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Archive for the ‘Behind the Scenes’ Category

Cutting Edge

21 Jun

Dear Flynnstones,

Robert James Gilbert Anderson represented Great Britain at the Olympic games in Helsinki of 1952 and finished fifth in the team sabre event.

One year later he got a call to coach Errol in “The Master from Ballantrae“.

During a rehearsal he superficially scratched Flynn’s thigh earning him the moniker “The man who stabbed Errol Flynn“ in Hollywood.

It also sparked a career in cinema as a fight choreographer and stunt performer unmatched in the field of sword and saber movies.

His vast work includes “Highlander“, “The Princess Bride“, “The Mask of Zorro“, “The Lord of the Ring“, “Pirates of the Carribean“, “Three Musketeers“, “The Guns of Navarone“, “From Russia with Love“, “Casino Royale“, “Die another Day“ and “Barry Lyndon“, as well as an unofficial outing as Dearth Vader in „Star Wars“.

In the documentary “Reclaiming the Blade“ he reminisced on a life of crossing swords: “I never took up the sword, I think the sword took me up.”

Which makes him the man who was taken up by the sword who stabbed Errol Flynn.

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

 

Dancing with the Star

18 Jun

Dear Flynnstones,

let me share this rare snapshot of Errol Flynn and Frederick Austerlitz, the Nurejew from Nebraska.

Did it spark Errol‘s interest in putting on dancing shoes for once in Lilacs in Spring?

Then again he also was a big fan of Jackie Gleason‘s soft shoe shuffle.

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

 

Bing Drinking

11 Jun

Dear Flynnstones,

I am sure this party was a blast. Matter of fact the Bing and the Baron got along so well they planned on setting up a production corporation with another famous actor and a great director.

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

 

In the spotlight

20 May

Dear Flynnstones,

surely you recognize this pirate debutante in a publicity shooting prior to her role in Captain Blood?

More pics: www.theerrolflynnblog.com…

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

 

Tell lost and found

12 May

Dear Flynnstones,

when Errol ran out of money for his ambitious apple shot „The Story of William Tell“, an angry albergo (hotel) owner of Courmayeur appropriated some of the film material for the unpaid bills.

Tell-escope

72 years on the reels have finally been developed and shed new light on the missing master shot.

Here the Errol Flynn stunt-in Jock Easton rehearses with an unknown Italian starlet.

The scences now reside at Cinecittà for the world to see.

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

 

Brutiful

27 Jan

Dear Flynnstones,

an epic picture is coming your way, where Flynn is and isn`t in.

A young lad named Brady Corbet brings us “The Brutalist”. After debuting with “The Childhood of a Leader” and the much loded “Vox Lux”, his third international feature film is a brutally honest and beautifully shot movie starring Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones and a fierce Guy Pearce.

British born and Australian bred Pearce was playing Errol Flynn in the 1996 released “Flynn”, retitled later as “My Forgotten Man”. Quite understandably so, since it is a most forgettable film (User-submitted review of “My Forgotten Man”). Inaccurate, sensationalist and highly influenced by Charles Higham`s hoax biography, it is one of the few flicks I did not bother watching to the finish. But this was by no means Guy Pearce`s fault. Remember, that same year he did “L.A Confidential”, the until then deemed unfilmable novel from James Ellroy, excelling at the role of bespectacled cop, Ed Exley, opposite another great actor from way down under- the New Zealander Russell Crowe. The Aussie and the Kiwi got along great and do so to this date. Guy went on filming the monumental “Memento” with Christopher Nolan and earned an Emmy for the remake of Michael Curtiz` “Mildred Pierce”, courting Kate Winslet. Versatile to the hilt he can be seen in films as diverse as “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, as action heroic as “Iron Man 3” and as pop corney as “The Time Machine”. He also appeared in two more Academy Award winners, “The Hurt Locker” and “The King`s Speech”. Three may be his lucky charm, because he is nominated this year in the category of Best Supporting Actor.

Harrison Lee Van Buren, a chip of the old prick like the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and Astors is the epitome of the American capitalist. He wants to do good on his deeds bestowing boons on the less fortunate fellow citizens. He envisions a community center built in honor of his late mother, high on a hill overseeing the small town of Dudleyville, PA. He commissiones the project to Lázló Tóth, an accomplished Hungarian architect well versed in the style of Bauhaus-Brutalism, who escaped the Nazi concentration camps. The artistic intellectual Lazló had to leave his wife Erzébet and niece Zsófia behind, but does everything he can to fit into society in order to be able to bring them over too. Brody picks up right where he left off at his Oscar performance in “The Pianist” and plays Tóth with a subtle, humble and weary inclination towards the American Dream. These two antagonists feed off each other`s energy, and mix very much like the planned center`s components of concrete and Carrara marble. Tóth is aware that whenever he is put on a pedestal by his benefactor Van Buren, a brutalist by nature, it can turn into a hangman`s chair at a moment`s notice. Survival is the dish of the day and his austere architecture is the symbol to go along with it.

Corbet`s film is constructed like a two part theatre play. It has an overture, an epilogue and an interval of 15 minutes like in the good old movie time days of a David Lean. Incredibly it boasts 215 minutes, was filmed in VistaVision, and wrapped up in mere 34 days at a budget of only $10 million.

Another Aussie film and music video director, John Hillcoat, who worked with him on three occasions, elaborates on Guy Pearce`s fortes in a GQ article: “Australia is a remote colony…and being a colony we have this antiauthoritarian attitude and we`re quite irreverent. It is an extreme place. We have a kind of not-giving-a-fuck to us, not playing by the rules, not doing what`s expected.”

Our man Flynn would agree.

Enjoy,

 

 

— shangheinz

 

Color me Curtiz

01 Oct

Dear Flynnstones,

which film, which scene, which date?

Guess,

— shangheinz

 

Secret Sirvice

08 Sep

Dear Flynnstones,

meet Sir Anthony Jenkinson, descendent of the 2nd Lord Liverpool, when he visited Errol at Elstree Studios in 1952.

They got acquainted probably via mutual friend David Niven in Hollywood of 1938.

The Etonite worked as wartime correspondent during WWII and was assigned by his school friend Commander Ian Fleming to the Carribean on a secret mission to document the activities of Nazi submarines in the area.

He was accompanied on this snoop cruise by none other than Hemingway‘s brother Leicester. Big Brother wrote in ernest about their adventures in the book (not the song!) “Islands in the Stream“.

Sir Alex was the first journalist to interview Chairman Mao and may have given Flynn the idea to do so likewise with Fidel Castro.

Jenkinson set up shop, a shipyard to build schooners, in Jamaica, where the seafarer and the swashbuckler again often met.

Ahoy,

— shangheinz

 

The Shot Seen Around The World

29 Aug

 

Dear Flynnstones,

here you see young paperazzo Gianni explaining Errol how he took the shot of a lifetime.

And here you can watch it from every angle:

m.youtube.com…

Click,

— shangheinz

 

3 Ringling Circus

26 Aug

Dear Flynnstones,

here is a rare pic of Errol a mere two weeks before his untimely death visiting Ringling Bros. Circus.
The team of three shows him with his past protegé and fiancé in spe Beverly and her friend Linda.
Where Flynn put his buzzsaw straw hat, if he threw into the ring or lent it to Maurice Chevalier remains an open investigation.

Make ‘em laugh,

— shangheinz