Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – April 5, 1937
FLYNN, WITH FACE CREASED BY BULLET, ON WAY TO VALENCIA
It was a close shave, but Errol Flynn today survived his first taste of off-the-screen warfare
with his swoon-provoking features enhanced, if possible, by the crease of a machine-gun bullet.
The Captain of Captain Blood and the leader of the Charge of the Light Brigade was wounded
on the left side of his face while on a tour of the University City front in Northwestern Madrid, the
only point where the rebels have a foothold within the capital.
Friends say the bullet passed dangerously close to Flynn’s left eye. He was given first aid at the
hospital, and left for Valencia yesterday morning.
ACTOR WARNING TO KEEP OUT OF SPAIN RECALLED BY STUDIO
Officials at Warner Brothers Studios hated to say “I told you so” – but they recalled today a stern warning
given to adventurous Errol Flynn before he left here Feb 22 last.
The 27-year-old actor was warned not to go into revolt-torn Spain, studio executives said. Furthermore, they
said, when they heard he was bound for Spain, they cabled him in Paris to return here at once and start work
on a picture.
Today the studio received with consternation reports that the young favorite had been wounded while watching
a battle near Madrid.
Los Angeles Evening Herald Express – April 5, 1937
LILI DAMITA MAY FLY TO WOUNDED ERROL FLYNN
All Lili Damita is sure of today is that she must get post-haste to the side
of her wounded husband, Errol Flynn — by airplane if possible.
After a night of frantic worry over the fate of the handsome actor-adventurer
as the result of an alarmist telephone call from a London friend saying Flynn
had been killed near Madrid, Miss Damita planned to ask the foreign office for
a special permit to fly to Spain.
The actress poured out her thanks in a torrent of emotional words when she was
informed that latest information said that Flynn had been only slightly wounded
and had left Madrid for Valencia.
(Madrid advisers said Flynn was grazed on the head by a machine gun bullet
when he was visiting the University City front.)
In the meantime Miss Damita made frantic efforts to get in touch with Flynn,
planning to defer her departure until she gets direct word from her husband.
Her only worry as she prepared from Leeds Castle in Kent to the foreign office
here was whether the reported injury to Flynn’s handsome Irish face will mar his
film career.
I was on Facebook the other day and noticed that Jack Marino’s old friend, actor William Smith, had turned 84. Bill Smith is retired now but among his many film credits you already know him for are such films as Any Which Way You Can with Clint Eastwood, Darker than Amber with Rod Taylor, and Twilight’s Last Gleaming with Burt Lancaster. TV audiences remember him from his role on Rich Man, Poor Man as the evil Falconetti. But he also appeared in literally hundreds of top classic tv shows like “Kung Fu,” “The Bearcats,” “Columbo,” “Mission Impossible,” “Ironside,” “The Six Million Dollar Man,” “Police Woman,” “The Rockford Files,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Kolchak, The Night Stalker,” “SWAT,” “Police Story,” “Logan’s Run,” “Vegas,” “Fantasy Island,” “The Dukes of Hazard” and “The A Team.” And as Conan the Barbarian’s father! And there is another film performance that links him to Errol Flynn. Jack Marino cast him in the role of General Gregori Zelenkov in the 1990 film directed by our own Jack Marino, FORGOTTEN HEROES. Jack even plays a small role in the film himself. See him in the Trailer below chomping on a cigar!
The war in Viet Nam War was deeply unpopular. And if you were in uniform during that war as in all wars you did your duty as well and as bravely as any other soldier in any war throughout history. But when you got home from this war, the welcome was not the same as it was for the heroes of other wars. It was not until years later that any sort of respect for the veterans of the Viet Nam War was recognized. Jack’s film FORGOTTEN HEROES was made to address the overdue respect these veterans deserved and to be a great adventure story as well, and as I was reading more about the film on Facebook (I had seen the DVD release and had a chance to meet William Smith at Jack and Louise’s now legendary 100th birthday centennial for Errol Flynn in Hollywood in 2009, and had Smith sign my copy of the DVD) I noticed a review of the film written by filmmaker Steve Latshaw who was at the party that lasted over five days! Steve had written the review in 2008. It was on Facebook the other day, too. Jack had posted this:
Hollywood is a tough and unforgiving business and when a fellow artist, filmmaker, writer admires your work and puts it in writing, it makes all this struggle worth it.
