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No Highballs, Jingle Bells or Rah-Rah

13 Jun

But it was a Really Big Shew Nonetheless

June 13, 1939

—

Ed Sullivan

—

Hollywood Citizen News

…

Director Mike Curtiz, one of the best on the Warner lot, has a bad memory for names….He calls John Garfield “Group Theater”….Claude Rains, to Curtiz, always is “Mister Theater Guild”….Wayne Morris is “Bank Night”….Olivia de Havilland is “Baby”….In Elizabeth and Essex, Curtiz became impatient with a love scene that Errol Flynn and Bette Davis were doing, and stopped the action….”Remember always,” he explained, that this is a 17th Century love story without the highballs, jingle bells and rah-rah”….

…

— Tim

 
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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Co-Stars, Dates & Girlfriends, Films, Flynn and..., Gentleman Tim, Newspaper & Headlines

 

Fighting Hollywood

13 Jun

YOU WILL PROBABLY REMEMBER THESE NAMES IF YOU ARE OLD ENOUGH

We all know Errol served in his own way. With his tours Etc

THE OLDER PEOPLE WILL REMEMBER THESE & THE YOUNGER ONES CAN LEARN ABOUT OUR PAST. THIS BROUGHT BACK A LOT OF MEMORIES. COMPARE WITH HOLLYWOOD TODAY!

Sterling Hayden , US Marines and OSS . Smuggled guns into Yugoslavia and parachuted into Croatia .

James Stewart , US Army Air Corps. Bomber pilot who rose to the rank of General.

Ernest Borgnine , US Navy. Gunners Mate 1c, destroyer USS Lamberton.

Ed McMahon, US Marines. Fighter Pilot. (Flew OE-1 Bird Dogs over Korea as well.)

Telly Savalas , US Army.

Walter Matthau, US Army Air Corps., B-24 Radioman/Gunner and cryptographer.

Steve Forrest , US Army. Wounded, Battle of the Bulge.

Jonathan Winters, USMC. Battleship USS Wisconsin and Carrier USS Bon Homme Richard. Anti-aircraft gunner, Battle of Okinawa

Paul Newman, US Navy Rear seat gunner/radioman, torpedo bombers of USS Bunker Hill

Kirk Douglas, US Navy Sub-chaser in the Pacific. Wounded in action and medically discharged.

Robert Mitchum , US Army.

Dale Robertson , US Army. Tank Commander in North Africa under Patton. Wounded twice Battlefield Commission.

Henry Fonda , US Navy. Destroyer USS Satterlee.

John Carroll , US Army Air Corps. Pilot in North Africa . Broke his back in a crash.

Lee Marvin US Marines. Sniper. Wounded in action on Saipan . Buried in Arlington National Cemetery , Sec. 7A next to Greg Boyington and Joe Louis.

Art Carney , US Army. Wounded on Normandy beach, D-Day. Limped for the rest of his life.

Wayne Morris, US Navy fighter pilot, USS Essex . Downed seven Japanese fighters.

Rod Steiger , US Navy Was aboard one of the ships that launched the Doolittle Raid.

Tony Curtis , US Navy. Sub tender USS Proteus. In Tokyo Bay for the surrender of Japan

Larry Storch. US Navy. Sub tender USS Proteus with Tony Curtis.

Forrest Tucker, US Army. Enlisted as a private, rose to Lieutenant.

Robert Montgomery , US Navy.

George Kennedy , US Army. Enlisted after Pearl Harbor , stayed in sixteen years.

Mickey Rooney , US Army under Patton. Bronze Star.

Denver Pyle , US Navy. Wounded in the Battle of Guadalcanal . Medically discharged.

Burgess Meredith , US Army Air Corps.

DeForest Kelley , US Army Air Corps.

Robert Stack , US Navy. Gunnery Officer.

Neville Brand , US Army, Europe . Was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart

Tyrone Power, US Marines. Transport pilot in the Pacific Theater.

