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Archive for the ‘Gentleman Tim’ Category

From the Aussie to the Kiwis, Barbi and Beyond — November 20, 2020

20 Nov

Errol’s Hideaway in Chico

Speaking of Chico …

— Tim

 

Elizabeth and Errol

18 Nov

November 17, 1949

marble-arch.london/culture-blog/royal-film-performance-at-marble-arch-odeon/…

— Tim

 

Mary Anne Hyde and Her “X” — November 15, 1944

17 Nov

From the Los Angeles Public Library. Herald Examiner Collection

— Tim

 

“By and By a Cloud Takes All Away”

14 Nov

Errol had big plans for Thomson Productions, which he hoped would allow him greater control over the growth and direction of his career. Tragically, however, despite the superb production of Uncertain Glory, “a knock on his door had already changed his entire life” …a knock on his door from Los Angeles legal authorities in the Fall of ’42. The die had been cast and Errol was never the same.


November 14, 1946

— Tim

 

“Cupid” Hill – The World’s Greatest Archer

13 Nov

Howard Hill
Born November 13. 1899

Howard Hill was an expert bowman, long regarded “The World’s Greatest Archer”. He established the record for winning the most bow-and-arrow field tournaments in succession, a total of 196 competitions. He also wrote several leading books on the topic. Additionally, he was a tremendous athlete, most notably in football and baseball.

Among his many achievements in archery, Howard Hill in 1928 set a new world record for the farthest recorded flight shot with a bow and arrow, at 391 yards. That same year, he won his 196th field archery competition in a row. Hill, though, was not only one of the most decorated archers in the modern era of target shooting, hunting, and flight archery competitions, he was also a celebrated writer and producer. During his career, he produced 23 films about archery for Warner Bros. He also produced 10 different films of his own and was a technical adviser in many more motion pictures, providing his expertise in the field.

Howard Splitting the Arrow

Forward to Howard’s book, WILD ADVENTURE
Written by Errol

When you meet Howard Hill you know darn well you have met him before, but you can not remember where or when.

Let me solve your problem. If, like myself, you sometimes find yourself hanging on a bar rail and staring over the head of the bar-tender, behind those character-destroying bottles of Four Posies or Old Step Mother, you will spot Hill. There you will see a reproduction of a painting, the cultural contribution of some beer cartel like Somebody and Rusch, depicting Custer’s Last Stand. That American aborigine, that Indian on the piebald pony is Hill. Yes, the guy giving out with the blood­curdling war whoop, drawing a bead on the heroic general (if a bead can be drawn with a bow and arrow Hill is the one who can do it) is our boy. This is no quaint flight of fancy; It has to be Hill. God knows, I have stared at both Hill and his weapon often enough, chilled to the marrow.

When Hill goes after any living creature with his bow for whatever reason, whether for food, motion pictures or sport, he has the same intensity, the same piercing black eyes, the same unmistakable snarl, leering with the triumph of the Indian about to wade up to his navel in the gore of the Paleface, He may be stalking only a rabbit, but it is still Hill.

He calls himself a Cre, I think, and is inordinately proud of it, But he is a real Indian, make no mistake, as this Paleface knows. Confronted by Hill bearing down upon me over the bar on that pinto pony charging over countless hordes of Four Posies, I have always felt a keen sympathy for the unlucky Custer.

It is only our long and enduring friendship (based upon a mutual love for hunting and the Great Outdoors) that has induced me to write this foreword to his book, a thing I would do for no one else. As yet, being on a different continent from him at the moment, I have not had a gander at Howard’s book, but I am sure it is a work calculated to bring out the best kind of savagery in American youth. The book is a cinch to stir many a nervous pulse as Hill has stirred mine in the past. It has to be filled with wild adventure. In it naturally, he will not tell you of the time we were out hunting mountain lions, and having just lassoed one, he had the frenzied brute screeching and turning somersaults at the end of a rope snubbed around a tree. Suddenly Howard yelled, “Here, hold this, and I did, only to find out that I had hold of the tail of the enraged cat instead of the rope. Nor, I suppose, will this savage recount another incident that occurred while we were hunting wild boar on Sana Cruz Island when he left me hanging on the side of a cliff several hundred feet above the rocky sea-shore. While he sat in safety fifty yards away, eating boiled eggs and going into sporadic gales of laughter, he watched me suffer the terrors of chronic vertigo, too petrified to move an inch. Yes, Hill is an Indian.

