The Errol Flynn Blog

From the time he became a household name, people were making claims to their being the discover of this magnificent icon known as Errol Flynn; Jack and his other Warner Brother(s) – Irving Asher who was enthusiastic about Flynn’s performance and cabled Warner Bros in Hollywood about the movie he just finished making with Flynn; ” Murder at Monte Carlo”(1934) – which was made by Warner Brothers at their Teddington Studios in Middlesex England.  Asher cabled Warner in Hollywood and recommend a contract, Warner agreed and Errol was shipped out to Los Angeles.

Lilly Damita, Errol’s first wife, also made claims of being the responsible one; helping Errol get the leading part of Dr. Peter Blood in “Captain Blood” (1935) – being that she was close to Michael Curtiz, for a few years prior were married briefly to each other. He also had directed her in her earlier film success in Europe. Curtiz was to direct the movie “Captain Blood“, thus she made an emotional appeal to Curtiz and Jack Warner and doing so got Errol who was then still considered an unknown,  the lead part in the extravagant million dollar movie.

Michael Curtiz also has claims in the one responsible of Flynn’s discovery and success, and although he was somewhat responsible for Errol most successful films, due to his awesome directing. He would however have one hell of time convincing Jack Warner he was the one, and/or Errol himself for that mater. For anyone who knows a little about EF film career knows how he and MC were not one’s to chum it up anytime soon, to say the least.

Then we have Charles Chauvel, he was after all the first of what we know of putting Errol on screen or any other type of acting situation for that mater, earlier than anyone else already mentioned.

Chauvel’s 1933 version of Mutiny on  the Bounty – “In the Wake of the Bounty” had some circulation but not enough for anyone to have taken any real notice of the so called actor dawning that awful wig, in the role of Fletcher Christian named Errol Flynn.

And then there was one other that may have the first claim.  Just before Flynn’s setting foot on the set of  Chauvel’s film, there was one named John Warwick.

Errol and Warwick had met and became friends while in Sydney (Au), and one day Warwick brought Errol along to a casting session of ” Wake of the Bounty”, of which Warwick had a part in the film and also was the casting director of the film itself, and there we the one person that bought Errol to its acting bug and the rest became history…..

As far as Warwick himself, he had an upwardly moderate successful career in acting, and other small attempts in the business – mostly known for playing police roles of sorts – more of his work was for TV though.  In wonder, being that Warwick did give Errol somewhat of a break or seeing an opportunity of easy money by pursuing a film/acting career, and in doing so, Errol became very rich (for a time) and somewhat powerful in the film business. Why didn’t Errol ever returned the favor to Warwick, or did he?  In as far as I can find from Warwick’s acting credits, it does not seem so, but one never knows, for we are always unveiling new things about our man Flynn, and with that being said, there may be one still out there making claims to Errol’s discovery in wanting claim to that covenant Trophy.  Yet no mater who say they were the one, it really belongs to the people – it always comes down to that; the people make or break you…

— Sergio

It seems EF decided not the beat the crap out of Sonja Henie’s husband, Dan Topping, after being caught kissing in the back room – The link here doesn’t say it all but in watching a Bio on Sonja the other night, it mentions that this happened due to the fact Sonja wanted to get her husband back for overly flirting with other females at the party…..

Well we all know our man Flynn, always one to oblige concerning good looking females. It seems he was a real good sport about the whole thing.

books.google.com…

— Sergio

Hello  fellow EF Bloggers – Have you all seen (LINK) –  I don’t know much about it other than what I read on its site, so I decided to throw it out to the blog and see what they knew… Thx Sergio

— Sergio

I have what I call, my “Magic Box”,  with it you can get any film, program, music, whatever one can ever imagine with a click of finger, including movies that are in the theaters now.  (not sure if I should mention that?) – In any case out of the thousands of Apps I can pick from, I have one that I truly adore; all on documentaries, any flavor one can imagine. War docs., Classic Film docs. Bios, etc. are on the top of my list.