Charlton Heston , US Army Air Corps. Radio operator and aerial gunner on a B-25, Aleutians

Danny Aiello , US Army. Lied about his age to enlist at 16. Served three years.

James Arness , US Army. As an infantryman, he was severely wounded at Anzio , Italy .

Efram Zimbalist, Jr., US Army. Purple Heart for a severe wound received at Huertgen Forest

Mickey Spillane, US Army Air Corps, Fighter Pilot and later Instructor Pilot.

Rod Serling. US Army. 11th Airborne Division in the Pacific. He jumped at Tagaytay in the Philippines and was later wounded in Manila .

Gene Autry , US Army Air Corps. Crewman on transports that ferried supplies over “The Hump” in the China-Burma-India Theater.
William Holden , US Army Air Corps.

Alan Hale Jr, US Coast Guard.

Russell Johnson , US Army Air Corps. B-24 crewman who was awarded Purple Heart when his aircraft was shot down by the Japanese in the Philippines

William Conrad , US Army Air Corps. Fighter Pilot.

Jack Klugman , US Army.

Frank Sutton , US Army. Took part in 14 assault landings, including Leyte, Luzon, Bataan and Corregidor .

Jackie Coogan , US Army Air Corps. Volunteered for gliders and flew troops and materials into Burma behind enemy lines.

Tom Bosley , US Navy.

Claude Akins , US Army. Signal Corps. , Burma and the Philippines

Chuck Connors , US Army. Tank-warfare instructor.

Harry Carey Jr., US Navy.

Mel Brooks , US Army. Combat Engineer. Saw action in the Battle of the Bulge

Robert Altman , US Army Air Corps. B-24 Co-Pilot.

Pat Hingle , US Navy. Destroyer USS Marshall

Fred Gwynne , US Navy. Radioman.

Karl Malden , US Army Air Corps. 8th Air Force, NCO.

Earl Holliman , US Navy. Lied about his age to enlist. Discharged after a year when they Navy found out.

Rock Hudson , US Navy. Aircraft mechanic, the Philippines .

Harvey Korman , US Navy.

Aldo Ray. US Navy. UDT frogman, Okinawa .

Don Knotts , US Army, Pacific Theater.

Don Rickles , US Navy aboard USS Cyrene.

Harry Dean Stanton , US Navy Served aboard an LST in the Battle of Okinawa

Soupy Sales, US Navy. Served on USS Randall in the South Pacific.

Lee Van Cleef , US Navy. Served aboard a sub chaser then a mine sweeper.

Clifton James , US Army, South Pacific. Was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart.

Ted Knight , US Army, Combat Engineers.

Jack Warden , US Navy, 1938-1942, then US Army, 1942-1945. 101st Airborne Division.

Don Adams. US Marines. Wounded on Guadalcanal , then served as a Drill Instructor.

James Gregory, US Navy and US Marines.

Brian Keith, US Marines. Radioman/Gunner in Dauntless dive-bombers.

Fess Parker, US Navy and US Marines. Booted from pilot training for being too tall, joined Marines as a radio operator.

Charles Durning. US Army. Landed at Normandy on D-Day. Shot multiple times. Awarded the Silver Star and Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts.SurvivedMalmedy Massacre.

Raymond Burr , US Navy. Shot in the stomach on Okinawa and medically discharged.

Hugh O’Brian, US Marines.

Robert Ryan, US Marines.

Eddie Albert , US Coast Guard. Bronze Star with Combat V for saving several Marines under heavy fire as pilot of a landing craft during the invasion of Tarawa

Cark Gable , US Army Air Corps. B-17 gunner over Europe .

Charles Bronson , US Army Air Corps. B-29 gunner, wounded in action.

Peter Graves , US Army Air Corps.

Buddy Hackett , US Army anti-aircraft gunner.

Victor Mature, US Coast Guard.

Jack Palance, US Army Air Corps. Severely injured bailing out of a burning B-24 bomber.

