The Flynn-Inspired Masterpiece was released Forty Years Ago Today
“[George] Lucas described Star Wars [to 20th Century Fox executive Alan Ladd Jr.] as an amalgam of Buck Rogers, Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk, two Errol Flynn swashbucklers. Ladd [who had been greatly impressed by American Graffiti] had grown up with the people who starred in and made these movies and was willing to take a chance on Lucas.” Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas, page 136.
— Tim
More morbid news. There’s no Moore, no more. Godspeed Roger.
much moore from before from shangheinz, no less:
— Tim
The link, info and imagery below include a wealth of Munn shots
and multiple Munn mansions.
One of the illustrious Munns was Countess de Munn,
and this brief story below is one of her most Flynntastic,
written by the legendary Lloyd Pantages.
————
Lloyd Pantages – Los Angeles Examiner I Cover – May 27, 1936
The Countess De Munn started out to Hollywood
with a South American wildcat as a present for
ERROL FLYNN, but while walking it on the deck
of her yacht the kitty jumped overboard and SANK.
So FLYNNSIE is minus a zoo at the moment.
————
— Tim
An EFB Four Score News Report
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – Harrison Carroll – May 1937
“In an open letter to the graduating class of the Black-Foxe Military Academy,
Errol Flynn expounded with some typical Errol Flynn philosophy – urging the boys
to seize adventure from life before settling down to careers. The star is now
embarrassed, trying to think of informative or tactfully discouraging answers to
24 members of the class, who have written him, demanding details on how to do it.”
Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights: Hats Off to Black-Foxe Military Institute
Sean attended Black-Foxe for two years in the Fifties, but, not enjoying its boarding-school isolation and regimentation, left before graduating to live with Lili in Palm Beach.
The school can be seen in the cold war film “My Son John” with Robert Walker, Helen Hayes and Van Heflin. Walker’s real sons, pictured below, also attended the school. (Walker died during the shooting of this film, which had to be finished with film he shot in a Hitchcock film shot a few years earlier.)
— Tim
SHEILA GRAHAM – Hollywood Citizen News – May 8, 1947
I was on the set when Errol Flynn knocked out Barton MacLane
for a scene in Silver River. I’ve often been told the
story of the star who punched too soon, and the guy who forgot
to duck, and never believed it. But this I saw. Poor Errol.
It really hurt him more than MacLane. “It was the first time in
12 years,” he assured me, “that a punch of mine ever connected.”
Barton, of course, is used to movie risks because he’s usually
cast as a heavy. In the old days when a punch connected with his
jaw, he’d fight back, when he came to. Now he writes it off as an
occupational hazard.
Here’s what is reportedly the only known photo of the literary Garden of Allah gal,
Sheila Graham, and her over-the-hill beau, F. Scott Fitzgerald – on Revolution Boulevard in Tijuana!
Fitzgerald used to get angry and drunk at the thought Errol might possibly flirt with Sheila,
by far the best looking of what she called the “unholy trio” of Hollywood gossip columnists-
her, Hedda and Louella.
Below is Flynn vs. MacLane, preceding Errol’s knock out punch.
— Tim
An EFB Four Score News Report
In 1937, at her 118-room beach house in Santa Monica, Marion Davies threw William Randolph Hearst a birthday bash to end all birthday bashs. By all accounts, this circus-themed extravaganza was a sight to behold. One sight, however, surely didn’t please Citizen Hearst, though. That was the sight of Errol Flynn and co-troublemaker David Niven dressed-up as a two-man elephant “shovel brigade”. The elephant in the 118-room beach mansion, of course, was WR, the birthday boy himself.
… Only Flynn would have the nerve to pull such a prank against the career-breaking Citizen Hearst.
LOS ANGELES EVENING HERALD EXPRESS – May 2, 1937
Huge Stories and lots of photos on W.R. Hearst’s Birthday Party.
One photo with Cary Grant and many other revelers, including
Randolph Scott and Marion Davies as trapeze performers, calling
themselves The Flying San Simeons. Errol Flynn and David Niven
made up a shovel brigade, wearing blue and white striped sweatshirts
with tight fitting trousers, Miss Davies costumed as Russian Circus
performer on Merry Go Round. Others attending:
Basil Rathbone, Hal Roach, Walter Wanger, Clarence Brown, Harold Lloyd,
Henry Fonda, Lloyd Bacon, Mervyn LeRoy, James Gleason, Charles Boyer,
Leslie Howard, Samuel Goldwyn, Frank McHugh, Lucien Hubbard, Hal Wallis,
Pat O’Brien, Gary Cooper, Ben Hecht, Walter Winchell, Alice Faye, Stu Erwin,
Pandro Berman, Carole Lombard, Aileen Pringle, Anita Louise, Ginger Rogers,
Marlene Dietrich, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Charles Ruggles, Tyrone Power Jr.,
Clark Gable, Adrian, King Vidor, Caesar Romero, Jackie Coogan, Louis B. Mayer,
zillions of others.
— Tim
An EFB Four Score News Report:
Wouldn’t this have been wunderbar!
Dostoyevsky: Directed by Max Reinhardt! Starring Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Edward G. Robinson and Basil Rathbone!!!!
A LITTLE FROM LOTS
Film Daily – Ralph Wilk – April 30, 1947
Feodor Dostoievsky’s celebrated novel, The Gamblers will be directed for Warners by Max Reinhardt with a stellar cast including Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, and Basil Rathbone.
Louella O. Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner – May 3, 1937
You can’t blame Warners for becoming enthused over Edward G. Robinson all over again since the previews of Kid Gallahad, for Eddie is really swell! There’s not going to be any letdown either, for now he is scheduled for Max Reinhart’s The Gamblers, and what a cast they are recruiting for Dostoievsky’s famous novel, with Eddie, Errol Flynn, Bette Davis and Basil Rathbone heading the list! Milton Krims, who scripted Green Light, and Harold Heinz arecollaborating on the screen play that unites almost every big star on the Warner lot. It goes into production in a few weeks and precede’s Flynn’s
Robin Hood.
Here’s a lushly produced version from 1977:
What roles do you think Errol, Bette, Edward G., and Dear Baz would have played in the Max Reinhart version?
And here’s a loose adaptation of the novel(la) from MGM, titled “The Great Sinner”, with Gregory Peck and a stunningly gorgeous Ava Gardner, leading a cast of acting legends, including Ethel Barrymore, Melvin Douglas, Walter Huston, Agnes Moorehead, and Frank Morgan.
— Tim
