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.
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
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
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
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:
Click,
— shangheinz
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
Dear Flynnstones,
there can never be another Flynn, right?
But while reading Samuel Marx’ superb book “Deadly Illusions“ on Jean Harlow and the murder of Paul Bern, I came across a namesake actor’n’athlete, who could have given Errol a run for his ringside reputation. en.m.wikipedia.org…
MBF threw in the Tinseltown towel early and made way for the real deal. He may have given Warners the idea to market our Hollywood hero as a bonafide boxer of Olympic proportions though. Luckily they didn‘t change the name of the aspiring contender to Terrence Thompson or Leslie LeBaron or…
The studio then and there already knew the prequel can never outdo the original.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Dear Flynnstones,
here is our man Flynn with jet set reporter Benno Graziani, one of the of the all time great photographers. www.vogue.co.uk/article/benno-graziani-interview…
His motto went a little like this: “Make em laugh, then shoot them“.
And it applied very well to their encounter in Deauville.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
[embedyt] www.youtube.com…
Dear Flynnstones,
look what I refound amongst the material I have gathered over the years on Errol‘s half finished William Tell film- an appearance on the BBC Show “In Town tonight“ from November 1953.
I remember a conversation with this blog‘s own Inga, when she posted a list of all Flynn radio outings. I said I thought that it was a TV show, because I had seen a clip from it. Matter of factly it may have been both. Despite being broadcast only into the ether, Robin Hood hawking for £ 50.000 in order to become Will Tell was too interesting to not put on camera also.
By the end of the year, he would have the money (not from United Artists boss Arthur B. Krim, not from Brother Warner), spend it elsewhere and move to England to do three movies there.
Instead resuming Tell with a different script & director two years later, it became apparent that the scenes already in the cans would stick out like an arrow from a head. Reshooting was not an option. The apple shot had been missed.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Dear Flynnstones,
above you see Errol and his buddy Air Bud Ernst leaving for the grand premiere of Dodge City.
The line up of this star studded extravaganza was impressive.
It even featured a special event what looks like a (shotgun?) wedding.
A pierced penny for who can spot the Duke in this picture.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