Robert Preston , US Army Air Corps. Intelligence Officer

Cesar Romero , US Coast Guard. Participated in the invasions of Tinian and Saipan on the assault transport USS Cavalier.

Norman Fell , US Army Air Corps., Tail Gunner, Pacific Theater.

Jason Robards , US Navy. Was aboard heavy cruiser USS Northampton when it was sunk off Guadalcanal . Also served on the USS Nashville during the invasion of the Philippines , surviving a kamikaze hit that caused 223 casualties

Steve Reeves, US Army , Philippines .

Dennis Weaver, US Navy. Pilot.

Robert Taylor , US Navy. Instructor Pilot.

Randolph Scott. Tried to enlist in the Marines but was rejected due to injuries sustained in US Army, World War 1.

Ronald Reagan. US Army. Was a 2nd Lt. in the Cavalry Reserves before the war. His poor eyesight kept him from being sent overseas with his unit when war came so he transferred to the Army Air Corps Public Relations Unit where he served for the duration.

John Wayne Declared “4F medically unfit” due to pre-existing injuries, he nonetheless attempted to volunteer three times (Army, Navy and Film Corps.
so he gets honorable mention.

And of course we have Audie Murphy , America ‘s most-decorated soldier, who became a Hollywood star as a result of his US Army service that included his being awarded the Medal of Honor.

Would someone please remind me again how many of today’s Hollywood elite put their careers on hold to enlist in Iraq or Afghanistan ? The only one
who even comes close was Pat Tillman, who turned down a contract offer of $36 million over three years from the Arizona Cardinals to enlist in the US Army after September 11, 2001, and serve as a Ranger in Afghanistan , where he died in 2004. But rather than being lauded for his choice and his decision to put his country before his career, he was mocked and derided by many of his peers.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I submit to you that this is not the America today that it was seventy years ago. And I, for one, am saddened. My generation grew up watching, being entertained by and laughing with so many of these fine people, never really knowing what they contributed to the war effort.
Like millions of Americans during the WWII, there was a job that needed doing they didn’t question, they went and did it, those that came home returned to their now new normal life and carried on, very few ever saying what they did or saw.

They took it as their “responsibility”, their “duty” to Country, to protect and preserve our freedoms and way of life, not just for themselves but for all future generations to come. As a member of a later generation, I’m forever humbly in their debt!
Please pass this on to remind people of what real men were like, not the show dogs of today’s screen.

— tassie devil

 
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The Producer(s)

01 Jun

June 1, 1939

Louella O. Parsons
Los Angeles Examiner

Hadn’t been back but a few minutes when I heard that Jack Warner plans a Westward trek serialization with Mark Hellinger, the well-know Hearst writer, making his debut as a producers, and Michael Curtiz directing. Dodge City, which brought in the shekels, gave Warners the notion. Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, and Ann Sheridan, will star in Tombstone, laid in 1881, starting with the line in Dodge City, let’s go to Virginia City.” That name cannot be used because of the RKO movie. After Tombstone, City of Angels, a history of early Los Angeles in 1889, will be made with same cast and director.
…

Well, as we Flynnmates know, Tombstone was never made with Flynn, Olivia, or Annie. Nor was City of Angels. Virginia City was made, but not with Mark Hellinger producing. Hellinger, an extremely popular and successful show business figure, known not only for his great writing talent but also for his loyalty and fairness, got fed up and left Warner Bros. in response to Jack Warner’s egomaniacal habit of not giving proper production credit to others. (JW infamously did the same to Hal Wallis over the Oscar for Casablanca.) Hellinger did return, however, to produce his wartime baby inspired by MGM’s first musical (and part Technicolor production,) Broadway Melody of 1929,Thank Your Lucky Stars. So, Hellinger did finally get to produce a film with Errol, Olivia, and Annie, though certainly not how he had originally envisioned. Moreover, he got to act in the film himself, as can be seen in the clip below, in full from ~ 0:50 to 1:50. That’s him with Eddie Cantor.

