Third Week of September, 1943
Sidney Skolsky
Hollywood Citizen News
Mike Curtiz was teasing Errol Flynn, and said: “I don’t need you, I’ll make a picture with Dennis Morgan – and I’ll make him a thousand times braver than you ever were.”
— Tim
Archive for the ‘Directors’ Category
Hit Him Like You Hit Roark
16
Dec
Eighty Years Ago
Third Week of December, 1938
LOS ANGELES EXAMINER
By Erskine Johnson
Headlines that told of a short but terrific fight between Errol Flynn and Aiden Roark, polo player and studio executive, are scarcely dry when Flynn returns to work on his new picture, Dodge City. And oddly enough, his first scene requires him to leap out of a barber’s chair and slug Douglas Fowley. Several times director Michael Curtiz films the scene but Flynn makes his pulled punches look bad. Finally Curtiz becomes exasperated. “Hit him like the newspapers said you hit Roark, ” he demands. Flynn grins and in the next “take” he makes his pulled punch look like the real thing, and Fowley sails back on a pile of mattresses laid out to break his fall.
* Douglas Fowley was a long-time movie and tv bad guy, as well as the father of hyper-wacko Kim “Alley Oop” Fowley.
— Tim
CHARGE!
24
Apr
At the TCM Classic Movie Festival
Friday, April 27, 2018
THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE(1936)
Of the eight films co-starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, this romantic epic is one of the least seen, mainly due to complaints about the mistreatment of horses in the thrilling climactic charge inspired by Alfred Tennyson’s poem. In their second film together, Flynn is a British officer in India engaged to de Havilland only to learn she is in love with his brother (Patric Knowles). Departing liberally from history, the film suggests that the love triangle, as well as an act of betrayal by an Indian sultan, are inspiration for the famous charge that took place in 1854. The picture was also inspired by the success of Paramount’s The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), which forced the production to add The Crimean War scenes at the end in order to avoid charges that they were just aping the earlier film. The picture was shot on a grand scale, with the construction of an entire British garrison in the California desert where the cast worked in severe weather conditions during the massive battle scenes. The use of trip wires led to the deaths of 25 horses, causing a fistfight between the passionate horseman Flynn and director Michael Curtiz. The result of the deaths kept Warner Bros. from reissuing the film and brought about stricter control from the U.S. government over animal use in filmmaking. (d. Michael Curtiz, 115m, 35mm)
— Tim
A Night at the Theater with Mel & Carl
24
Apr
April 23, 2018
LOS ANGELES — Mel Brooks is just two months shy of his 92nd birthday and he still carves out time for movie nights with his pal Carl Reiner. The two just recently got together to watch a restoration of the 1938 Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland classic “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”
This week, Brooks will be on hand to kick off the ninth annual TCM Classic Film Festival at the TCL Chinese Theater Thursday night in Hollywood with a special screening of the first film he ever directed: “The Producers.”
— Tim
Mail Bag! French Curtiz Bio & Film Book!
16
Apr
Dear Sir,
For all those who love Curtiz and read French, I found this book. He presents an excellent biography and analyzes each of his films including his pre-Hollywood production.
Best – Erik Anzi
Thanks, Erik!
— David DeWitt
The Amazing Curtiz
15
Apr
Mano Kaminer > Mihaly Kertesz > Michael Courtese > Michael Curtiz
The Most Underated Director in the History of Hollywood?
“Curtiz was already a well-known director in Europe when Warner Bros. invited him to Hollywood in 1926, when he was 39 years of age. He had already directed 64 films in Europe, and soon helped Warner Bros. become the fastest-growing movie studio. He directed 102 films during his Hollywood career, mostly at Warners, where he directed ten actors to Oscar nominations. James Cagney and Joan Crawford won their only Academy Awards under Curtiz’s direction. He put Doris Day and John Garfield on screen for the first time, and he made stars of Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Bette Davis. He himself was nominated five times and won twice, once for Best Short Subject for Sons of Liberty and once as Best Director for Casablanca.”
“Curtiz introduced to Hollywood a unique visual style using artistic lighting, extensive and fluid camera movement, high crane shots, and unusual camera angles. He was versatile and could handle any kind of picture: melodrama, comedy, love story, film noir, musical, war story, Western, or historical epic. He always paid attention to the human-interest aspect of every story, stating that the “human and fundamental problems of real people” were the basis of all good drama.”
What was his Greatest Film? Who were his Greatest Stars?
— Tim
The Ides of Flynn
15
Mar
Eighty-Five Years Ago Today (Sydney Time), on March 15, 1933, Errol Appeared Live AND On Film at the Prince Edward Theater in Sydney.
Errol was paid £2 to stand on stage in what he later described as a bad wig and bizarre naval uniform, appearing more like “an elderly keeper at a [Sydney brothel] than Fletcher Christian. The Ides of March ended bad for Caesar, but great for Flynn. It signaled the birth of Errol’s acting career.
A superb assembly of contemporaneous news articles by EFB Author “Isabel Australis”:
An intriguing history with some Errol and errors:
And here’s the cinematic Flynn himself, just as he appeared at the Prince Edward Theater, eighty-five years ago today, March 15, 1933 – On the Ides of Flynn:
— Tim
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
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