In search of a Vietnam doc I ran into one I had never seen before, It was a bad copy, yet I watched it as it was with Sean Flynn in Vietnam reporting live (I believe) to Chet Huntley in New York NBC.                                 Although I watched the whole program, I thought I would check online in seeing if I could find a better copy, and I did, of course its on Youtube.

I am probably the last to see this as I am sure you all have,  but just in case anyone else here has not, I thought I would post the link anyway.

It’s still tragic in knowing this fine young man was killed in the manner we think he was. If Errol had still been alive, I feel pretty confident he would have made a difference in getting his son back alive, or if all else his body, so Sean could have received a proper burial, and maybe have bene laid next to his dad.

Here is the link: youtu.be/xm2FVK49LS8…

— Sergio

Peter (Valenti) and I last night had our first conversation to what I hope will be many to come in the near future. I found him to be very open and an inviting gentleman. It felt as if I’ve known Peter (as he wanted me to call him to that of Mr. Valenti – which I generally address someone I respect) directly for a very long time, although I, as thousands of others, would know him indirectly through his book, Errol Flynn: A Bio-bibliography (1984).

I hope I have also encourage him to become a participator/author on this web site as some of us are, by contributing what he knows about Flynn and there about.
As I know in doing a book of the caliber in which he wrote, much research has to take place; his data bank is vast as I found out quickly in our conversation. Though he mentioned many more facts have been found since publishing his book which could have been great tools in finding more info, but as we both said and agreed, there are some many more findings yet to be had, as our man Flynn was a wondering adventurer which lived the lifes of ten men in such a short time; there are many more stones to over turned in finding gold.

Also we both agreed as with many here do too, Flynn was a much better actor than that ever given credit for and as time moves on, this is being recognized little at a time – the snobs of old Hollywood’s motion pictures die off and with this the findingsthem finally give kudos to that of what they called, “Hollywood’s Bad Boy” , thus pushing him aside – his due will be, one day, and I hope I am around to see him get posthumously his Lifetime Achievement Award (keep fighting for it Rory we stand strong behind you)…

Well Peter if you happen to read this, I hope you share with us more Flynn adventures in the very near future. Looking forward to our soon meeting over drinks and talking about one of our favorite subjects; Errol Flynn!

— Sergio

He played the same role in three Robin Hood movies, the last he played it 28 years after his first.

— Sergio

So I was thinking, I don’t remember ever reading about what our man Flynn was ever paid by any publisher(s) for his books of which he had written; Showdown and Beams End.

Does anyone know this?

I know curiosity killed the cat, but whos meowing?..prrrrrrrrrrr…

— Sergio

A couple days ago I watched Dodge City (1939)— (Lord only knows how many times I have) and a little tid-bit stored in my small tiny pea brain came to the for front, about how Hollywood had broken away from the tradition of premiering films in places such their California theaters – this time they premiered in Dodge City, Kansas, of which, cough-cough! you ready fro this? the city in which the movie was made about – bet you never knew that did you? right! Ok well lets move on my fellow Flynnsters – It premiered there 77 years ago this past April 1st – 1939. I wonder if TCM who broadcast it this past week knew of this – there was no intro to the movie from Robert Osborn or Ben Mankiewicz as there are a couple times a night prior to the movie, so not sure if there were any notion to this premier history? Yet I found it interesting so I research a little and found this article that posted in March of 2015 in the Dodge City Daily Globe.

This movie, to me, is another excellent western that stands the test of time, 77 years strong!

It has also always been considered to have had the best bar brawl scene of movies.

although his performance shines bright, our man Flynn did not like it so much, especailly the part about him being Irish and traveling the world in order to make a fit into a western hero due to his accent; he thought of it as BS and another JW exploitation of swashbuckling hero jumping from ships to road apple streets.

Personally I can understand his wanting dif, but for me; I sur’em glad he mad’em partner….

www.dodgeglobe.com…

— Sergio