’56 Errol: A Charming Rogue

February 27, 1956 (62 years ago today)

San Bernardino Sun

THE DAILY SUN
ON THE HOLLYWOOD BEAT

Errol Flynn, ‘Charming Rogue’, Denies Reports

By JAMES BACON HOLLYWOOD

Errol Flynn, a charming rogue who never has pretended to be anything else, wants to debunk all those reports that he has reformed. Since his return to Hollywood, after more than four years abroad, the columns have been filled with items about the new Errol Flynn. It’s true that he is shelling out a reported $900,000 for back alimony and back taxes. It’s also true that he’s been in town for several weeks without engaging in any of the famous one-punch Sunset Strip brawls for which he was famed a decade ago. But a reformed Flynn? Never. “It’s all a lie, a malicious slander started, I suspect, by Bruce Cabot,” Errol reassures. “Don’t believe a word of it.

HE’S MORE DISCREET

“The only difference between the so-called new Flynn and the old Flynn is that the new Flynn is the same as ever only more discreet. And please spell that with three E’s. Nothing else has changed.” It hasn’t either. A visit to the set of NBC’s Screen Directors Playhouse television films finds the same Flynn who used to give Jack L. Warner ulcers. He’s still sipping straight vodka out of a water glass between takes; charming every girl on the set from the leading lady to the wardrobe seamstresses and surprisingly his ex-mother-in-law. Mrs. Jack Eddington, mother of Nora Eddington Flynn Haymes, had this to say about her ex-son-in-law: “He’s such a wonderful man, please write something nice about him.” To which Flynn interrupted: “If he does, it’ll ruin me. There are only a few of us characters left.”

How does it feel to be back home after four and a half years? “To tell you the truth,’ he answered “I was served with so many summons the first day I thought I had only been away a week.” Now that Errol is settling all back bills, he’s here to stay, Flynn, besides being the last of the Rabelaisian characters in Hollywood, is also a realist. He knew that he had to pay up in order to work.

PLAYS FAMOUS ROGUE

In the television film, “The Sword of Villon,” he plays the famous rogue poet, Francois Villon who was a sort of medieval Errol Flynn. From there, he goes to Universal-International to play modern day intrigue in “Istanbul,” then back to England for a television series and then Hollywood for good. Offers are coming in fast be cause Flynn, for all his peccadilloes, sells tickets at the boxoffice. In the television film, leading lady Hillary Brooke tells Villon: “You’re a rogue.” To which Flynn answers: “I give you no argument there.” “How’s that for typecasting?” he smiles between takes.

The Sword of Villon,1956

Istanbul,1956

Errol Flynn Theatre, 1956