Mr Fegerl wishes to share the attached pages from the William Tell script with you. They basically trace the tragic role of Maria, played by Austrian actress Waltraut Haas. Please note: Mr Fegerl is not in possession of the entire script. Hope you enjoy.

P.S. I scanned and corrected the pages, sorry if I overlooked any mistakes. There is one hand-written correction which I marked with a different writing.

I got the idea for this post from Tina and Brian’s dispute about Errol being a cinematic God in Europe. I have been interested in the topic for a while, too, so I had a look at when which of his films were released in Europe. I wish I could find some statistics, but apparently, there are no records of the time before 1960. So all I can do here is point out some particularities that struck me when comparing release dates, titles etc. It might be interesting for US-Americans and Britons to see how the film titles were translated into German, too. So let’s go.

 

Interestingly, Austria was somewhat ahead of Germany before the war. When I saw the dates on imdb, I was at first dubious, but then I got a confirmation that indeed some of Errol’s films were released quite shortly after they were released in the USA. These were Captain Blood (1936), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1937) and The Prince and the Pauper (1938). They were shown undubbed, which I found remarkable for the time.

 

Then – a long time nothing, I think you can imagine why. It started again in the late 1940s, this time both in Germany and in Austria. By the way, we’re speaking of West Germany here only, and from now on, the films were dubbed and the titles were translated. The Sea Hawk was released in both countries in  1947, then Austria was going ahead again by releasing Dive Bomber, Boots and San Antonio in 1949. In Germany, the “boom” did not start until 1950: six of Errol’s most well-known films were released – Dodge City (March), Captain Blood (May), Virginia City, Robin Hood (both in September), San Antonio and Light Brigade (both in October). This was even topped in 1951 with seven other well-known films: Don Juan (January), Montana (March, just a little over a year after the US release), Prince and Pauper (April), Rocky Mountain (September), Silver River (October), Essex and That Forsyte Woman (both in November).

 

From then on, the releases became less frequent – only 4 films in 1952, two more recent ones (Kim and Captain Fabian) and two older ones (Objective Burma! and Boots). Two very recent ones, Against All Flags and The Master of Ballantrae, were released in 1953. Afterwards, the current films Errol made were released relatively soon, after having been dubbed, of course, and only two more older ones, Uncertain Glory in 1954 and Santa Fe Trail in July 1959, were shown in German cinemas. In Austria, the releases during the 1950s were a little less, mainly because some films had been shown earlier in Austrian cinemas than in German ones.

 

After the advent of television, a few films premiered in the new medium: The Sisters and Footsteps... in 1963 and 1964, Edge of Darkness, Northern Pursuit, Desperate Journey and Four’s A Crowd in 1977 (for whatever reason...), The Perfect Specimen in 1989 and Cry Wolf in as late as 1995! But many of those have not been shown on TV as long as I can think (which is at least for 10 or 15 years).

 

This leaves us with a long list of films which have not been dubbed and never been shown on German television! Green Light, Another Dawn, The Dawn Patrol, Escape Me Never, Lilacs in the Spring, King’s Rhapsody, Dive Bomber... no dubbed version existent! There is one of The Big Boodle, and of Too Much, Too Soon, but I could not find the release dates. Interesting here is Never Say Goodbye. I was convinced that there IS a German version because I had seen the specifically produced German lobby cards with a German title (cf. below, they're beautiful and really big (larger than A4)). But I found out that eventually, it was NOT dubbed and never shown, neither in cinemas nor on TV – which is a real shame, as this is one of my favourites and I was always looking forward to showing the German version to my family – once it would be broadcast again. But... no chance, apparently! Maybe I should dub it myself...

 

However, I believe that the fact that so many of Errol's films were released in the early 1950s shows enough about his huge popularity in Austria and Germany.