…

…

Here’s Mark Hellinger with Errol’s Man Friday, Alex Pavlenko, at Mulholland Farm’s legendary bar. This photo is from the Deirdre Flynn Collection. A better image of this can be seen in Robert Matsen’s Errol Flynn Slept Here. Thank you, Deirdre.

— Tim

 
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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Dates & Girlfriends, Flynn and..., Gentleman Tim, Main Page, Newspaper & Headlines

 

“Voyage of Discovery” — Asia to Ceylon

28 May

According to My Wicked, Wicked Ways …

Following their escapades in Asia, Errol and Erben sailed on the French ship D’Artagnon*, through the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, toward India. On this “voyage of discovery”, as he later described it to his father, Errol became enamored with a beautiful half-Swiss, half Japanese, young woman name named Myako. She was from a Swiss Colony in Kobe**. Unfortunately for Errol, Myako had a Swiss husband onboard, one who soon made his own discovery, i.e. Errol below decks with Myako.

“Nuts, screeching, and out of control”, Myako’s extraordinarily-strong and irate Swiss husband discovered Errol with his wife in the couple’s first-class cabin, both half-undressed. First, seized Errol’s throat and attempted to choke him to death. Then, when Errol finally managed to pry himself free, he pulled a revolver threatened again to kill Errol, this time pointing his revolver at one of Errol’s most prized possessions.

Errol was not able to talk his way out of danger with this insanely-jealous husband, but he was able to dodge the shot fired at him and take the gun from him. To Errol’s dismay, however, the noise of the shot and its ” zinging from wall to wall” “in the steel cabin” “through the first-class cabin” “like a blowfly over a piece of cheese” summoning the ship’s French officers, who promptly ordered Errol to permanently leave the ship, in Colombo, on the British island colony of Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka. Errol attributed his being booted from the D’Artagnon‘, but not the first-class couple, to “economics” and French practicality.

* The D’Artagnan later became a Vichy French warship (renamed the Teiko Maru and manned by Japanese) and was sunk by the USS Puffer, in the South China Sea, near Borneo.

** The Swiss had very extensive enterprises in Japan prior to WWII. In fact, they were responsible for more than a third of all raw silk exportation from Japan. They also exported – predominantly via French and German ports and ships- weaving machinery, wool, muslin, aniline dyes, drugs, perfumes, and watches. In fact, over 90% of all watches exported into Japan were imported from Switzerland.

— Tim

 
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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Gentleman Tim, Ships & the Sea, Travels

 

Errol’s Royal Geek

19 May

70 YEARS AGO TODAY – GHICA FINDS ERROL IRRESISTIBLE

New Orleans, May 18, 1950– Errol Flynn is irresistible to Rumanian Princess Irene Ghica
“because he keeps his mouth shut when I want quiet,” she said.

Forty-year-old Flynn
and the 19-year-old princess will probably marry in September – he for the third time.

He brought her to the United States from Bermuda so that he could finish a film based
on Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim.”

Flynn explained that the princess’ nickname, “Geek,” was the first syllable of Ghica.
She commented: “When I found out that a ‘geek’ is a person who, bites off chickens’ heads
at a carnival, I threw a pan at Errol.”

Flynn, who earns about £A89,286 a year, complained that he was going deeper into debt every day.

“There seems to be a lot of people I owe money to, he said. “You would think I had paid enough to one of the
ladies to whom I’ve been paying alimony for 10 years. Those payments are a terrible drain on a man’s income.”

He was referring to his first wife, Lili Damita. He recently asked the court for alimony relief, saying he was
paying £10,357 a year to support her and their nine year-old son, Sean.

…

Here are the Nearlyweds in November of 1949.

…

— Tim

 
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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Dates & Girlfriends, Flynn and..., Gentleman Tim, Main Page, Newspaper & Headlines, Sean Flynn, Travels

 

Errol Collapses on the Set of The Last Man

18 May

May 18, 1943

Syracuse Herald Journal

FLYNN COLLAPSES OF HOLLYWOOD SET

Hollywood, May 18 – Actor Errol Flynn was recovering today at Hollywood Hospital after collapsing on a Warner Bros. set.

he was expected to remain in the hospital for at least a week. His physicians, Dr. Carl F. Stevens and Thomas W. Hern, said Flynn suffered “a recurrence of an upper respiratory ailment” which he has had for some time.

