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A FLYNN FAMILY STAY AT HOME DOUBLE FEATURE (“Desperate Journey” & “Five Ashore in Singapore”)

03 May

 

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

 
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La Charge Fantastique

02 May

During Nazi occupation of France in World War II, the showing of “American, Russian, and British, films were out of the question.” Directed primarily by Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, film censors were especially assiduous in barring presentation of Jewish productions out of Hollywood. Warner Brothers were/was at the top of their hit list. In the post war years, however, movie fans in France and throughout Europe very much welcomed, even clamored for, great Hollywood films. Hence, on May 2, 1947, La Charge Fantastique (They Died with Their Boots On) was released in France.

— Tim

 

May Day No. 2: The Legend of Maid Marian

01 May

In addition to its connection to Robin Hood, May Day has had a very long and very strong association with the Virgin Mary, most especially among Roman Catholics. The legend of Maid Marian may have arisen from that association, as did apparently Olivia’s costuming, as well as her physical appearance, in The Adventures of Robin Hood.

In the 1400s Catholics, as all Christians were at the time, in England celebrated May Day on the religious holiday of Whitsun featuring a quasi-religious rebel who robbed and murdered government tax collectors and wealthy landowners in plays and games. Agrarian discontent lay at the foundations of the feudal system that was built on the shoulders of toiling peasants. As time went on, the characters of Maid Marian, Friar Tuck and Alan-a-Dale entered May Day rituals as well. Robin Hood was actually shown at this time participating in Mariology, the cult of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Originally Maid Marian (or the French Marion) was a shepherdess associated with the Queen or Lady of May or May Day. Keeping this in mind, “the world’s foremost authority on Robin Hood,” author Jim Lees in The Quest for Robin Hood set forth that the hypothesis that Maid Marian may originally have been the personification of the Virgin Mary and derived from the older French tradition of a shepherdess named Marion and her shepherd lover Robin in Adam de la Halle’s Le Jeu de Robin et Marion, 1283. In fact, Marian’s association with May Day celebrations lasted long after Robin Hood’s did, as pointed out by Scottish born poet Alexander Barclay in 1500, “some merry fytte of Maid Marian or else of Robin Hood.”

May Day in the Catholic Church

The Legend of Robin Hood and Maid Marian

Here’s a May Day Celebration in England from the Days of Errol Hood and Maid Olivia:


Hell, even atheist Katie Hepburn celebrated May Day!


Here’s a majestically beautiful May Day ceremony in 2018 from a Catholic School in St. Louis:

www.youtube.com…

— Tim

 

May Day No. 1: The Legend of Robin Hood

01 May

No other aspect of the history of the Robin Hood legend deserves more notice than the hero’s participation in the May Day Games.

May Day Games and the Robin Hood Legend

Robin Hood ballads reflect the discontent of ordinary people with political conditions in medieval England. They were especially upset about new laws that kept them from hunting freely in forests that were now claimed as the property of kings and nobles. Social unrest and rebellion swirled through England at the time the Robin Hood ballads first became popular. This unrest erupted in an event called the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381.

The earliest known mention of Robin Hood is in a ballad called Piers Plowman, in which a character mentions that he knows “rimes of Robin Hood.” This and other references from the late 1300s suggest that Robin Hood was well established as a popular legend by that time. One source of that legend may lie in the old French custom of celebrating May Day. A character called Robin des Bois, or Robin of the Woods, was associated with this spring festival and may have been transplanted to England—with a slight name change. May Day celebrations in England in the 1400s featured a festival “king” called Robin Hood.

Robin Hood Ballads

Dressing up as the medieval social justice warrior was among young Henry VIII’s favourite pastimes.

Henry VIII Joins the Party

— Tim

 

Goodnight Georgeous Gia

01 May

“On the night of April 30, 1972, 38-year-old Scala was found dead in her Hollywood Hills home. Los Angeles County Coroner Thomas Noguchi reported her cause of death was from an “acute ethanol and barbiturate intoxication” and was later ruled accidental.”

“The circumstances surrounding Scala’s death have been questioned, with some believing it was a result of either murder or suicide rather than accidental. Her sister, movie actress Tina Scala, believed that she did not intend to take her life nor that her death was accidental. Scala had a prescription for valium and three tablets were missing from the bottle, but valium is a benzodiazepine, not a barbiturate. Also, Scala was discovered nude sprawled across her bed and bruises were found on her body and blood was on her pillow.”


On May 23, 1956, Louella Parsons reports that “while Errol Flynn was making Istanbul in Hollywood, he saw Gia Scala at Universal-International. ‘That’s the girl I want for my picture, The Big Brodie,’ he said. So what Errol wants, Errol gets.”