 

Another interesting point is the change of titles that took place quite often. Some German movie titles of Errol’s films are equal or rather similar to the English title, for example Montana, Against All Flags, Istanbul, The Roots of Heaven, The Charge of the Light Brigade (though this one is sometimes also known as The Treason of Surat Khan), and The Love Adventures of Don Juan. But others have been changed considerably. Here is a list of the most interesting back translations:

 

Edge of Darkness                    –                      Rebellion in Trollness

Northern Pursuit                      -                      Bloody Snow

Never Say Goodbye                -                      Master of the Situation

The Big Boodle                       -                      Chase through Havanna

Too Much, Too Soon              -                      Her Life was a Scandal

Footsteps in the Dark              -                      Mr X gone astray

The Perfect Specimen              -                      A Guy to fall in Love with

Cry Wolf                                 -                      Curse of Madness

Captain Blood                         -                      Flying the Jolly Roger

San Antonio                            -                      A Man of Action

The Prince and the Pauper       -                      With an Iron Fist (!)

Elizabeth and Essex                 -                      Favourite of a Queen

Boots                                      -                      His Last Charge

Master of Ballantrae                -                      The Buccaneer

Uncertain Glory                       -                      Cross My Heart

The Sun Also Rises                  -                      Between Madrid and Paris

 

As you can see, the “new” titles reflect the contents of the films. Supposedly, nobody in Germany would have had any relation to Master of Ballantrae, Captain Blood or Elizabeth and Essex, as they are not part of popular German (literary) culture. However, I have no idea why Prince and Pauper is sometimes named With an Iron Fist.

 

Interesting is also that five of Errol’s film have the word “Herr”, i.e. “Master”, in the German title where there is no “master” in the original title: Master of the Situation (Never Say Goodbye), Master of the Seven Seas (Sea Hawk), Master of the Wild West (Dodge City), Master of the Rough Mountains (Rocky Mountain), The Master of the Silver Mines (Silver River)... I think this reflects Errol’s image very well – the hero who would ultimately win the lady’s hand – at least in four of five cases.

 

Hope you enjoyed this one a little, and if there is anything to correct, Tina, please feel free to do so.

 

Generally, this film is considered as one of Errol’s worst films. Right after its release, the reviews were devastating, and its image is still quite bad. One of the reasons is certainly the rare appearance of the titular character. Captain Michael Fabian is hardly seen on screen and does not really experience any great adventures. The protagonists are clearly Micheline Presle and Vincent Price. But Errol had – supposedly – his share in writing the script. I had the idea to write a post about this film when I got hold of a collection of articles from the French press, compiled by director William Marshall himself. Apparently, he collected every little piece of paper where his film was mentioned, which made a reconstruction of part of the background possible.    more »

I found those wonderful pictures from "Footsteps in the Dark" and thought you might like them. Sorry for the strange format, they're from a newspaper clipping:

 

Hi Folks

You may remember some time ago before Christmas, Crossed Swords was released on Dvd Officially in a brand new remastered print.

There has since been some confusion due to other lesser quality versions previously available, as to whether the new release is as good as reported by some fans on here and other sites, including myself. Well if in doubt, please check out my review on Amazon.com, which i believe i had previously posted on here as well.

As the price had also been a bit off putting for many fans ( Originally $49.95 ) , however i contacted the Customer Services Director and told her that the heavy price was putting people off from buying the Dvd, despite the rarity and Excitement it's release generated.

I am pleased to tell you, that they have agreed to lower the price for web based Flynn fansites only, and only with the link i am providing for you now....this is great news, it is now a more reasonable $29.95, which is more like it.....not many of us are rich these days.

HOT NEWS / CROSSED SWORDS DVD / REMASTERED / LOOKS FANTASTIC / SPECIAL OFFER FOR FLYNN  FANS ONLY WITH THIS LINK.

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The link has a special code on the product ( Crossed Swords Pris GD ZZ) to
identify it is the Special Offer

Cheers

Darren

 

Here is a nice pic from Dive Bomber with Errol, Fred MacMurray, and Ralph Bellamy...