Jack
“I am watching FORGOTTEN HEROES tonight and am reminded of what a beautiful, heartfelt film it is. You’ve seen it so many times it’s impact may be lost on you. It’s truly a great film, beautifully shot. And I loved the nods to Errol, particularly the incredible scene where the surfer has been tortured and asks the Greek to kill him. It reminded me of the great scene in Objective Burma – but you took it further and the emotional impact was profound.
I have made over 35 movies in my career. I have always wanted to make a film that would affect people lives in a profound and positive way. I haven’t yet done so. I’ve often said I’d give up my career if I could make one film like that. You did it right out of the gate.
I am and continue to be in awe of your passion and envious of your talent.
Bung Ho!
Steve
Steve Latshaw – Filmmaker
April 13, 2008
And that is not the only nod to Flynn. Jack, always a Flynn fan, and a friend of the Flynn family, adds a few Flynn touches like dueling shadows, some western style gunplay and even a bit of swordplay! You can’t miss these references if you love dear old Errol and never do these moments get in the way of the exciting story. They just make you smile and appreciate them.
That takes a lot of skill on Jack’s part.
And to help bring a bit of recognition to the veterans of the Viet Nam War Jack decided to donate a portion of every DVD ordered from his Forgotten Heroes the Movie website to benefit veterans.
If you know a veteran, please consider sending them a copy of this extraordinary movie. And share Forgotton Heroes the Movie homepage on a few Social Media for others to see …
By all accounts, Errol was a consummate, and very prolific prankster. World class, I’m sure. Being that this is April Fools Day, it seems like a perfect time to document and discuss some of Errol’s practical jokes, and alleged practical jokes. Surely there were hundreds, maybe thousands, most now lost forever. There are enough accounts existing, however, for us to get a good flavor of his sensational sense of humor.
My favorite may be one I heard on Hollywood Boulevard from a tour guide a few years back when my son and I attended a TCM Classic Movie Festival. It’s vintage Flynn, something only he could have pulled off with such magnificent flair and humor. … I will post it up later, but, first:
Here’s an untoppable, top tier EFB post by Flynnmaestro King Karl Holmberg. Awesome, Karl. Thanks!
The Warner Bros. are sincerely worried over their failure to locate Errol Flynn,
who was hastily summoned back to Hollywood when it was learned that he was
planning to penetrate war-torn Spain. Errol was in Paris, and last Friday he told
his wife, Lili Damita, he was leaving for Spain. He left, while Lili remained in Paris.
He didn’t tell her where he was going in Spain, and apparently Lili didn’t bother to inquire.
Robert Schless, head of the Warner Paris office, has not been able to locate him. Errol,
when he left, was determined to do some war corresponding in Spain. He started to make
arrangements with the United States for some special articles, but the studio jumped in
and soured the deal. Errol threatened that he would make arrangements with an English syndicate.
This he may have done.
Warners cabled him to be back here by April 15, to start the The Perfect Specimen.
I doubt if they actually had a picture ready for him, but hoped to get him back on the plea of urgency.
Miriam Hopkins has been announced for the co-starring spot in The Perfect Specimen, but that
announcement is quite premature, for she has not been signed for the role.
Flynnvestigating other matters, I came across claims and suggestions implying that Errol may have owned a lake and cabin/hunting lodge at the long now gone “TWIN LAKES PARK”, “Twenty-five miles from Hollywood”, aka “Southern California’s Garden of the Gods”. One site suggests, too, that he even built a dam at near his alleged lodge.
Quoting a comment on the great Iverson Movie Ranch post linked below:
“One of the “Twin Lakes” was reputed to belong to Errol Flynn and the dam can still be seen from DeSoto Ave. (North of the 118) Flynn had a cabin (The old Dave Rhodes Ranch) and he used to hunt in the area.”
