“Rocky Mountain (1950) – Errol Flynn is an ever gallant fellow, but he seems to carry gallantry too far in Warner Brothers’ “Rocky Mountain,” which came to the Strand yesterday. So far, in fact, does he carry it in guiding a beautiful dame from a horde of ravaging Indians that he ends up as full of arrows as a war-bonnet is full of feathers. And that’s about as far as one can go. The only valid explanation for (Mr. Flynn’s conclusive gallantry is that he here represents a Confederate captain and therefore a Southern gentleman. And it seems that a standing rule at Warners is that a Southern gentleman will lay down his life for a lady, even though it means disobeying Robert E. Lee.”
ALFRED DUFF-COOPER was 1st Viscount Norwich GCMG, DSO, PC (22 February 1890 – 1 January 1954), known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician, diplomat and author. In 1937 he was 1st lord of the admiralty and regularly appearing as one of the 3 worst warmongers’ in Nazi propaganda. He spoke in the United States during the late 30’s seeking to secure its entry into World War II. Like his (in)famous wife, “Darling Monster” Diana, he was quite an outspoken and often controversial character.
LADY DIANA COOPER was born into one of the richest and most socially prominent families in England, the daughter of a duke. Acclaimed “the most beautiful girl in the world”, “the only really glamorous woman in the world”, “the most celebrated debutante of her era”, and an actress of note, she was internationally renowned. In 1939, she met Errol in California and disliked him for, in her view, not being a proper loyal colonist and sufficiently supporting the Crown, not enough to spill oceans of American, Australian, English, or Irish, blood in Europe. Here they are at the Santa Anita Ball. Errol looks friendly; she does not. (Nor does it look to me like she was ever truly “the most beautiful woman in the world”.)
Bette Davis was preening herself in front of a mirror one day on the set of The Sisters, currently showing at Warners Hollywood and Downtown theaters, when Errol Flynn asked her why she was gazing at herself with such approval.
“Well, I like that.” Bette pretended to be put out. “I’m admiring my hairdress—don’t you like it? You should.” Bette replied, “because I copied it exactly from the hairdress worn by Fritzi Scheff in a picture made of her when she was at the peak of her career.”
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I sure hope Bette didn’t burst out singing Fritzi’s big hit “Kiss Me Again” to Flynn! Arno would have had to come to his rescue! (Song begins at 1:50)
Would Errol have been better than the usually great Fredric March in this film? I believe so.
October 10, 1935
Los Aneles Times
I Cover Hollywood
By Lloyd Pantages
Warner Brothers are so enthused about Errol Flynn’s work in Captain Blood that they would like to give him the lead in Anthony Adverse only there’s a slight catch, as they already signed Fredric March for the part. Nevertheless, seeing how Errol is under a long-term contract to them and March isn’t, maybe they’ll give it to him and put Freddy in something else.
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“The big trouble with the 14th century insofar as the movies are concerned is the fact that most of the ladies dressed like nuns.”
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October 8, 1937
The Evening Herald
Klamath Falls, Oregon
DREARY DUDS IRK STYLIST AT FILM LOT
By Frederick C. Othman
Hollywood Citizen News
The big trouble with the 14th century insofar as the movies are concerned is the fact that most of the ladies dressed like nuns. This is particularly bad for movies in full color, and it explains why Milo Anderson, Warner Brothers costume expert, is cheating on history today in dressing the folks appearing in Hollywood’s latest version of Robin Hood.
This picture first was made in 1922 by Douglas Fairbanks, when movies were black and white and noiseless. Warners’ version calls tor full color and a couple of million dollars to make it realistic. Nearly $500,000 of this money went to Anderson for fancy clothes. He was ready for a real spree in silver cloth and slashed velvet and whatnot, when he discovered that all the women of Robin Hood’s time. from the queen on down to the lowliest peasant, dressed mostly in black and dark brown. They all wore coifs, such as nuns still wear, and shoes which look a lot like gymnasium slippers.
CHEATS A LITTLE
“So we had to cheat a little.” young Anderson said. “We put In a spot of color here and a splash there. We had to.”
His spots and splashes looked pretty gay to us. One bolt of cloth, with silver threads running through the gold, cost Warners $25 a yard. “But it looks too fine,” he said. “So I had it dyed a light blue and I told the dyer to be a little careless. The result looks like it may really have been made six centuries ago. He had to make 45 costumes for the ladies in the picture, of whom Olivia de Havilland, as Maid Marian, is the most important. Each dress took about 40 yards of velvet and other rich cloth, which cost an average of $4 a yard.
The result was inclined to depress Anderson. He cheered up only when he got the chance to rig out the men in the film. “They were the gay sex in those days,” he said. “They went in for slashed silks and doublets and whatnot, all in the brightest color combinations available.”
Anderson displayed the costumes he’d built for Errol Flynn as “Robin Hood”; Ian Hunter as “King Richard”; Claude Rains as “Prince John”; Basil Rathbone as “Sir Guy”; Alan Hale as “Little John”; and Eugene Pallette as “Friar Tuck.” These garments really were something with long tight pants of rainbow hue and doublets and tabards and curves of spots and stripes and curlicues.
On the same movie lot we met Mrs. Felix Mauch, wife of the general agent in New York city of the Toledo. Peoria, and Western railroad, and her two 13-year-old sons, Billy and Bobby. Mrs. M. stands by to keep an eye on her famous twins, who now are starring in “Penrod and His Twin Brother.” But it doesn’t do her much good. “I can’t tell them apart myself,” she confessed. “When one of them needs a whipping. I have to spank both of them to make sure I’m punishing the right one.”
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Old Sol is being amplified by electrical generators on the location site of The Adventures of Robin Hood at Chico. When the sun failed to beam, the company employed the generators. Then the generators failed. At least one of them blew out yesterday afternoon. Al Alborn, the company manager, promptly called the studio to order another generator to be sent out. Fifteen minutes after his call was received, the new generator was on its way to Chico, 600 miles away. It arrived in time for the regular shooting schedule this morning.
