I have the distinct privilege, and the blessings of the powers that be, to pass on some news.
An emeritus member of this group (and in the hierarchy of STELLAR Flynn SUPER contributors which include the likes of Conrad, Thomas, Freedland, Morris, Valenti, Moore, McNulty, Matzen, Mcaleer and, of course, Hurst), Robert Florczak has shared that he is in talks to publish, FINALLY, his magnum opus effort on “Errol Flynn, The Illustrated Life Chronology”.
And… borrowing from a familiar quote: “His Highness, Prince “Robert”, will make further public pronouncement tomorrow.”
Tomorrow being, possibly, “a long time” but hopefully, NOT!
Suffice it to say it may well be sooner rather that LATER!
First emerging from medieval ballads in the 14th century, the legend of Robin Hood was expanded during Shakespeare’s day, and Sir Walter Scott took it up in Ivanhoe in 1820. Hollywood picked up the tale with Errol Flynn’s masterpiece in 1938, and later with Disney’s popular animated 1973 version, followed by more recent versions including a film by Ridley Scott.
Oklahoma has its own inspiring connection to this timeless tale. In 1943 a band of roughnecks in their teens and early 20s volunteered for a secret mission to go abroad to assist in developing an oil field located deep in England’s Sherwood Forest. Oklahoma-based Noble Drilling Co., along with Fain-Porter signed a contract to drill 100 wells to help fuel England, mired in World War II and desperate for oil, merely for costs and expenses.
England’s oil production had shot from 300 barrels of oil a day to more than 3,000 barrels of oil a day.
By the end of the war, more than 3.5 million barrels of crude had been pumped from England’s “unsinkable tanker” oilfields.
Today, The Oil Patch Warrior, a seven foot bronze statue of an Oklahoma roughneck holding a four foot pipe wrench stands near Nottingham England.
New article on when Errol appeared on In Town Tonight BBC show humorously trying to convince host John Ellison to get his cheque book out to help fund the completion of The Adventures of William Tell.
“In this light-hearted interview, swashbuckling Hollywood star Errol Flynn talks with John Ellison about the filming of his current movie, which recounts the story of folk hero William Tell, and explains that he is in London to see whether anyone can lend him the £50,000 he needs to complete it.”
The passing of a Flynn film alumnus who scored the rousing music for the film Kim among others…
Previn also made this recording:
“Previn Conducts Korngold: The Sea Hawk”
Suites from film scores. Andre Previn, London Symphony Orchestra. DG 289 471 347-2.
And finally, there is a charming little story involving Flynn and Previn on the Kim set that I can’t recall nor find referenced in the books at hand… perhaps someone else will come through?
Country: USA
Language: English, Spanish
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 50min
Film Year: 2018
Category: Documentary Achievement Award
Cuba’s pre-revolution obsession with Hollywood cinema in the first half of the 20th century led Havana to create some of the most majestic movie palaces of their time in the Americas, where millions of Cubans spent their evenings gazing at the silver screen stars of yesteryear. One of those stars, Errol Flynn, Hollywood’s most famous swashbuckler, traveled to Cuba in late 1958 to overcome his stage a Hollywood comeback, but instead found himself in the middle of a real-life adventure more improbable than the plot of any film he ever made: recklessly endorsing the rhetoric of Fidel Castro and the soon-to-come revolution. Flynn self-produced a disastrous B-movie, Cuban Rebel Girls, and died soon afterwards.
Miami filmmaker Gaspar González finds in Flynn’s demise a fitting parallel to the end of Hollywood glamor in the Havana movie palaces. Although many of the great Havana movie houses are still standing, they are haunted by their long-gone heydays. With a detailed and careful eye, González reflects on the remnants of a film culture that so deeply affected and defined a nation’s collective memory.
SHOWTIMES:
CREDITS
Director: Gaspar González
Producer: Gaspar González
Screenwriter: Gaspar González
Executive Producer: Gaspar González
Production Company: Hammer and Nail Productions
Music: Mickey de Grand IV
Cinematographer: Richard Patterson
Editor: Jorge Rubiera
Cast: Scott Eyman, Megan Feeney, Christina Lane, Nat Chediak
It was just announced that Star Wars Episode IX, will be released in December. Though the “final chapter of the Star Wars saga”, Errol’s inspiration on the series has been profound, from the very start, as confirmed by the quotes below.
Lucas and Spielberg
“If one man defines the era of swashbuckling Hollywood action that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (used as a model) it’s Errol Flynn.”
Harrison Ford/Hans Solo
“Ford’s Han Solo is a watershed creation … a conscious throwback —you can see Errol Flynn’s lightness there …”
Billy Dee Williams/Lando Calrissian
“I patterned Lando after actors I saw when I was a boy, like Errol Flynn and all those swashbucklers. I always liked those bigger-than-life characters.”
“Lando is fun-loving, kind of roguish. He was a swashbuckling character, kind of an Errol Flynn. I wanted to make the character bigger than life.”
Samuel K. Jackson/Mace Windu
“Errol Flynn films he watched as a boy informed his role in Star Wars.”
“What I love about ‘Star Wars’ is that it’s your basic Errol Flynn movie, but it’s science fiction,”
“For me, it was the ’70’s Errol Flynn movie. And as a kid I’d always wanted to be … that swash-buckling pirate, you know — jumping over stuff and getting busy that way. And all of a sudden we got some space buccaneers.”
Alden Ehrenreich/Hans Solo in Solo: A Star Wars Story
“Ehreneich channels a young Errol Flynn as this galaxy’s favorite rogue.”
Carrie Fisher
“Not only all this, but we find Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian, sporting that imperious hauteur and even Princess Leia’s hairdo long before they were fashionable.”
Light-Saber Duels
Errol Flynn’s charming scoundrel may be closer in character to Han Solo than Luke Skywalker, but his acrobatic swordplay – especially the famous fight with Basil Rathbone – became a crucial touchstone for the latter’s saber choreography. Bob Anderson was a fencing choreographer and double for both Flynn (in the 50s) and for Star Wars.
John Williams
The composer of this matinee favourite was one Erich Wolfgang Korngold, from whom John Williams derived a brassy, fanfare-rich approach to orchestration and even a theme or two – Korngold’s score for King’s Row (1942) was used as a temp track while Lucas was cutting Star Wars together.
