As a celebration of Flynn's birthday on June 20th, TCM has a great lineup of familiar and seldom-seen Errol flicks (all of which are subject to change):
June 20 (all times are ET)
6:30AM
Green Light (1937-Frank Borzage):
A beguiling little movie that could have been completely cloying, but features a restrained performance by Flynn as a hot-shot doctor who learns that life is more than biochemistry after a simple and bravely serene woman (Spring Byington) dies on the operating table. Based on a story by Lloyd Douglas (
Magnificent Obsession, The Robe), the journey that Flynn's doctor embarks on is handled with a customary Borzage blend of spirituality and considerable sentiment, but Errol's sincere performance made it work and kept me watching for its 85 minute length. Flynn is allegedly involved with Anita Louise in this movie, but I suspect that his secret self was shared more readily with the beautiful Irish Setter who accompanies him everywhere in this story, as seen below with Miss Louise.
8:00AM
Northern Pursuit (1943-Raoul Walsh):
Errol Flynn goes all Canadian Mountie on us in a jokey bit of rousing wartime propaganda that only Helmut Dantine seems to take seriously (see earlier in this thread for more).
9:45AM
Dawn Patrol (1938-Edmund Goulding):
Purists have often knocked this in comparison with the 1930 original made by Howard Hawks, but as an example of ensemble playing it is impressive and still moving, especially the scene when Flynn tries to advise a raw, eager pilot about to endure his first combat mission.
11:30AM
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936-Michael Curtiz):
Historically wildly inaccurate at most times, but what can you expect when the title and a weird glorification of military hubris appears to be the only things borrowed from Tennyson's poem. Great as a spectacle, first class entertainment, with uniforms, massacres, horses and a believable bond between on-screen brothers Errol Flynn and Patric Knowles. Every actor with a plummy British accent within fifty miles of Hollywood & Vine appears to have worked in this movie.
1:30PM
Santa Fe Trail (1940-Michael Curtiz):
Romantic rivalries, roiling political turmoil, slavery, free vs. slave state action, Errol and future prexy R. Reagan play Jeb Stuart and George Armstrong Custer, respectively. Olivia de Havilland, Alan Hale, William Lundigan, and Guinn Williams are also along for the ride. A wild-eyed Raymond Massey makes a rousing and convincing John Brown with a messianic glint that should have won him a Supporting Actor Oscar, despite the film's plethora of fallacies about the pre-Civil War era. An interesting mixture of the somber and the foolish, with less than a firm grip on the reality of history. This movie has been in the public domain for some time and the fuzzy prints that abound on the internet for free make me hope that TCM--as it usually does whenever possible--finds a better one by the time of broadcast.
3:30PM
The Warriors (1955-Henry Levin) aka
The Black Prince | The Dark Avenger:
Completely new to me! The synopsis says that the story revolves around "The 'Black Prince'" of England [who] remains in France to guard the lands taken by his predecessor-father during the 100 Years War. The cast includes Joann Dru, Peter Finch, Christopher Lee, and (one of my faves) Michael Hordern, who played Errol's dad, even though Hordern was two years younger. According to biographers, this was not well received because of the sagging box office for adventure films after a surfeit of them earlier in the '50s, but it was to be Errol's last swashbuckler, and those who have seen this movie have noted sadly the physical decline evident in the leading man. He is said to have had a nice rapport with Joann Dru (her ex-husband Dick Haymes was married to his ex-wife Nora Eddington) and enjoyed getting hammered with Peter Finch, who played his antagonist in the movie. Has anyone seen this one???
5:00PM
Rocky Mountain (1950-William Keighley):
As the last Western that Flynn made, and a film that has an elegiac air, I found this quite moving, when writing about this
here.
Flynn met and courted his last wife, Patrice Wymore on the set of this film. Perhaps the above move was not required to get the actress' attention.
6:30PM
Master of Ballantrae (1953-William Keighley):
Errol Flynn and Robert Louis Stevenson seem like a natural pairing, and in Flynn's penultimate swashbuckler he aims to please, but at a hard-livin' 44, even he comments at one point that he was getting on to behave so cavalierly. In this enjoyable if slightly saddening film he is paired splendidly with Roger Livesey, whose sidekick role made a great impression in this movie. Beatrice Campbell (who could have played Deborah Kerr's icier sister) and Yvonne Furneaux were along as sacred and profane love. Anthony Steel appeared as Flynn's malcontent brother and Charles Goldner played a mysterious and lethal opponent. I liked it and if you haven't seen it, you might enjoy it too, even though Errol was reportedly doubled in 60%+ of the action sequences.
Pssst! Errol...call me!
(Though he looks mighty good in uniform)