Does anyone have any information or thoughts on these claims? Should we be hunting for this lakeside lodge of Errol Flynn? – Or are these claims of Flynn’s lakeside lodge a dam mistake?
Here are front and back looks of a now long gone entrance to Twin Lakes Park:
Here’s a glimpse of the Twin Lakes gate in White Heat, filmed by Raoul Walsh:
welcome to a new installement of a Flynn film Errol wasn`t in.
The year of 1959 marked the death of Our Man Flynn, which brought the cloak and dagger genre to a full stop. Just when the Old Swashbuckler hung up his boots, the Caucasian Chin, Kirk Douglas, put on his sandals to plough the field of sword and sand movie extravaganzas. Just like Charlton Heston had done successfully in “Ben Hur” prior that year. Not only did Douglas secure the services of one blacklisted author John Trumbo for “Spartacus”, but also of a young director named Stanley Kubrick, whom he had met while filming “Paths of Glory”.
Originally Kube had planned to do “Lolita”, a film version of the Nabokov novel, deemed untransmittable to the screen due to its paedophilic context. Nevertheless the Bronx born filmmaker was dead set to achieve the impossible. While Hollywood Studios readily declined the offer to finance the precocious project, the film was made three years later in England instead.
Errol Flynn had been approached to play Professor Humbert Humbert and enthusiatically accepted the offer under the condition he was to play opposite of his own nymphette, Beverly Aadland. But the package deal fell flat, mainly because Errol`s last love at 16 (!) already was too old to depict a 12-14 year old teenager. Had it gone through, Flynn would have been reunited with another real life love of old of his, since Shelley Winters had been cast for the female lead.
Other leading actors considered for the main role were Laurence Olivier, David Niven and Peter Ustinov. Ultimately it was James Mason`s turn to portrait Prof. Lovesicko.
Vladimir Nabokov did write a script for the screen adaptation of his lust story and came up with a 700 page treatment. We can take a peeping tom`s look here: www.openculture.com… and it also sells here: www.amazon.com…
Before Sue Lyon got to wear those heart shaped sunglasses and sucking lollipops, Jill Hayworth, Joey Heatherton, Tuesday Weld and Hayley Mills were considered for the part of little Lolita. The director later said that French teenie star Catherine “Zazie” Demongeot would have been a good choice also.
Tamar Hodel, the daughter of the number one suspect in the Black Dahlia murder, claimed in a Vanity fair article, that singer Michelle Phillips from “The Mamas and the Papas” originally procured young Lyon with the novel and gave her a rubdown what it was all about: www.vanityfair.com…
Sue, who attended the premiere in New York City at age 15, would have been still to young to buy a ticket for the movie legally: www.youtube.com…
Peter Sellars came up with a stellar performance as Clare Quilty. He remembered his Golden Globe awarded role fondly: “Quilty was a fantastic nightmarish character, part homosexual, part drug addict, part sadist, part masochist, part anything twisted and unhealthy you can think of. He had to be horrifying and at the same time funny. I had never met anyone at all like this so I just had to guess, to construct an imaginative idea for myself of what such a person must be like. When I saw myself on the screen, I thought ‘This time you’ve done it – no one will ever believe this.’ But then in the U.S. I actually ran into a couple of people who might almost have been role models for the character and I began to think, ‘Oh, well, perhaps you weren’t so far out after all.” It is commonly seen as blueprint for his next character in the Kubrick film “Dr. Strangelove.”
Somehow this unmakeable movie material sparked the careers of all involved. One can only wonder if our Hollywood hero had walked away from an Academy Award in order to do “Cuban Rebel Girls”.
here`s a little appeTVizer of Errol`s 1957 television outing “Without incident”, a back to the boots western starring Ann Sheridan, John Ireland and Julie London.
Ann steals the scene chanting the English folksong “Greensleeves”, baiting the about- to- attack- Apaches.
