The Errol Flynn Blog

My dear fellow Flynn fans,

here is all the Austrian National Library has to offer about director deluxe Michael Curtiz in his pre Hollywood days.

He was born Michaly Mano Kertesz Kaminer in Budapest on the 24th of december in 1888.

He came from an upper middle class jewish family.  His mother Aranka Vatz was an opera singer and his father Ignaz Kaminer an architect. He had two brothers, Gabriel and David. He was educated at the Royal Academy of Theatre and Art and attended the Markoszy University.

He started out as a child singer in 1899 and later became an actor in 1912 in the film “Today and tomorrow”. Then and there he confided to a friend that he intended to switch sides and was more interested in directing than acting.

He allegedly was part of the Hungarian fencing team at the Olympics in Stockholm of the same year.

In 1913 he took part in a monumental film called “Atlantis” made in Denmark, and claimed to be inspired by the very innovative way of film making there ever since.

In 1914/15 he served in the Infantry of the Austro- Hungarian Army along the Russian front and was wounded. He finished the war as newsreel camera man (one of the first of ist kind) making propaganda films.

In 1915 he married Ilona Kovacs Perenyi, a silent film actress also known as Lucy Doraine. Their daughter Katharine was born in 1916. His first marriage lasted until 1923.

In 1917 he became managing director of the newly founded Phoenix film production Company in Hungary.

By 1918 he had finished at least 38 films (some sources say 50), all lost or reduced to fragments.

When Bela Kun established the first communist regime in Hungary in March of the same year, Kertesz was busy filming “Liliom”, originally a play of Ferenc Molnar about a trigger temper carnival barker, who after serving time in purgatory for comitting suicide gets a second chance to do good on his daughter Julie. The 1945 broadway show “Carousel” is based on this story. It is the one and only of his 165 films Kertesz couldn´t finish. He fled the country with his family in turbulent times after Bela Kun was overthrown after a 120 day reign. Other prominent emigrants were Sandor (later: Alexander) Korda and Bela Lugosi.

During that period he is said to have made a film titled “Odette” in Sweden starring a 14 year old Greta Grabo.

From 1919 on Sascha Film Productions owner Count Alexander Kolowrat employed Kertesz in Vienna. Until 1926 timeless classics like “Sodom und Gomorrha” and “Die Sklavenkönigin” were made there with huge budgets and produced standard setting innovations. The  film known in the US as “The Moon of Israel” went head to head with Cecil B. De Mille`s “Ten Commandments” covering the exact topic of the exodus of the Israelits. Not to be outdone Kertesz contrived new ways for the scene of the parting of the Red Sea in order to match the superior Hollywood effects machinery. It was this pioneer spirit and the capability to direct up to 5000 extras that landed him a 28 year long lasting job with Warner Bros.

He made 3 films in Berlin with Count Kolowrat`s diva darling of the day Lili Damita (see EF blog: “The thrill of being Tiger Lil`”), before she became Mrs. Errol Flynn.

In 1929 he married Helen Lucas, a screen writer and actress also known under the stage name of Bess Meredyth.

In 1931 a certain Helen Lucy Doraine Rietmüller (rather: Reitmüller) can be found on the passengers list of the SS Bremen entering the port of NY. She claimed her residence to be in Hollywood 5680 Hilloak Drive. Despite their seperation Kertesz may have seen for his first wife to come to America.

In 1935 at age 19 his only legitimate child Katharina arrived at Los Angeles following her parents on February 23rd, again via the SS Bremen. Kertesz was a no show at the port probably working on the lot. “Kitty” becomes a scholar at the New York Art College. Four years later she tried to commit suicide and gives a sense of abbandonement as reason to the press.

But she was not the only Kertesz sibling to be left behind on the old continent. A son called Michael had been born to a bank accountant in 1920. Alimony was paid for him by Warners. His second daughter Sonja was born in 1923 to aspiring actress Miss Dalla Bona from the Sodom & Gomorrah set. In 1925 his second son was born to another actress from the S&G set, Miss Vondrak . Michael II. briefly worked for his dad as gaffer at the studios and is now  a painter in Seattle. Last but not least the daughter of actress Jill Gerard was acknowleged by a parental court to be Curtiz`child. She was born in 1956 when Casablanca`s favourite son was a mere 70 years old.

Back to 1935 and the filming of a flick called “The case of the curious bride”. It was there when a scene required of an unknown Australian actor  to mime a beautiful corpse covered with a blanket. When the cameras were rolling the silence suddenly was broken by a hearty sneeze from down under the blanket. Whereupon the temperamental dictator-director Curtiz supposedly snapped: “You-no-good-bum-of-a-sum-of-a-bitch, don´t you know, nose of dead man is dead also !?

The rest is Errol Flynn history.

Enjoy,

— shangheinz

My dear fellow Flynn fans,

here is what I dug up from the ancient archives of the Austrian National Library concerning the sexy sensual sparkplug we know as Mrs. Errol Flynn I.

Born Liliane Marie Madeleine Carré in Blaye near Bordeux on July 10th of either 1901 or rather 1904, she appeared in dancing revues in the Grand Nation`s capitol as early as age 15.

Of purported Iberian ancestry she started her career with the stage name of Damita del Rojo. Later she changed it to Lily Seslys under which she got credited with favorable performances during the silent film era.

As soon as film producer Count Alexander “Sascha” Kolowrat had laid his ladyloving eyes on her, he left no jewel unturned to lure the little dame from Paris to Vienna. This movie mogul went to great lenghts and used his personal riches to put big pictures onto the screen such as the then costliest movie up to date “Sodom and Gomorrah”.

Not only a bonvivant he was also a connaisseur of young talent and for example introduced Marlene Dietrich to the art of filmmaking.

But Lili was not to be seduced easily. She was determined to become a star and not end up a starlet. When arriving at the central train station of Vienna she was accompanied by an older woman (who may or may not have been her mother) as bodyguard. It was only when Count Kolowrat gave her top billing in his next three films partly made in Berlin: “Fiacre (stagecoach) Nr. 13”, “The Golden Butterfly” and “Plaything of Paris” that she agreed to terms and the chaperone was sent home. Director of all three flicks was a certain Michaly Kertesz, who soon was to embark on a shiptrip to Hollywood with no return ticket on a contract by Warner Bros.

Here is a comment of the “Neues Wiener Tagblatt” on the upraising star from the 4th of may 1929:

A fairytale out of real life

How Lili Damita found her way to film would make a fine story for a movie full of romance and sentimentalities so well liked these days, that has audiences streaming tears down their cheeks. Dancing in Boulevard venues at age 15 she was discovered and brought here by the late Count Alexander Kolowrat of Sascha Film Factory. Instand success came via “Das Spielzeug von Paris” under the guidance of one Michaly Kertesz providing a never before seen array of technical effects and scenic splendor. Standing out nonetheless was the appearance of this juvenile diva with her slender and flexible figure and that fine Parisian facial features. A new star had emerged.

A household name by now Lili Damita engaged in a torrid affair with the Prussian Prince Louis Ferdinand von Hohenzollern much to the delight of the European newspaper media. The 20 year young crown prince was madly in love with the temperamental French actress and vowed to marry her. His royal family naturally didn`t approve of the impossible liaison and urged L. Ferdinand to keep things “physical”. Rumours that Lili held his cousin, the Duke of Kent in equally intimate esteem may have contributed that Ferdinand ultimately married Princess Kira Romanowa. But not before following Damita to the United States and even accepting a worldly job at the Henry Ford automobile plant in Michigan. Lili by then had already set her sight on another royalty- the Baron of Mullholland.

Enjoy,

— shangheinz