Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn’s greatest leading lady, has been made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth at the age of 100. (Her birthday is July 1, 1916.)
www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4612154/Olivia-Havilland-100-oldest-Dame.html…
— zacal
Author Archive
Dame Olivia
17
Jun
“My Favorite Year” revisited
27
Jan
Richard Benjamin reminisces about the making of the Flynn-inspired comedy classic “My Favorite Year” with Peter O’Toole as swashbuckler Alan Swann. (Which resulted in an Oscar-nomination for O’Toole.) It includes interesting insight into O’Toole’s training for the sword scenes. Oh, to have watched those rehearsals.
— zacal
Tasmanian Tiger Lives??
05
Sep
New video footage from February of this year suggests that the “extinct” Tasmanian Tiger is still alive! Here’s a link to the story and (short) video.
— zacal
Happy 100th Birthday, Olivia! – July 1st
08
Jul
July 1st was the 100th birthday of our favorite leading lady. To commemorate the last of the golden age stars, here’s a link to a nice article which includes this quote: “There are no words to describe my feelings for Errol Flynn.”
— zacal
Sean Flynn, author Michael Herr and “Dispatches”
25
Jun
Author Michael Herr has passed.(www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3658815/Michael-Herr-author-Vietnam-era-Dispatches-dies.html…) Herr was the author of “Dispatches”, a book about the Vietnam war that featured Sean Flynn, the war-photographer who subsequently inspired Dennis Hopper’s character in “Apocalypse Now”.
Indeed, Michael Herr was tapped by Francis Coppola to write the famous narration for “Apocalypse Now” once the principal photography had finished.
I don’t know if this article has been featured on this site before, but in my search for more information on Herr’s book and Sean Flynn, I found this terrific piece; “The Sean Flynn I Knew”. (www.pythiapress.com…)
One of the most insightful quotes from Sean Flynn regarding his acting career(and his father) is found within; “You see, the movies were obviously something I didn’t like. I won’t say I wasn’t interested. But I always felt—I don’t mind fighting my father. But I realized I was fighting him on his own turf. It came down to that. I was in a false situation. ”
Here is Sean Flynn’s most famous war photograph, a picture that Sean himself said was misunderstood. The Viet Cong sniper was tortured after he killed a little girl.
— zacal
Missed Casting – “China Seas” (1935)
27
May
“China Seas” was the original “Die Hard”, a true classic adventure film from the Golden Age of movies. Adapted from a 300 page novel by Crosbie Garstin, it’s a story of modern day Pirates that attack a cruise ship in search of a hidden treasure being guarded by the tough as nails English Captain Alan Gaskell, wonderfully played by Clark Gable.
…Wait, what? The all-American Clark Gable as an English ship Captain?(Oh, I know, he played Fletcher Christian but STILL…) Don’t misunderstand me, “China Seas” is one of my favorite Clark Gable films. An all-star cast that sees him at his peak while playing opposite the likes of Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Rosalind Russell, C. Aubrey Smith and Hattie McDaniel. It’s just that this adventure film easily could have been (Nay, SHOULD have been!) a movie that starred Errol Flynn. Imagine Errol Flynn as a modern-day hard drinking, womanizing, heroic Captain of a ship who romances two leading ladies while also fighting Pirates with a machine gun and you start to see my point.
It’s a wonderfully entertaining film and incredibly influential if you factor in the numerous parallels with the later “Die Hard” blockbuster. (Like Bruce Willis, Gable’s Captain Alan Gaskell has to fight Pirates while also dealing with a horrific foot injury.) But it also highlights the fact that Clark Gable and Errol Flynn often seemed to play roles that could have been written for one another.(Robin Hood being a notable exception.) And certainly, Errol was part of the Rhett Butler casting triangle that pitted him against Gary Cooper and Clark Gable for the lead role in “Gone With The Wind”, a part Flynn had campaigned for and Gable had shunned. The truth is Rhett Butler was Gable’s best-suited role as much as Robin Hood had been Flynn’s.
But despite Gable’s masterful movie star turn as Captain Alan Gaskell, there’s no escaping that the role was clearly written for an Englishman, with numerous references that scream for an English accent to back up the character’s yearning to return there. Throw in a modern day pirate story and it all adds up to Clark Gable playing the Errol Flynn role. This is a role that Flynn might have elevated if Warner’s had purchased the book instead of MGM. Of course, Gable and Jean Harlow were a tremendous screen team and this is one of their best. But Errol Flynn as the cultured Englishman being pursued and fought over by the equally cultured Rosalind Russell and the crass but feisty Jean Harlow? To paraphrase Humphrey Bogart, that’s the stuff that movie dreams are made of.
— zacal
Letter from Sean
18
May
A letter from Sean Flynn to his father recently sold in auction. Apparently, Errol had suggested to Sean that he should become an actor and the 16 year old Sean angrily rejected the idea. An angry 16 year old is not surprising. But I don’t think a father encouraging his handsome son that he could be successful in films is a bad thing. The article strongly suggests that Errol was attempting to use Sean for his own gain. I’m not so sure. 
.
— zacal
Return to the Garden of Allah
16
May
Errol is mentioned a few times in this article about the Garden of Allah. For example: “The inveterate womaniser Errol Flynn initially shared a villa with British star David Niven, but liked to return to the Garden in between marriages so he could misbehave freely.
Flynn had a particular seduction technique at the Garden — his villa faced the pool and, every morning, his secretary would place a bottle of champagne with two glasses on a table beside the prettiest female sunbather.
The actor would later emerge looking immaculate and ask the lucky girl if she would share the bottle with him. Veteran residents liked to bet how long it would take him to lure the woman back to his villa.”
— zacal
Digital Flynn
11
Oct
I’m able to create new images of Errol Flynn with my laptop. How long until there’s a new adventure from an actual studio using Errol’s image and voice? Robin Hood lives.
— zacal