Although no Indian myself, and having no claim to being perhaps even an exceptional hunter, yet I do have much in common with Hill. The wailing note of the loon floating across a placid lake, the distant high pitched cry of the timber wolf, the roar of the jaguar and the blood-curling cough of the charging wild boar, call to some deep inner response within us both that is not acquainted with modern civilization.

“Cupid” Hill, as I have called Howard ever since we first met while making the picture Robin Hood, has done things with a bow and arrow that few have essayed with the rifle and I for one am going to read his book with great nostalgia, for some of the truly wonderful moments of my life have been spent tagging at Howard’s heels on our hunting trips in many strange corners of the world.

Errol Flynn

Rome, italy


Errol-Related Filmography

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
– Technical adviser and archery instructor

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
– Captain of Archers (credited)
– Elwyn the Welshman (uncredited)

Sword Fishing (October 21, 1939)
– Short Documentary – Himself

Shark Hunting (November 9, 1940)
– Short Documentary – Himself

They Died with Their Boots On (1941)
– Stunts (uncredited)

San Antonio (1945)
– Henchman (uncredited)

Deep Sea Fishing (1952)
– Short documentary – Himself

Cruise of the Zaca
(Released December 6, 1952)
– Short Documentary
– Filmed 1946-47

— Tim

 

Charles Chauvel — The Man Who Launched Errol’s Career in Movies

12 Nov

New York Times — November 12, 1959



Charles Chauvel was both a producer and director, wrote his own scripts and handled casting and a great deal of the publicity. After marrying Charles, South African actress Elsie Sylvany changed her name to Elsa Chauvel and became an instrumental part of Charles productions, handling make-up, continuity in the early films, and later co-writing scripts. Their first sound film “In the Wake of the Bounty” gave Errol Flynn his first screen role, as Fletcher Christian of the Bounty, and was filmed on Tahiti and the remote island of Pitcairn.

Charles Chauvel

(Gorgeous) Elsa Chauvel

In the Wake of the Bounty – The Book

Premier at the Prince Edward Theater in Sydney

How Errol was discovered by Charles Chauvel. …An alternative account, often regarded more accurate, is that Errol was brought to the attention of Chauvel by John Warwick,an actor in the film, who apparently was impressed at Bondi Beach by Errol physique, charisma, and charm, and brought him (possibly to a casting session) to see Chauvel. There has also been a humorous account I heard many years ago – perhaps started by Errol himself – that, in order to get the role of Christian, he deliberately punched and broke the nose of the actor already slated for the role in a Sydney saloon the night before filming began.

— Tim

 

The Impact of World War I on Australia

11 Nov

Remembrance Day, 2020

First and Foremost, Thank You and Great Praise to the Amazingly Valorous Veterans and Active Military of Austtralia, Who have Repeatedly and Very Bravely Risked Their Lives and Sacrificed So Much to Help to Save the World from Evil and Oppression Around the Globe….

How Might World War I have Impacted Errol’s Opinions of War?

Quoting:

~ “World War 1 had a profound impact on Australian society. Anzac Day, commemorating the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 25 April 1915, is Australia’s most important commemorative day. The Anzac legend, representing the Australian fighting man as a resourceful, resilient, even cheerful warrior, has become part of Australia’s folklore. It has been an accepted part of the culture for generations of Australians. More recently it has been questioned increasingly. That same Anzac landing really heralded Australia’s entry into the First World War, a war that took nearly 60,000 Australian lives. The tremendous cost of the War (Australia’s casualty rate, in proportion to the number of troops engaged, was higher than for any other country in the British Empire) left an indelible scar on the nation.”

THE DAMAGE INFLICTED ON THE AUSTRALIAN HOMEFRONT

Dawn Patrol 1938, with Australian-American Errol Flynn…


Errol regarding the sometimes destructive nature of man…


Gallipoli 1981, with American-Australian Mel Gibson…


The Water Diviner 2014, with that other Australian Robin Hood

— Tim

 

Birthday Tribute to Bad Prince John

10 Nov

THE TORRENTIALLY TALENTED CLAUDE RAINS
ONE OF TYE GOLDEN AGES GREATEST ACTORS
BORN NOVEMBER 10, 1883

youtu.be/nPBIWchcAkY…

— Tim

 

Dreams & Contradictions

10 Nov


— Tim

 

It’s Errol Flynn! Pin-up Artist

09 Nov

Released November 9, 1946 – NEVER SAY GOODBYE

— Tim