RSS
 

Archive for the ‘Main Page’ Category

Sean Fantome

09 Mar

Dear Flynnmates,

a 1990 PARIS MATCH article about Sean Flynn`s last months in Cambodia titled: “Le Fantome de Sean Flynn”, draws its conclusions about what ultimately happened to the son of Captain Blood.

The main source is Tim Page`s quest together with an English broadcasting team to locate the tomb of Sean. The other two are the books “Dispatches” of Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket inspirator Michael Herr and “Enquete sur un crucifié” of a certain Jean Lartéguy. The in depth coverage depicts a probable turn of events surrounding the disappearances of Sean Flynn and his correspondent companion Dana Stone on April 6th 1970.

While the Sixties were gearing up for a space conquering second halftime, Sean was looking for new ventures which could give his life meaning. All mundane things other youngsters are eternally longing for, had almost come way too easy for the charming and charismatic offspring of Ol`Errol and Tiger Lil`. He had six movies under an inherited swashbuckler`s belt, but with each outing on film his father`s shadow seemed only to grow larger. All of a sudden he was stuck with the sole role of playing Riviera heartthrob around the elusive beaches of tiny Saint Tropez. When his innate need for artistic expression urged venting, he set out to become a photographer. His first assignment was to cover the Vietnam War for Paris Match in 1966.

“The only true adventure in life is war and death, and I will live this adventure.” True to his word he participated in covert operations of the Green Berets, always in the middle of combat action. Young soldiers, who never had heard of Errol Flynn, kept questioning themselves, what had brought this good looking guy to this forlorn front line, while most of them had been drafted to go to war against their wills. Sean`s fierceness earned him the respect of military man, whose orders a free spirit like his could have never obeyed, had he become a soldier. Four fighting years on it seemed that he had completely forgotten his pledge to settle in Bali and the plan to built a house by the sea. He no longer felt the son of a Hollywood hero. He had found his true calling. Finally he had become the original instead of a remake of his old man.

The open door Mercedes with flat tires right in the middle of Highway RC No.1 has ambush written over it. Sean and Dana discuss how to proceed on their red Honda motorcycles. Dana argues the main road connecting Saigon with Phnom Penh, where the wife of Dana Stone was waiting, to be fairly safe. While Sean opts for a U- turn, Stone wants to press on to go get Louise. So they do. On the morning of April 6th the two daredevil reporters disappear five miles east of the village of Chi Phou. Around that time the 40th reconnaissance battalion of the North Vietnamese army was on retreat after an offense by the US army in that area . Officially Cambodia still is a neutral country. But by 1970 it had become a clandestine battleground between North Vietnam and the US. An extraterritorial, mountainous retreat for the North Vietnamese is another massive roadblock on the American way to victory. Hanoi would not, the USA could not admit a geographical extension of the war of the two Vietnams. Dana and Sean had stumbled upon a military secret not deemed ready to expose to the world.

Tim Page thinks the two are stripped off their shoes and made to walk barefoot on concrete for four miles to an adjacent temple. There they are interrogated, with Sean handling the procedure speaking French fluently. This will get you nowhere, when the North Vietnamese officer can still remember vividly the French as the last oppressor army from the Indochina war before. They then supposedly are turned over to the local Khmer Rouge chieftain of the village. After taking Sean`s Rolex watch the Khmer in chief sends them up north to a plantation in Songe Kaong. From there they are tossed from village to village like hot potatoes. First from Roko Khaor to Peu, later on to Kharach Chmar. A female political commissar called El Am Nas recalled Dana Stone having lost his glasses and being very sick. Their last stop comes at the village of Bei Met. Unsure what to do with two foreign non soldiers no side was claiming, Page speculates, they are executed at the banks of the Mekong River not later than June 12th of 1971.

Madame Nas said, despite an apparent undernourishment, Sean still handled himself gracefully under pressure. Not only his hair and height set him apart. His striking presence had not left him. He lived his dream and it showed.

Don`t look for his bones. Look for his soul on a solitary beach in Bali.

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

 

Celebrated Personalities

07 Mar

March 6, 1938

Los Angeles Examiner

Filmdom’s Elite Will Attend Reception for Mrs. Payson

Each year the Santa Anita racing season augments the number of our celebrated personalities by bringing other celebrities of the cosmopolitan world to sojourn a while in our fair village. Salient among them is the engaging Mrs. Joan Whitney Payson. And when Kendall and Lewis Milestone entertain today at cocktail time at their Beverly Hills home , she will be the party’s honored guest.

Among the illustrious cocktail sippers they’ll be Jessica and Richard Barthelmess, Ronald Colman and Benita Hume, the Bert Allenbergs, Winifred and Warner Baxter, Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, te Phil Bergs, the John Hay Whitneys, Hope and Louis Lighton, te C.V. Whitneys, Miriam Hopkins and Anatol Litvak, Rouben Mamoulian, Joan Bennett, the Nigel Bruces, Pat Patterson and Charles Boyer, Dixie and Bing Crosby.

