1936
One of the directorial plums of the year has fallen right
into the lap of Frank Borzage. He will direct The Green Light
by Lloyd C. Douglas, author of The Magnificent Obsession,
which was one of last year’s big pictures. The production date
is July 6, so, of course, Warner Brothers won’t wait for
Leslie Howard, who remains in England for months and months.
But my guess is that Errol Flynn,who is being built bigger
and bigger by Warners, will have the lead.
Jimmy Starr – Los Angeles Evening Herald Express
June 2, 1936
…Tremendously enthusiastic over the forthcoming
production of Green Light, the Lloyd C. Douglas novel,
Cosmopolitan Productions, releasing through Warner Brothers,
has decided to again team those new raves, Olivia De Havilland
and Errol Flynn, under the direction of Frank Borzage. This
will be Errol’s first chance to appear in modern dress since
his sensational rise to cinematic fame. He will star in his
own story, The White Rajah, following this picture.
They never made it to the Silver Screen with Green Light, but it was blue skies on radio airwaves with this:
“From Hollywood California, the Lux Radio Theater Presents Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland in Green Light” oldhollywoodincolor.com…
— Tim
Introducing Errol Flynn
24
May
Hollywood Citizen News – Behold Them Minus Hokum by Peter Pry – December 1, 1934
Errol Flynn, newly arrived Irish actor, will have to call out the police reserves for protection
when the local gals discover that he is independently wealthy and doesn’t need to act for a living.
Flynn has lots of that appeal too, and is a husky specimen. He hewed a fortune out of a gold mine in
New Guinea, he represented Ireland as a boxer in the Olympic games of 1928, he has braved cannibals,
is 25, and has never been married! He has only been acting for two years. And he refused the role
of Oberon in A Midsummer’s Night Dream because he didn’t want to start his film career by
playing the king of the fairies.
Los Angeles Evening Express – Harrison Carroll – December 3, 1934
Actors making their debut in Hollywood usually proceed cautiously. Not so, Errol Flynn,
the 25-year-old Irishman signed by Warner Brothers. In his biography charge, which all
newcomers are asked to fill out, Flynn gave some answers that made the boys eyes pop out.
For one thing, he listed actors as his pet aversion. And there were some hotter ones but
we can’t go into them.
Flynn is 6 feet 2, weighs 180 pounds and his hands are calloused. He is a descendant of
Fletcher Christian , of the crew of the famous British ship, the Bounty. He was once a
pearl fisherman and he made a good stake for himself prospecting for gold in the heart of
New Guinea. In 1928, he represented Ireland in the boxing events of the Olympic Games.
And his description of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. will get a chuckle out of Hollywood. Young Doug,
he says, has dveloped an Oxford accent so thick that it is hard for even English people to
understand him.
Los Angeles Examiner – Lloyd Pantages – January 29, 1935
Errol Flynn is not only a good looker, but a swell actor, so keep your eyes open for this gentleman.
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – Elizabeth Yeaman – February 5, 1935
Despite the fact that Errol Flynn is an extremely handsome young Irishman and fairly bursting with
personality, Warners have cast him as a murderer for his film debut here. He will be the villain in
The Case of the Curious Bride, in which Warren Williams has the lead of the sleuthing attorney.
Hollywood Citizen News – Elizabeth Yeaman – March 26, 1935
Errol Flynn, the husky Irish actor at Warners, gets his second film assignment. He will be seen as a
pirate with Robert Donat in Captain Blood. Now it is uncertain if Jean Muir will have the
feminine lead.
Tanikiu Tumas to King Karl Holmberg for the articles and Flynnspiration!
— Tim
Errol Saves England (Again) — Eighty Years Ago
15
May
An EFB Four Score News Report: The Anniversary of The Prince and the Pauper
Louella O. Parsons – Extract from the Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News – May 12, 1937
“Miles Herndon, dashing soldier of fortune, delivers the rightful prince.
Warners are indeed fortunate in having Errol Flynn in the family to play Herndon.
Where I ask you, is there a more suitable actor for a role that calls for
a handsome devil-may-care adventurer? Errol may have had bigger roles, but
never one that suited him better.”
Elizabeth Yeaman – Extract from the Hollywood Citizen News – May 13, 1937
With the coronation in England dominating the headlines for days, nothing
could have been more timely than Warners’ film version of The Prince and
the Pauper, which is climaxed by an elaborate coronation sequence.
Harrison Carrol – Extract from the Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – May 13, 1937
If Mark Twain had been alive today and had written The Prince and the Pauper
under Hollywood assignment, he could not have turned out a more perfect screen
story for this coronation year and for two extraordinary child actors, Billy
and Bobby Mauch.
In its spectacular and veracious coronation scenes this is as timely a picture
as could be asked.
It is Errol Flynn, playing a good natured soldier of fortune, who takes the young prince under his wing – not the least believing his story – and finally clears the way for a nick-of-time restoration of the royal youth, just as the unwilling beggar boy is about to be crowned king of England. In the role, Flynn is a dashing figure.
Warners have made the coronation ceremony one of the year’s spectacular screen episodes.
The Prince and the Pauper is an excitingly narrated, handsomely prodeuced, finely acted picture – an artistic achievement for producer Hal B. Wallis and all concerned – and a box-office natural.
Heading the supporting bill is a color short, A Day at Santa Anita.
Flynn saves England!
Just in time for the Coronation!
— Tim
The perfect Flynn Girl?
08
Feb
I sometimes make mental lists of which actresses I would have liked to have seen play opposite Errol, and at the top is Eleanor Parker. The Canadian Parker was a classical, almost aristocratic beauty, given spice by her incredible slanted eyes, the colour of Anatolian waters, and her tumbling hair that reminds one of a winter sunset. She could dance, fight, play a queen or a serving wench with equal aplomb, was a fine comedienne and with her curves like the hull of the Zaca, looked sensational in a period costume, even when it bordered on the camp.
She starred in only one swashbuckler, a film we have been discussing – Scaramouche – as the fiery on-off love interest of Stewart Granger. Able as Granger was in this picture (and in my view it was his best; with the exceptional six minute fencing match), he was a bit of a one-note as an actor and never quite did it for me in the boudoir department. How I wish it had been Errol sparring with Eleanor in glorious technicolour and exaggerated 18th Century costumes.
Eleanor Parker in Scaramouche
As a performer, Parker was streets ahead of 50s bombshells like Ava Gardner and Janet Leigh. A very distinguished actress, Parker was Oscar nominated more than once. She should have won for Interrupted Melody (1955), in which she played the crippled soprano Marjorie Lawrence, opposite Glenn Ford and a young Roger Moore.
Interrupted Melody
It is the best operatic biopic ever made, in my view (aside from The Great Caruso), and she gives a stellar and harrowing performance. See it if you can. I think it is on DVD.
Eleanor as Isolde
Parker also played Kirk Douglas’s troubled wife in Detective Story, a mid-50s noir – sadly, it was more grey than noir. She was also put in a second-rate Egyptian ‘adventure’, with an ageing Robert Taylor, called Valley Of the Kings (how very original.)
Had Eleanor been born ten years earlier she would have been a major star, but the more simplistic, epics with a moral, family-orientated Hollywood of the 1950s didn’t really know what to do with her.
It’s a shame that she is chiefly remembered now for playing the Baroness in The Sound of Music.
As the Baroness, with Christopher Plummer
What a gorgeous pair she and Errol would have made….
— PW