Flynn collapsed yesterday while working on To the Last Man. Action will be shot around him until he returns.

Northern Pursuit was originally known as To the Last Man and was based on a magazine story. A.I. Bezzerides wrote the first screenplay under the supervision of Jesse L. Lasky. William Faulkner later worked on the script.

According to Tony Thomas:

“During the production of Northern Pursuit, Flynn took ill in May 1943, collapsing on the set and being hospitalized for a week. The studio released information indicating he had a “upper respiratory ailment,” but he was battling tuberculosis.”

…

Errol was said to have collapsed soon after the filming of this scene from To the Last Man, later renamed Norther Pursuit..

…

Errol was also reported to have “collapsed on the set” the year before, in Gentleman Jim, as discussed here and below.

This video review by Richard Brody of the New Yorker, shows the great fight scene (against Ward Bond playing John L. Sullivan) after which Errol is said to have collapsed, beginning at about 2:00. Also featured in this review is EFB’s own world champion biographer of Flynn, Tom McNulty, who wrote:

“Flynn collapsed during one of the boxing sequences and was rushed to Good Samaritan Hospital. He was diagnosed as having experienced a mild heart attack. He was then flown to Baltimore and admitted to the Johns Hopkins University Hospital where physicians conducted a thorough physical examination. Their assessment was grim.”

www.newyorker.com…


02:00 There’s something special
02:10 about the character of Corbett.
02:12 He seems peculiarly modern,
02:13 in fact, even more modern than Walsh imagined.
02:17 Unlike the other boxers he faces,
02:18 he isn’t just a brawler, he’s a dancer,
02:21 he’s a master of fancy footwork.
02:23 And with his fancy footwork comes high-flowing verbiage,
02:27 the ability to use taunting to get
02:29 under his opponent’s skin and,
02:31 with his confection of his public image
02:32 and his careful attention to his appearance,
02:35 Corbett seems nothing less
02:36 than a precursor to Mohammad Ali.
02:39 [boxing bell rings]
02:41 [crowd cheers]

— Tim

 
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The perfect speciwomen

18 May

Dear fellow Flynn fans,

what do you see in the picture above?

I know about you, but I see a yacht and I think it was Errol`s.

The smiling siren in front of course is Joan Blondell, his co-star in the 1937 screwball comedy “The Perfect Specimen”.

In her biography “A Life Between Takes” she remembers our Hollywood hero very fondly: “Sometimes we walked in Warner`s Sherwood Forrest, where Errol Flynn gleefully told me untold tales of his youth during the picture we were making.”

Rose Joan Blondell was born on August 30, 1906 (she herself claimed 1909) to a vaudevillain family on the Manhattan Upper West Side and made her stage debut at the age of four months in a play called “The Greatest Love”. Right from the start her father of Jewish- polish descend Levi Bluestein aka Eddie Blondell and her Irish mother Catherine “Katie” Cain, gave her more acting lessons than she saw schooling. Famous for their stage version of the then immensely popular newspaper comic strip “The Katzenjammer Kids” her folks toured the country relentlessly along with her sister Gloria and brother Ed Jr.

At age eight she was shipped to Honolulu and spent a year there, and then six more in Australia. Little Joanie`s upbringing during that time probably was outsourced to some charitable society like for example the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks. The Elks still have a lavish estate on Hawaii, actually very near located to the former “Shangri- La” villa of Doris Duke, where Errol used to roam too. Up to this day the B.P.O.E is very engaged in youth programms, while their boy scout like kiddie club “The Antlers” was disbanded abruptly in 1947. Whatever the ties Blondell had with this hornoray organisation, they proved career defining. In 1931/32 a dinner in her honour was held at the Elk`s Club in Hollywood when she had been elected “Baby Star”. Furthermore she was one of the main hostesses of the Elk`s Motion Picture Electrical Pageant in LA on July 16th of 1936. This extravaganza saw dozens of carriages with local beauty queens dressed as butterfly winged fairies (the Victoria`s Secret formula) carted to the Coliseum, where the parade came to a bonfire end.