In 1962, Gia and her husband, Don Burnett, starred together in The Triumph of Robin Hood. He as Robin Hood, she as Anna, much the equivalent of Maid Marian. Later that year they bought a home on Mulholland Drive.

— Tim

 

$300,000

30 Apr

Newcastle Morning Herald and Miner’s Advocate
New South Wales, Australia

Errol Flynn Sues Magazine

LOS ANGELES, April 27. A.A.P.

Errol Flynn, the actor, has lodged a claim for 300,000 dollars damages against the film magazine “Movie Stars Parade.”

His action followed publication in the magazine of an article entitled: “My First Screen Kiss by Errol Flynn.” Flynn’s statement of claim said he did not authorize or write the article, which was untrue and harmful to his professional standing.

The article described a scene in which Flynn and Olivia de Havilland acted. It quoted Flynn as saying of his first screen kiss: “I looked forward to that tender passage with the same placid approval a wolf lavished on a herd of spring lambs.”

Flynn also seeks an injunction against alleged unfair trade practices and invasion of privacy.

Very Similar Article in the Canberra Times, April 28

— Tim

 

April 29 — 1957 — — Errol Settles Down

30 Apr

Louella 0. Parsons in Hollywood

International News Service
Louella O. Parsons Motion Picture Editor

After six years abroad Errol and Mrs. Flynn (Patrice Wymore) return to Hollywood with baby Arnella.
He’s a real homebody now.

DASHING, happy-go-lucky, colorful Errol Flynn, who lost millions, is poorer today but happier than he’s ever been in his life. And he didn’t hesitate to say that Patrice Wymore (the present Mrs. Flynn) is responsible. Six months ago, Errol owed $900,000. Today, he has paid off $750,000 and sees his way clear to handing over the remainder by December. This is a changed Errol. No longer does that roving eye of his look at every pretty girl who enters a room. In the past, Errol was as wild, unpredictable and full of pranks as anyone I ever interviewed. He always talked with his tongue in cheek, and while I always liked him, I used to have the feeling that some of his nonsense was due to the fact that life was not happy. He asked me to have dinner with him and Patrice at La Rue. You can always depend upon Errol to say something different and to make an interview an occasion, and his first words to me were: “Well, what do you think of her?” pointing to the calm, gracious Patrice. A little embarrassed with such frankness, I countered with, “What do you think of her yourself?” “Well, she’s not my type, but 1 love her,” he laughed. “You know, she saved my life. I’d have run when the going was so tough, but, Pat, without a word of complaint, helped me straighten out my affairs, stuck by me and gave me encouragement. “I never thought I’d ever say I’d be lonely for any woman,” he continued, “but, do you know something? I can’t bear to be separated from her. She gives me a confidence I all but lost during those months of worry.”

The Flynns have been in Europe for six years. They left Hollywood in 1950, and Errol had considerable trouble with William Tell, the picture he was to make in Italy. He says he lost over $200,000 of his own money in it. Errol said, “To show you the kind of girl Pat is, she was expecting our bambina any hour when I got word that I had to be in New York on business. She said, ‘You go right ahead and I’ll wait until you return to have the baby.’ I got back Christmas Eve to find that she’d invited 30 people for Christmas Day egg nogs. On Christmas I rushed her to the hospital where the baby was born within a few hours. We just left all our guests at the party. “I never thought I’d want to settle down to family life,” Errol went on, “but you should see me now. You know how I never wanted domesticity. Whenever it threatened me I’d go away on my boat or take a picture assignment away from home. We now have the greatest family life you ever saw.

“Since I’ve been back in Hollywood,” he said, “we’ve had Pat’s parents from Kansas, her grandmother, and all the children with us My two little girls, Deirdre and Rory, by my marriage to Nora Haymes, spend every week end with us, and our daughter Arnella loves playing with them.” His fourteen-year-old son, Sean, by his marriage to Lili Damita, is the spittin’ image of Errol. Patrice told me Sean spent a little time with them in Europe. “He is so handsome and so intelligent,” she said. “He’s now in Florida with his mother.” A woman who can praise a previous wife’s child is all right for my money. Usually there is a feeling of resentment, but if Pat has any feeling of this sort she’s a great actress. Errol said, “At Universal-International they gave me some of rry ‘face’ back with a great part in Istanbul. I hope to come back and make another picture for them; it’s a nice studio. I’ll return in December.” “Didn’t you almost turn in at Warner Brothers studio by mistake?” I asked him. He started his career Warners with Captain Blood [the film which made him] one of the top stars in the country.

Errol is older now and wiser. He has taken off some of the weight which so shocked me when I first saw him after his return here. But he’s still and always will be the same charm boy. When domesticity threatened in the past, he’d be off to other shores.

