Mon Film was the leading “film photonovel” publication in France in the decades before and after World War II. (It was “on hiatus” during the war.) This issue was published on February 25, 1948, seventy-two years ago today.
Thank you to our great EFB Flynnmate and Author Tina (aka Baribel), for originally publishing this cover and information regarding it, nine years ago today. Danke, Tina!
— Tim
December 27, 1935
A Newcomer Named Errol Flynn in a Handsome Film Version of Captain Blood
“A spirited and criminally-handsome Australian named Errol Flynn plays the genteel buccaneer to the hilt.”
— Tim
America calling, PW …
Just in time for Christmastime – Our Lady in London – publishes Errol’s secret recipe!
“The Spectator magazine’s Christmas special is doubly festive this year, [including] an entry from journalist and high-society member Petronella Wyatt revealing details … of her favourite seasonal cocktail, “The Errol”, named after its inventor Errol Flynn.” [The Irish Times]
The Spectator Christmas Special
“My favoured cocktail for the Christmas alcoholiday is an invention of Errol Flynn’s. Flynn taught it to my late friend Diana, Countess of Wilton, back in the 1950s. Diana was a perfected presence, a swan among swans, and Flynn, who was living in Rome at the time, used to take her to lunch. Far from being a vulgar seducer, he liked to talk about Socrates and had wanted to become a writer. He was a tragic man, trapped by his own physical beauty. His eyes, the colour of Anatolian waters, had a terrible sadness. But he taught her to make a cocktail of such subtlety that it is like drinking moonbeams.”
“‘The Errol’ is a variation on a White Lady and I publish the recipe here for the first time. Into a cocktail shaker, pour 1 part gin, 1 part Cointreau and 1 part freshly squeezed lemon juice. Add a teaspoon of white rum. Shake with ice and serve in martini glasses.”
Thank you, Petronella, and Erroltime tidings!
— Tim
Selene, we are so happy to have you with us at The Errol Flynn Blog – a True Friend of Flynn!
— David DeWitt
Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude
Lessons in Morality From Peter Blood, the Pirate
m-theepochtimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org…
— Tim
Jimmy and Errol during the filming of Frisco Kid and Captain Blood. No hug or smile for hubby, though!
July 25, 1935
A Little from Lots
by Ralph Wilks
Photography on two Warner special productions, Frisco Kid, starring James Cagney, and Captain Blood, co-starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, starts next Monda at the Burbank studios under the direction of Lloyd Bacon and Michael Curtiz, respectively.
____
Look for Lili in the poker scene ~ 0:47 – 1:00, and in the “star-in-every-role” end credits:
— Tim
July 24, 1935
Los Angeles Examiner
Warners Rush Ships for Scenes in Captain Blood
Construction of five pirate boats to be used in the filming of Captain Blood was being rushed on the Warner Brothers lot today, anticipating the picture’s going into production the first week of August.
The ships are being made under the supervision of Anton Grot, art director, who designed the lavish sets for A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Warner Brothers special directed by Max Reinhardt.
Although Captain Blood’s boat, the Arabella, is the smallest craft under construction, the combined efforts of Grot, his sixteen assistants and the studio department are so focused on the ship that it may be best of its kind ever turned out.
A group of professional boat builders have been recruited from local seaport towns, and professional ship painters also have been called in to work on the project.
Work on the “Captain Blood Armada” started early this year shortly after announcement by Warner Brothers that the filming of Sabatini’s pirate yarn actually would get under way this summer. The first steps taken were the collection of books on pirate craft and the tabulating of data to be used by Grot’s assistants in making working drawings. One of the research books used was “Souvenirs de Marine,” which went out of print in 1886. Another book studied was “Histoire de la Marine.”
Featuring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, Captain Blood is the first of twelve super productions to be made by Warner Brothers-First National. They are Anthony Adverse, Frisco Kid, Charge of the Light Brigade, Lafitte the Pirate Legionnaire, Ceiling Zero, Green Pastures, Petrified Forest, Radio Jamboree of 1935, and The Fighter.
— Tim
One of the primary references used by Art Director Anton Grot’s team for the design of ships in Captain Blood was the Souvenirs de Marine, written by Vice Admiral Francois-Edmond Paris.
François-Edmond Pâris (1806 – 1893) was one of the most fascinating characters in French maritime history. As a young man he was involved in the last of the grand French scientific expeditions, and helped collect and classify the curiosities of the newly explored lands in Asia and the Pacific. He circumnavigated the globe three times with renowned French captains. As a surveyor and draftsman, he helped with the overwhelming success of these explorations. This opened for him a new opportunity, the honor to command one of the first steamships in the French fleet. A brilliant naval engineer, he greatly helped modernize the French navy of the 1800’s. Most of his books became classics not only in France but abroad. He is notable for his role in organising the Musée National de la Marine (National Navy Museum) in Paris. In 1871 he was appointed curator of the Navy at the Louvre, where Admiral Paris spent the last twenty-two years of his life enriching the collections, and formulating this unique set.
Description: Hard bound in publishers green cloth with blind stamped boards and gilt titles. Large Elephant folios – 22.5 ” x 19″. Massive at over 13 Lbs. each. Each volume holds 60 full page, single sided plates. Originally published 1882-1908. First reprinted in 1910. Profusely illustrated with striking full page plates of marine architectural renderings. RARE!
Souvenirs de marine Collection de plans ou dessins de navires et de bateaux anciens ou modernes existants ou disparus avec les éléments numériques nécessaores à leur construction
Pâris, François-Edmond
Publisher: Gauthier – Villars Et Fils, Paris
Publication Date: 1892, 1910, 1910
Could ships depicted in this masterwork have been models used by Warner Brothers for ships in Captain Blood and Sea Hawk? Quite possibly. Here’s one of the book’s many superb plates:
— Tim
I just came across two French interviews with Le Flynn – thought you might enjoy them. How thrilling to hear him speak French!
www.ina.fr/audio/PHD99001025/entretien-avec-errol-flynn-en-francais-audio.html…
www.ina.fr/audio/PHD99001195/interview-d-errol-flynn-audio.html…
— Claudia
Great blog. First class. Great esoterica.
I had occasion to work with Luke Stoecker (sp?) Flynn, Errol’s grandson, about nine years ago while directing my first film, The Mercy Man. I cast Luke in a small role as “the boyfriend.” He was a great guy. As handsome as Errol, and just a laid back fun guy. And a talented actor, because he was smart and listened well (to the other actors in the scene), and those two things are hallmarks of acting talent in my opinion. Every now and then between set ups or driving to the set with the cast, I’d talk to Luke about surfing and the West Indies (two interests of mine), and we’d get talking about Jamaica and his grandmother Patrice Wymore’s estate where he’d grown up, and of course Errol. Luke was well aware of his legacy and famous grandfather, but that was ancient history to Luke. He was smart enough to live in the present and not parade around as the grandson. I remember we were shooting a scene in a terrible part of Trenton New Jersey one night, which we were doubling for NYC, and we got lost in the car in an area where the cops told us not to go, and it was late at night and everyone in the car was unnerved and waiting to get shot to death, and Luke gazed about casually and said, “This is exciting. We should shoot here,” and I remember laughing at his blithe calmness. I wish him well. Acting’s a shitty business driven by luck and connections, so who knows.
— TJR McDowell