A Warner Bros. workhorse in terms of turnout, Joan was making 50 films from 1930 to 1938. Ten in 1931 and another ten in 1932. This cruelling schedule landed the hard working girl in hospital at the end of the year. Starring mostly alongside James Cagney, whom she had met while playing opposite him on Broadway in the show “Maggie the Magnificent”. The film adaptation of their play “Penny Arcade” retitled “Sinner`s Holiday” became the starting point of a lifelong friendship. Cagney stated that she was the only woman other than his wife he ever had fallen in love with. Plus he stated she possessed the most beautiful derriere in Christendom. He should know, when one night on stage a lighting mishap set her asset on fire. Cagney was caught in a laughing fit looking at what seemed like “…two giant owl eyes staring back at me!”

Unlike the other contract players Olivia de Havilland and Bette Davies, Joan never gave Jack Warner a hard time for piss pour roles and overexposure.”It takes all the talent you`ve got in your guts to play unimportant roles. It is not degrading, just hard to do.” Even when pregnant she managed to produce six movies, sitting behind desks hiding her growing tummy. Her utmost professionalism and toughness as acrylic nails got her the inofficial title of Studio Dame of the lot. “I just sailed through things, took the scripts I was given, did what I was told. I couldn`t afford to go on suspension.” In 1952 she earned her first and only Academy Award nomination as supporting actress in the “The Blue Veil”. By then she had switched from wisecracking blondie to strong female characters like that of Aunt Cissy in “A Tree  Grows in Brooklyn” directed by Elia Kazan.

Married three times (often time co- star William Powell  being one of her husbands), she never quite found the happiness of those carefree comedies in private life. Clark Gable had proposed to her, urging her not to marry that jealous and violent other guy. He may have meant Mike Todd, the theatre and film producer, who allegedly in a fit of rage hung Blondell out of the window feet last. With doing so he passed himself on to Elizabeth Taylor. In 1972 Joan Blondell lifted the veil on some of her life`s miseries in a thinly disguised fiction novel called “Center Door Fancy”.

I wonder if the book also reveals one of movie history`s all time greatest mystery. If it was her who was on lips and mind of Citizen Kane at his deathbed. Joan entered the 1926 Miss Dallas pageant and promptly won. But she participated under a false first name. Wanna know what it was !?

Rosebud.

Enjoy,

 

— shangheinz

 
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Errol’s Malaria — Part 1 — Blood-Thirsty Ann

10 May

The lowlands of Papua New Guinea’s north coast have been a flashpoint in the shattering contest of mosquito versus human throughout history. Here people don’t so much die from malaria as endure it, morbidity outstripping mortality. Debilitating sickness reverberates through genetics, culture, prosperity and aspiration.

Malaria is particularly and powerfully entrenched in the communities here on PNG’s north coast and through the surrounding lowlands, where it has afflicted and shaped generations throughout history, a story written into their DNA.

There are four main types of human malaria. By far the most notorious and deadliest is Plasmodium falciparum, the biggest killer globally. By contrast, PNG has the world’s highest prevalence of P. vivax, which is difficult to control because it lingers in the body and relapses.

This type of malaria (P. vivax) inflicts relapsing illness on their carriers. This is the malaria tale familiar to so many travelers and soldiers who returned from the tropics to find themselves mysteriously floored by bouts of illness for years afterwards.

cosmosmagazine.com…

The location where Errol is believed to have first been stricken with malaria in or near New Britain – and the lifelong recurrent nature of his malaria, is evidence that he obtained it from “Ann” the female Anopheles mosquito, as did soldiers stationed in those same exact locations during World War II.