— Tim

 

April 29 — 1945 — — Errol Peps Up Hollywood Party

29 Apr

Huston was a very skilled boxer, with a very long reach. Both went to the hospital, were complimentary of each others fighting skills and etiquette, and subsequently became friendly. The fight is thought to have been over OdH, with whom both Errol and JH had been in love.

— Tim

 

April 29 — 1937 — — Errol Tops in Tennis with Garbo

29 Apr

Jimmy Starr – April 29, 1936
LA Evening Herald Express

Already ranked as one of the movie village’s tennis greats, Gilbert Roland took it upon himself to name Hollywood’s 10 best racket wielders.

On the set of Paramount’s The Last Train from Madrid, Gilbert put Garbo in the top spot among feminine tennis players, Errol Flynn equals her in the men’s division. Others are Marlene Dietrich, Cedric Gibbons, Constance Bennett, Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, Harold Lloyd, Elizabeth Allen and Ronald Colman.

Errol Backstroking in Hollywood Circa 1935

— Tim

 
 

231 Years Ago Today

28 Apr

On April 28, 1789, three weeks into a journey from Tahiti to the West Indies, the HMS Bounty was seized in a mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, the master’s mate. Captain William Bligh and 18 of his loyal supporters were set adrift in a small, open boat, and the Bounty set course for Tubuai south of Tahiti.

In December 1787, the Bounty left England for Tahiti in the South Pacific, where it was to collect a cargo of breadfruit saplings to transport to the West Indies. There, the breadfruit would serve as food for slaves. After a 10-month journey, the Bounty arrived in Tahiti in October 1788 and remained there for more than five months. On Tahiti, the crew enjoyed an idyllic life, reveling in the comfortable climate, lush surroundings and the famous hospitality of the Tahitians. Fletcher Christian fell in love with a Tahitian woman named Mauatua.

On April 4, 1789, the Bounty departed Tahiti with its store of breadfruit saplings. On April 28, near the island of Tonga, Christian and 25 petty officers and seamen seized the ship. Bligh, who eventually would fall prey to a total of three mutinies in his career, was an oppressive commander and insulted those under him. By setting him adrift in an overcrowded 23-foot-long boat in the middle of the Pacific, Christian and his conspirators had apparently handed him a death sentence. By remarkable seamanship, however, Bligh and his men reached Timor in the East Indies on June 14, 1789, after a voyage of about 3,600 miles.

Mutiny on the Bounty

Which ultimately gave birth to the film career of Errol Flynn.

August 8, 1932

Sydney Morning Herald

MUTINY OF THE BOUNTY – Reconstructed for Films.

Mr. Charles Chauvel returned to Sydney on Saturday, after travelling 15,000 miles in little known parts of the Pacific Ocean, to make a film depicting the mutiny of the Bounty for Expeditionary Films, Ltd., an Australian company. Every effort has been made to produce the film historically, and present a faithful picture of the wanderings of the mutineers, before they reached Pitcairn Island, where they burned the Bounty,
and to Lieutenant Bligh’s epic voyage of 4000 miles, in an open boat to Batavia, after he had been cast adrift with l8 loyal members of his crew.

Mr. Chauvel followed the route of the Bounty and saw the remains of the ship lying in the clear water at Pitcairn Island. Native dances were filmed at Tahiti, where the mutineers stayed. Natives had to be specially chosen, as knowledge of primitive dances is rapidly dying out.

March 15, 1933

Sydney Morning Herald

EXPEDITIONARY FILMS LTD. “BOUNTY” PICTURE LAUNCHED!!

To-day, at the Prince Edward Theatre, the film, “In the Wake of the Bounty,” which Mr. Charles Chauvel produced recently, with Tahiti and Pitcairn Islands as the principal backgrounds, will be given its first public screenings.

December 1, 1933

The West Australian

IN THE WAKE OF THE BOUNTY – New Australian Production.

Travelogues and dramas have drenched the screen- with the- spray of South Sea beaches until the film-goer imagines that he knows every angle from which a palm can be photographed. Then an Australian, Mr. Charles Chauvel,. makes ‘In the Wake of the Bounty,’ and presents the Pacific under a strange and cloudy beauty, such as has not been filmed. Mr. Chauvel, however, is more concerned with the savage languor of the tropics; he masses the brilliance of wild dances and flowers to show the pathetic contrast between the islands, which link that famous mutiny, Tahiti and Pitcairn, writes the Film Editor of the Sydney ‘Sun.’

Thus that first part of the. film is a glamorous reconstruction of history, with young Errol Flynn playing the part of Fletcher Christian …

— Tim