Jean Negulesco and Binnie Barnes, the William Goetzes, Kay and John Cromwell, Constance Bennett, Gilbert Roland, Eddie Sutherland, Tala Barell, Bruce Cabot, Whitney Bourne, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell, the Miriam Coopers, Mary Astor and Manuel Campo, Heather Thatcher, George Cukor, Ouid and Basil Rathbone, Tim Durant, Marlene Dietrich, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Lili Damita and Errol Flynn, Kay Francis, Whitney de Rham, Eddie Duchin, the Samuel Goldwyns, Janet Gaynor and Tyrone Power.

Also the Georg Fitzmauriees, Alfred Vanderbilt, Anita Loos and John Emerson, Christopher Dumphy, Dr. Harry Martin and Louella O. Parsons, Delmar Daves, the Lawrence Foxes, Cesar Romero, Ethel Merman, Harry Evans, Sally and Norman Foster, Winston Frost, Fransces Marion, Cary Grant, the Howard Hawks, Edmund Golden, theCourtland Hills, Alma and Frank Morgn, Vivian and Ernst Lubitsch, Andy Lawlor, Due de Verdura, Elizabeth Meyer, Ann and Jack Warner.

The Mervyn LeRoys, the Ainsworth Morgans, Sue and Chester Morris, the Bob Montgomerys, the Walter O’Keefe’s, Julie and George Murphy, David Niven, Florence Rice, Jean Arthur and Frank Rice, the Wells Roots, Wesley Ruggles, Virginia Bruce and J. Walter Rubent.

The David Selznicks, Loretta Young, Robert Riskin, the Grantland Rices, the Myron Selznicks, Fay Wray, Gregory Ratoff, Virginia and Daryl Zanuck, etc.

Ann Sheridan, Errol and Lewis Milestone on the Set of Edge of Darkness

The pioneering Joan Payson, the first woman to own a Major League baseball team (and win a Pennant and World Series.) Here with Tom Seaver, Bud Harrelson and Nancy Seaver.

— Tim

 

Robin de Los Bosques Arrives in London

06 Mar

March 5, 1937, Errol and Erben arrived in London:

“In 1935, Flynn married French-American actress Lili Damita (divorcing in 1942), with whom he had a very stormy relationship, with frequent physical fights. They were called the “Fighting Flynns,” and he called his wife “Tiger Lili.” When his friend Dr. Herman F. Erben (1897-1985) proposed that he and Errol travel to Spain in 1937, Flynn jumped at the opportunity. The friends had met three years earlier on April 14, 1933 in Salamaua, New Guinea. Born in Vienna, Erben was a physician and a world traveler, adventurer, and photographer, making a living primarily as a ship’s doctor. The two adventurers liked each other from the start and traveled together for a couple of months through the Far East. (Thomas McNulty, “Errol Flynn: The Life and Career.” Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004. pp. 23-24) So, in early 1937, Flynn decided to go to Spain as a war correspondent with a commission from Hearst Press, to get away from it all (some say to, literally, escape from his wife) or perhaps just for the adventure. “Arriving in Spain, I felt I was right back in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’” (Errol Flynn, “What Really Happened to Me in Spain” Photoplay, July 1937: 12-15). Flynn and his enigmatic traveling companion, Dr. Erben, left on the Queen Mary on February 24, 1937, arriving in Southhampton, England on March 1.”

“On March 5, 1937, they arrived in London.”

Quoting “Robin de Los Bosques in the Spanish War

— Tim

 

Flynn Tell

04 Mar

Dear Flynnstones,

finally we can get a one eye glimpse at Errol`s missing masterpiece “The story of William Tell”. The graphic novel “One against an empire” features a William Tell with Flynn`s features. Some scenes even resemble some of the movie stills of that missed appleshot from 1953. The content however striktly relies on the Friedrich Schiller book. A historic hybrid if you will, but not the baddest match.

Enjoy,

 

— shangheinz

 

Cameraman & Referee: Best Assignment He Ever Had

26 Feb

On February 26, 2006, the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to Richard Kline. a prestigious honor presented annually to an individual who has made exceptional and enduring contributions to the art of filmmaking.

Richard Kline was born on Nov. 15, 1926, into a Los Angeles family that included three prominent ASC cinematographers: his father, Benjamin H. Kline, and two uncles, Sol Halperin and Philip Rosen. However, he said, he took up camera work at age 16 not out of any great love for the craft — his passion was surfing — but because World War II was raging, and his father believed such training would help him qualify for a camera unit when he was called to serve. He started at Columbia Pictures in 1943 as a slate boy on the Technicolor musical Cover Girl, and by the time he entered the U.S. Navy the following year, he had advanced to first assistant cameraman, spending two months in Acapulco filming The Lady from Shanghai. “Welles was brilliant, and here I was, this kid along for the ride.”

