Steve and Genene Randall have just sent us a proof copy of their Errol Flynn Centenary brochure for Flynn's 100th birthday celebration in the land of his birth, Tasmania – in Hobart! It's a beautiful brochure, download it now to discover all the events planned for this special day…
Just click the pic!
— David DeWitt
Stpehen Youngkin sent this to me… fascinating, as SPOCK might say! Stephen writes:
Amongst the many people I interviewed for my biography of Peter Lorre was cinematographer Oswald “Os” Morris, whose screen credits include: Beat the Devil; Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison; Lolita; The Spy Who Came in from the Cold; The Taming of the Shrew; The Man Who Would Be King; Equus, etc. Os was an interviewer’s dream. He was affable, unassuming, hospitable and rolled out anecdotes with a storyteller’s gift for narrative and a historian’s eye for accuracy. In other words, I just sat back and listened.
Sensing my interest in his colorful tales about John Huston (they worked on eight films together), he said that he one day hoped to include them in an autobiography. That was 1988. Having recently seen Os on a documentary about Huston, I thought to look and see if he ever did pen that book. Long story short, it came out last year:
Huston, We Have A Problem: A Kaleidoscope of Filmmaking Memories (Scarecrow Press, 2006).
One of the films Morris shot was The Roots of Heaven with Errol Flynn, who, said Morris, had trouble remembering his dialogue, sweated and drank heavily. Nothing new there. However, what did catch my attention was mention of a Flynn film that was new to me (and may be to other members):
“My last film [as clapper boy] at Elstree was the Karl Grune-directed Abdul the Damned [1935], hokum about an operetta star (Adrienne Ames) assailed by a villainous Turkish sultan (Fritz Kortner). In the cast as a palace guard was a handsome lad called Errol Flynn. He was immediately talent spotted. Irving Asher, head of production at Warner Bros. studios at Teddington, Middlesex, tested him, the result was sent to Burbank, and Errol was given a six-month contract.” p. 8.
Pictures curtesy of Karl Holmberg
— David DeWitt
We are honored to announce that Rory Flynn – daughter of Errol Flynn – has joined this blog as our newest Author! We look forward to her comments and insights…
Rory Flynn and Friend inTasmania!
— David DeWitt
In the sub-antarctic climes of Hobart, far removed from any sirocco breeze there was another history. A scant history of a young boy who could never have known what life had in store for him. Hobart was Australia's second settled city. Its early architecture is still very evident today.One only has to take a casual stroll around Battery Point to achieve a sense of colonial history. Ostensibly not much has changed over a hundred years except for a careful gentrification of this inner city area.
Its not hard to imagine the young Errol frequenting this area especially when we consider that tall ships and clippers would tie up along the foreshores of Salamanca Place as more modern vessels do until this very day.Errol's love of the great wide oceans certainly must have been imprinted at an early age and indeed he may have wondered what good wind lay in wait for him.
During the mid 1980's I was fortunate to make the acquaintance of two gentleman from Errol's youth.Don Norman and Alan Mansfield. Each were childhood friends with Errol and all three would attend boxing training together. Don was to tell me “Errol could hold his hands up, he had to, he was picked on for his looks” ! Whilst each fought in different weight divisions they certainly applied themselves to their training as both Errol and Alan were state champions in their respective divisions.Alan was divulge to me that it was very sentimental to him whenever he watched 'Gentleman Jim', “I felt that a part of me was in the ring with him”! “Errol could really box”!
Alan (Mansfield) and Errol had often walked to school together and in his reminiscing he would ask me to forgive an old mans tears. “After Errol left Hobart to attend school in Sydney , New South Wales, I never saw him again although I watched his career with great interest”. …”but I did meet up with him again during WW2 whilst on shore leave in SanFrancisco”. At this point in our conversation, Alan's demeanour becomes light and animated. “There we were marching down a street in SanFrancisco and we passed an open air restaurant that was one story high. ..and then I heard a voice from my past, “Alan , Alan old sport” ! “I looked up and it was my old chum…he was my best friend when were kids”. Alan was to tell me that Errol was always on the lookout for any Australians . ” Come up here and have lunch with me” was Errols cry. Alan replied ” I'd like to but I've got about eighty mates here”. “Well bring them up with you then”.
Alan Mansfield had been reunited with his best mate from school and he an Errol and eighty other servicemen had the afternoon of their lives. I think its demonstrative of Errol's affection for Hobart and Tasmania and those early years . I think its wonderful that Rory has returned to Hobart in recent times. I know it will help her connect to the formative years and heritage of the man she knows as 'The Baron' .
…thats all for this blog entry……travel well everyone
— Chris Driscoll
Welcome Chris! We look forward to your thoughts and contributions!
— David DeWitt
Murphy Scott joins us as our Newest Author on The Errol Flynn Blog! Murphy, we look forward to your contributions! Welcome aboard!
— David DeWitt
Head on over to ThomasMcNulty.com… to see our own Thomas McNulty's new place on the WWW (not the Wild Wild West but I'm sure he'd like that)!
— David DeWitt
He was best known for his work on movies such as The African Queen and Sons and Lovers, and was awarded an Oscar for Black Narcissus in 1948.
The filmmaker was also presented with an Honorary Oscar in 2001.
Born to two music hall artists, he grew up in the theatre, resulting in a showbusiness career spanning 90 years.
He moved into film as a runner on the 1928 drama The Informer, then progressed to work as a camera operator and, eventually, cinematographer.
In an article for The National Gallery in 2007, Cardiff described his early film set experiences.
“I suppose I was much less than an apprentice when I first went behind the camera,” he wrote.
“I was a runner, whose main job was to supply the German director with Vichy water because he had a problem with flatulence.”.
He also described how, as a child, he used to watch art directors work in theatres, painting the backdrops and setting up the lights.
“I was fascinated by two men up in the wings, one on each side of the stage, following the actors with a spotlight,” he wrote.
“I spent a lot of time with them and a stirring was born in me which I later recognised as an urge to create. Light and colour became my world.”
In 1937 he shot Wings of the Morning, the first film in Britain to be shot in Technicolor.
He also worked with cinema greats Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe in the 1957 movie The Prince and the Showgirl.
He was made an OBE in 2000.
Inspiration
In 2001, he took part in an interview with readers of the BBC news website, in which he revealed he would have been a painter if he had not worked in film.
In fact much of his work was inspired by impressionist painters – he said the lighting and colour palette of Black Narcissus “was inspired by Vermeer”.
Cardiff was admired by many in the film industry, including Martin Scorsese.
The director once described the 18-minute dance sequence in 1948's The Red Shoes as “a moving painting”.
Scorsese added the cinematographer could “paint with the camera”.
When asked which films he was most proud of, Cardiff said the “successful” ones had really made their mark.
“Naturally, I am proud of successful films that I have enjoyed working on like The Red Shoes and the Black Narcissus and I have had a certain satisfaction from that.
“But the films that I am most proud of – the film for instance that I made under great difficulty, Sons and Lovers, I wanted to make it into a good film because the book is marvelous and I didn't want to let the author down.”
— David DeWitt
I like to plug what our Authors on the Errol Flynn Blog are doing!
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From Lulu.com…
— David DeWitt
