I just received the movie DVD “Abdul The Damned” and it really looks like very much so that Errol was an “Extra” in this movie made in 1934/35. I would say that I definitely recognized Errol three times as an Extra. Sadly the credits do not list the movie production company where one could inquire to the absolute fact.
It is a good movie and I liked it very much, but it had two more surprised in addition to Errol..
Patric Knowles is in the movie and not on the bottom of the credits – he is in the middle. He plays OMAR, Hilmi Pasha's Attache and he has one speaking line “But he can abdicate” very close at the end of the movie.
I wonder if Errol and Patric knew each other already in England???
The other surprise – the heroin played by Adrienne Ames, a very beautiful actress, was Bruce Cabot's wife from 1933 to 1937 and it says that it was a stormy marriage.
What a small world the acting community actually is or was it just in those days?
That's all for today!
— Tina
Anonymous
August 4, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Hi Tina!
I would venture to GUESS that it is probably not EF. This was filmed in the UK in 1935 (released 1936) and we know that EF arrived in the US in 1935. I don't recall there ever being any mention of his being cast as an extra in the UK in this film. People please correct me if I'm wrong but he did the Bounty film then went on to Rep in England and onto the USA….
Anonymous
August 4, 2010 at 6:24 pm
According to the definitive book “Errol Flynn~A Daily Chronology”, by the eminent Flynn scholar, Robert Florczak, Errol Flynn departed Plymouth, England on November 14 aboard the ocean liner Paris, arriving in New York on November 20.
Anonymous
August 4, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Ah, the eminent Flynn scholar, RF–my personal favorite! One can always count on you for things such as this….
Anonymous
August 5, 2010 at 10:45 am
Hey Guys,
Abdul the Damned (Abdul Hamid) was filmed in October 1934 by the BIP, Elstree Studio and distributed by Wardour.*
That would certainly mean Flynn could have been around for this one.
I recall trying to get hold of the film a few years back on e-bay and other various places with no luck. Tina -where on earth did you find a copy? I'd love to get hold of this one.
I have heard mention that Errol may have appeared in this film. Without question there are British Flynn film performances out there that we haven't yet unearthed – ok, these may be non-speaking roles but in my mind they are still well worth uncovering as I think we all like to piece together the pieces of Errol's life.
Patricia – There are various periods of Errol's time in the UK that need further investigation. The periods that interest me most are when Errol arrived in the UK after leaving Erben, just before he landed the job at the Rep and then we have the short period when Errol left the Rep and moved to London before he landed the Hollywood contract. I've been slowly trying to piece these periods together. I bought a whole bundle of photocopied letters written to and from the little-known (but very good) British film director John Baxter. I have mentioned here before that Flynn signed on at the Baxter and Barter Casting Agency during both these periods and he is mentioned quite frequently in the letters. I also have Ray Seaton's research notes/material for his unpublished book 'Errol Flynn: The Last Romantic Hero'. Ray went out there and interviewed a lot of people from the UK film Industry of the 30s and some of his findings were quite fascinating.
There is a lot we don't know about this period of Errol's life and some of the stuff I have been lucky enough to come across offers a tantalising insight, there is a story there. A story of Flynn at his most desperate to forge a career for himself in acting, some of it isn't pretty but, as with everything Flynn, it is fascinating.
Great work Tina!
best wishes
Brian.
*British Films 1927-1939, BFI Library Services, Edited by Wood, L.
Anonymous
August 5, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Brian
Have you read the two books I've listed below. Both are good reads and gives us something about EF's life prior to USA. Of course they are all secondary sources as are everything these days….
The Young Errol Flynn Before Hollywood
John Hammond Moore (1st Pub 1975)
Errol Flynn in Northampton
Gerry Connelly · (1st Pub 1995)
As an aside, re the film in question, the sources I have list it's first release date abroad as Sept 35. Here is a nice link: http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/media-abdul-the-damned.htm
Anonymous
August 5, 2010 at 10:32 pm
I wrote a reply to Brian's aqnd Tina's messages. I think it is lost in the ether. In short, I think it is great that Tina, Brian and others are paying such attention to Errol's life in England just before he came to the states. I think this is valuable for historic reasons. Also, the more we can find out about Errol the better. I think he was most probably very ambitious, but he tended to hide this aspect of his personality (as well as other aspects). I am a very, very pro- Errol person,and I think the more we can understand about him the better. There are aspects about him I have never fully understood ( his steady deterioration after his rape trial, for example). He truly was an enigma- perhaps with further info., he will be less so. Kevin K.
Anonymous
August 7, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Hi Patricia,
Yes, I have both books; they are essential reads. Being English I have a particular fondness of the Connolly book.
Anonymous
August 7, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Hi Kevin,
I'm in complete agreement with your views. The young Flynn who hit London after leaving Erben must have been extremely ambitious. I get the impression that Errol trod on a few toes to make his way up the ladder. Nothing new there that was Errol's way wherever he went.
As to the Flynn character, yes, there are aspects that are very difficult to come to terms with. I guess I am still trying to come to terms with certain things. Flynn's words on his own 'contradiction' have so much bearing.
best wishes,
Brian.
That is perhaps one of the reasons I have always been very drawn to Errol's words on the 'contradiction' in his nature.
Anonymous
August 9, 2010 at 11:50 am
Tina,
Just to put forward a little more information, (although some of this information has all the hallmarks of guesswork to it) on the foundations of the Flynn/Knowles friendship.
Patricia Warren's 'Elstree: The British Hollywood.' mentions Knowles starring in a film called 'The Student's Romance' where “…Some early fencing scenes had been dubbed by a young man who was at that time busy commuting between Northampton Repertory Company and Teddington Studios…”
According to the BFI book of British films 1927-39 filming of 'The Student's Romance' began in March 1935 which would rule Flynn out but it does make you wonder where Warren got that kind of information from and perhaps there are some elements of truth to the story.
Looking over Knowles film career of this period we have a film called 'Irish Hearts' filmed in July 1934. With a name like Flynn, Errol would seem ideal casting for such a film (even in a non-speaking part). July 34 would put Flynn at the Malvern Festival playing a variety of roles but his most significant would be the role of a Roman Guard in John Drinkwaters 'A Man's House'.
Errol claims, wrongly, in My Wicked Wicked Ways that two his Malvern plays made it to the West End. A Man's House and The Moon and the Yellow River.
The Drinkwater play did indeed make it to the West End but Denis Johnson's 'The Moon and Yellow River' did not. Errol goes on to tell the story of rushing across London in the Roman outfit and having to change quickly into the outfit of an Irish Cop.
We know the story of the two plays is not true but perhaps the story itself does have that element of truth, wasn't it John Hammond Moore who said that 'there is a germ of truth in all Flynn's stories'?
Perhaps Flynn rushed from Malvern to London or vice-versa for his role in the Drinkwater play and maybe a small film role as an Irish Cop, which brings me back to Irish Hearts.
I haven't seen Irish Hearts but I am on the lookout for it as it wouldn't surprise me in the least if Errol was in it somewhere and perhaps the Flynn/Knowles friendship began in London before either man had made it to Hollywood.
best wishes,
Brian.