Cuban Trouble Girls

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

once before the baron met the Baron in Cuba:  www.theerrolflynnblog.com…

Now Allen “Abbie” Baron makes three.

The writer- director started out as set designer and gives a hilarious account about the makeshift shooting of  “Cuban rebel Girls” in his biography “Blast of Silence”.

Six weeks after Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista, flyer and flynntimo Barry Mahon had gathered a crew of five barflies from Jim Downey`s Bar and Restaurant and a bunch of Playboy bunnies at the Hotel Capri in Havana.

Sandbagging there at the time also was actor Ernie Kovac with cast members of the Carol Reed classic “Our man in Havana”.

Abbie Baron came into play, because he drew storyboards for Barry, who then pitched them as potential moneymakers to studio bosses.

He remembers our man Flynn as every bit the movie star that he was at the roulette tables and on location at the Sugar finca of Quarto Caminos, which was lent to them by a Cuban friend of Errol.

Leading teenie Beverly Aadland had Ol`Errol laughing with that lewd lingo of hers and sweating in fits of jelousy.

When his then time secretary Hillary, a stunning young American with a Southern drawl, who was married to a Cuban officer, made a pass at Abbie, their production tumbled from topsy-turvy into full turmoil.

Mr. Officer held everybody at gunpoint in the hotel`s lobby and demanded to know where his wife was.

Unpaid bills at local groceries did the rest, and the whole cast & crew left Castro´s Island in a hurry.

But not before Mahon, who had aspired to become another DeMille, was able to hide cameras, 35mm raw stock and a Lincoln convertible in a palm tree shaded shag.

Abbie got them out at a later date and started his movie career mostly on his experiences during those turbulent days filming CRG.

“Barry never uttered a word about his WWII extraordinary exploits in all the time I spent with him. I regretted judging him for his terrible skills as a filmmaker, but was happy to learn he was a real-life hero. I learned from him that bullshit had great currency and I put the knowledge to good use.”

Enjoy,

 

 

— shangheinz