Conditions in the South Pacific Theater during World War II were harsh — thick jungle, high temperatures, heavy rainfall, swamps, excessive mud, and mountainous terrain made life difficult enough for Soldiers. But the environment was perfect for mosquitos. Disease, especially malaria, was rampant among the troops. Although dysentery and beriberi took their toll, malaria was by far the most devastating disease, causing more casualties than the enemy. In many cases throughout the campaigns malaria played a significant role in determining the outcome of battle.

The primary carrier of malaria was the species Anopheles minimus flavirostris, sometimes nicknamed “Ann” by the Soldiers. This type of mosquito thrived in the Pacific island regions, doing best in regions with swiftly-flowing, clear, shaded water.

www.armyheritage.org…

— Tim

 
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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Errol Flynn's Homes, Gentleman Tim, New Articles, New Guinea, Newspaper & Headlines, Ships & the Sea, Travels

 

Ting Ling the Bell-Ringer … and Heart-Breaker

09 May

On the packet from Hong Kong to Macao, in May of 1933, Errol fell head over heels for a stunning Eurasian beauty named Ting Ling O’Connor.



The young women with Errol in the photo below may be Ting Ling, or his inspiration for the Ting Ling story. It certainly appears Flynn is tingling. Ting Ling, too.

Errol and Ting Ling headed straight for the notorious “Street of Happiness” – Rua de Felicidade – then the city’s main red light district. Since the mid-1800s, during the late Qing Dynasty, the area was packed with hundreds of brothels and opium dens, in addition to fan-tan parlors. Ting Ling seemed to know her way around the Street of Happiness quite well. It was the wickedest street in “the wickedest city in the Orient.”

Errol thought he had found “the love of [his] life”, … until he woke up the next morning and found that Ting Ling had snuck out of town. Worse, he learned she was a prostitute who played suckers for their money, apparently in cahoots with various casinos and gangsters. In fact, her name wasn’t Ting Ling O’Connor at all, he also learned. She used a series of aliases, her last before Flynn being Yok An Lee.

Errol was badly hurt (emotionally and financially) by Ting Ling’s betrayal, calling it “one of the worst heart drops that had ever happened to [him]”.

So it was back to Hong Kong for Erben and Flynn.

— Tim

 
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A FLYNN FAMILY STAY AT HOME DOUBLE FEATURE (“Desperate Journey” & “Five Ashore in Singapore”)

03 May

 

Previously I have posted about possible Flynn and son double features such as, “Uncertain Glory” and “Stop Train 349” and “The Big Boodle” and “Mission to Venice”. Today I have put together what I feel is another interesting combination, that of Errol’s “Desperate Journey” and Sean’s “Five Ashore in Singapore”.

Released in 1942, “Desperate Journey”, has Errol and his team after a successful bombing raid over Nazi Germany, having their plane shot down by enemy fire. Then he and the surviving four of his crew must make it out of Germany alive and get back to England. Errol’s crew includes; the ever reliable Alan Hale, Arthur Kennedy and a future US president, Ronald Reagan. Also included is the beautiful actress, Nancy Coleman. While most of the action is of the tongue in cheek kind, the film still has plenty of good thrills under the able direction of Errol’s favorite director, Raoul Walsh.

“Five Ashore in Singapore” (aka “Cinq Gars Pour Singapour”) had its world premiere in 1967 and was Sean’s last starring role. He had as his leading lady the very sexy, Marika Green who also happens to be the aunt of Bond girl, Eva Green. Also according to Perry Deane Young in his book, “Two of the Missing”, Tim Page, Sean’s friend and colleague, who had gone to Singapore with Sean appears as an extra in a scene in the movie. For more on this film, one can read the excellent article by Raphael Millet previously posted on this site.  Suffice it to say Sean also leads a team of five men here to solve the mystery of missing US marines in that capital city.  While not a classic, it still has a lot of action and is a document of its time.   –A.R.

 

— ILIKEFLYNN

 
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