“In Acapulco, we used Errol Flynn’s yacht, The Zaca. Apart from a brief cameo, Flynn did not appear in Shanghai”

“Errol Flynn and Orson Welles were quite a pair. There was never a dull moment.” “We were on location down in Acapulco and it was a very wild time.” “Errol lent his yacht to Orson for the film. Errol himself served as the skipper.”

“Along with the rest of the crew, one of Kline’s responsibilities was to referee the nightly bar fights that would break out between Welles and Flynn after the two had spent several hours heavily “unwinding.””

Orson, Rita and Chula

Orson and Richard Kline

In order to shoot the location sequences, a company of 50 Hollywood actors and technicians flew to Acapulco, along with 60 Mexican extra players and technicians from Mexico City. More than 15 tons of equipment were shipped from Hollywood, one order of six tons comprising the largest single air express shipment ever undertaken by a movie location company.

Scenes were filmed above and below decks, at anchorages in Acapulco Harbor, at Fort San Diego in Acapulco Bay, at Morro Rocks and other scenic spots, as well as at sea. A lavish new night club, Ciro’s, located atop the swank Casablanca Hotel in Acapulco, also served as a setting, as did the 25-mile stretch of white sand beach at Pied de la Cuesta.

The transportation of heavy sound and camera equipment through the tangled Mexican jungle was a major problem, but overcome by the sheer manpower of several hundred Mexican porters and canoe men. Sound trucks and generators were placed on native canoes lashed together to form barges, and then were floated through jungle-cluttered streams into shooting position.

“Shooting aboard the yacht was, from the space standpoint very difficult, and these scenes, as they appear in the picture, are necessarily cramped in composition — but this actually worked in favor of the overall effect because it produced an authentic atmosphere of crowded life aboard a small yacht.”

During filming aboard The Zaca, a long line of native dugout canoes anchored astern formed a bridge from the barge holding the generator so that electrical cables could be stretched for the camera and sound equipment.

Said Kline six decades later: ” It was the best assignment I ever had,”

(Left) On location in Mexico, Welles briefs his crew prior to filming a sequence. (Center) The Zaca is anchored in Acapulco Harbor. Astern are a line of barges over which electrical cable was stretched between the yacht and the generator boat. (Right) For a scene shot in the jungle streams of Mexico, the camera is mounted on a dugout canoe alongside the boat in which the principle players ride.

— Tim

 

Happy Birthday to Nora!

25 Feb

Errol’s beautiful wife, Nora, was born as Lenora Verna Eddington on February 25, 1924, in Chicago, at 3:45 pm. Happy Birthday, Nora!

— Tim

 

Quiz Lite: What Movie was It?

09 Feb

February 8

Was filmed largely in a city where Errol once lived.

Two of the stars knew Errol personally, but in very different ways.

One first met him in the 1930s. The other first met him in the 1950s.

One starred in movies with Errol. The other did not.

Both also knew Lili, but in very different ways.

Images Added Wednesday, ~ 3:33 PM EST US

— Tim

 

Errol Acquitted!

06 Feb

February 6, 1943

— Tim

 

“The Party is On”

27 Jan

January 27, 1949

Louella O. Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner

I couldn’t have been more surprised when a message was left at my house “to hold February 12 for a dinner-dance at the home of Errol Flynn, please.”

Ever since his rift with Nora, Errol g]has been serving few of his old friends and has been giving no parties at all, even though he is one of our finest hosts. But sure enough, the party is on.

I think this is because Errol is really happy making Forsythe Saga and is to be gay and forget his domestic troubles. If he and Greer Garson ever had any disagreements that’s all in the past. He says she is one of the most intelligent, talent and swell girls he has ever worked with.

— Tim

 

The Prince, the Pauper, and the Malarial Superstar (Plus a Sick Director)

26 Jan

The Prince, the Pauper, and the Malarial Superstar (Plus a Sick Director)

January 27, 1937

Harrison Carroll

Evening Herald Express

Errol Flynn is back at work on The Prince and the Pauper after days out with the flu and malaria.

January 28, 1937

Elizabeth Yeaman

Hollywood Citizen News

The Prince and the Pauper has been plagued by flu. Errol Flynn, the star, was out of the cast for two weeks with a combined attack of flu and malaria. He finally reported for work on Monday. And todaydirector William Keighley took to his bed with flu. So William Dieterle has been rushed in to complete the picture which should be finished within another week.

HISTORY AND DOCUMENTATION OF ERROL’S MALARIA

Part 1

Errol’s Malaria

Errol’s Malaria — Part 1 — Blood-Thirsty Ann

Part II

Bitten in New Britain

Errol’s Malaria — Part 2 — Bitten in New Britain? … Or was it New Ireland? Or was it New Hanover? Or ….

Part III

Recurrences

Errol’s Malaria – Part 3 – Reports of Recurrences

— Tim