Here is a double feature that is obvious.  The film that made a 26 year old Errol a star and the film that launched his 20 year old son’s European movie career.

What can be said about “Captain Blood” that has not been already said. Every one on this blog should have this film in their collection or they are on the wrong blog. This film is available in its original B & W version, although I personally enjoy the computer colorized version. (Yes I know it’s sacrilege to prefer colorization, but this version was done so well and let’s face it, if color was not so expensive and had been perfected at the time the movie was made it would have been made in color.)

When Sean made his starring debut, he had trained with stuntman and actor Jock Mahoney. Also stuntman extraordinaire Yakima Canutt had acted as second unit director on this film.  While he excelled in the stunt work he did in TSOCB, his acting showed his inexperience in front of the camera. In a  review of the film that appeared in “Variety” (5/18/64), it was said, “that when he learns to act he could be a popular screen personality.” Aside from that, the film has plenty of action and a lovely female lead in the form of Alessandra Panaro. It is also timely with the early civil rights movement because of its depiction of slavery. While it is not available on DVD, here in the U. S., it is available to watch on YouTube in English in a pan and scan version and also in Spanish with fan produced English subtitles. The Spanish version is in a wide screen aspect that shows off its original Dyaliscope aspect. (The wide screen process that was popular in Europe in the sixties.) So here is a fine double feature to enjoy while you are  at home.–A. R.

— ILIKEFLYNN

The maps and article below describe the dire situation in China the very month Errol was there, May 1933.

— Tim

On the packet from Hong Kong to Macao, in May of 1933, Errol fell head over heels for a stunning Eurasian beauty named Ting Ling O’Connor.

The young women with Errol in the photo below may be Ting Ling, or his inspiration for the Ting Ling story. It certainly appears Flynn is tingling. Ting Ling, too.

Errol and Ting Ling headed straight for the notorious “Street of Happiness” – Rua de Felicidade – then the city’s main red light district. Since the mid-1800s, during the late Qing Dynasty, the area was packed with hundreds of brothels and opium dens, in addition to fan-tan parlors. Ting Ling seemed to know her way around the Street of Happiness quite well. It was the wickedest street in “the wickedest city in the Orient.”

Errol thought he had found “the love of [his] life”, … until he woke up the next morning and found that Ting Ling had snuck out of town. Worse, he learned she was a prostitute who played suckers for their money, apparently in cahoots with various casinos and gangsters. In fact, her name wasn’t Ting Ling O’Connor at all, he also learned. She used a series of aliases, her last before Flynn being Yok An Lee.

Errol was badly hurt (emotionally and financially) by Ting Ling’s betrayal, calling it “one of the worst heart drops that had ever happened to [him]”.

So it was back to Hong Kong for Erben and Flynn.

— Tim

When I first picked up a copy of “My Wicked, Wicked Ways”, I was not that familiar with who Errol Flynn was as I did not remember having seen “Adv. of Robin Hood”, but I remembered the one about the guy who cleans up a town as one of my favorites from childhood. “Dodge City” may not be on every one’s list as a classic western, but it is definitely one of the top three favorite westerns on my list. ( Along with “The Searchers” & the original “The Magnificent Seven”).

Errol always felt he was miscast in westerns, but Wade Hatton is one of those characters that fit with the types of heroes he portrayed. He also said his westerns feature a scene where it is explained how he came to be out West. In “Dodge City” it is one of the best scenes when Dusty played by Alan Hale explains to Col. Dodge how Wade came to be out West.

Sean in his “spaghetti western” “Sette Magnifiche Pistole” (“Seven Magnificent Guns” aka “Seven Guns for Timothy”) plays a tenderfoot and intellectual man of peace, who has inherited a gold mine sought after by villain, Rodrigo Rodriguez (played by popular Spanish actor, Fernando Sancho) who will stop at nothing to force Sean to deed him the mine. The foreman of Sean’s mine enlists the aid of four former soldiers who served under him to train Sean to be a rough and tough hombre and go up against Rodriguez. At first Sean is reluctant, but when his pet dog is killed after a raid by Rodriguez on Sean’s ranch he gets with the program. Standing by her man as Sean’s love interest is Italian beauty, Ida Galli. Also on hand is Spanish actor, Daniel Martin who was a staple in these Euro Westerns as one of the seven guns along with the five mentioned above.

“Dodge City” is available on DVD and if you do not have this film in your collection you can not call yourself a fan of Errol Flynn. “Seven Guns for Timothy” is the only film of Sean’s available in English on legitimate DVD in the U.S. It is available as one of many euro westerns in the collection, “10,000 Ways to Die: The Spaghetti Western Collection”.–A. R.

— ILIKEFLYNN

The Lido Club was near Picadilly Circus, on Swallow Street, a short block long known as a hotspot for nightclubs, from the early 20th Century to the Swinging Sixties (George Harrison himself once co-owned a nightclub at 9 Swallow Street.)

A Shot from Right Rear Side, with Errol Smiling

— Tim

Previously I have posted about possible Flynn and son double features such as, “Uncertain Glory” and “Stop Train 349” and “The Big Boodle” and “Mission to Venice”. Today I have put together what I feel is another interesting combination, that of Errol’s “Desperate Journey” and Sean’s “Five Ashore in Singapore”.

Released in 1942, “Desperate Journey”, has Errol and his team after a successful bombing raid over Nazi Germany, having their plane shot down by enemy fire. Then he and the surviving four of his crew must make it out of Germany alive and get back to England. Errol’s crew includes; the ever reliable Alan Hale, Arthur Kennedy and a future US president, Ronald Reagan. Also included is the beautiful actress, Nancy Coleman. While most of the action is of the tongue in cheek kind, the film still has plenty of good thrills under the able direction of Errol’s favorite director, Raoul Walsh.

“Five Ashore in Singapore” (aka “Cinq Gars Pour Singapour”) had its world premiere in 1967 and was Sean’s last starring role. He had as his leading lady the very sexy, Marika Green who also happens to be the aunt of Bond girl, Eva Green. Also according to Perry Deane Young in his book, “Two of the Missing”, Tim Page, Sean’s friend and colleague, who had gone to Singapore with Sean appears as an extra in a scene in the movie. For more on this film, one can read the excellent article by Raphael Millet previously posted on this site.  Suffice it to say Sean also leads a team of five men here to solve the mystery of missing US marines in that capital city.  While not a classic, it still has a lot of action and is a document of its time.   –A.R.

— ILIKEFLYNN