The “Garry Owen” from They Died with Their Boots on (1941)
By David in TN
Monday, April 18, 2022 at 12:30:00 A.M. EDT
TCM continues its focus on Star of the Month Errol Flynn on Monday Night, starting at 8 p.m. ET with Dodge City (1939). Following are two other films co-starring Olivia de Havilland, Santa Fe Trail (1940) at 10 p.m. ET, and They Died with Their Boots on (1941), at Midnight ET.
The latter two are disparaged nowadays. Santa Fe Trail’s villain is John Brown (Raymond Massey), and They Died with Their Boots on has Flynn playing Custer. Neither, Santa Fe Trail in particular, is historically accurate but Santa Fe Trail is very entertaining.
The next day (Tuesday) TCM shows Flynn’s WWII movies, of which he made five. By far the best was Raoul Walsh’s Objective Burma (1945) at 2:30 p.m. ET. Flynn played the commander of an American paratrooper unit dropped into Burma to destroy a Japanese radar station. They are based on the American unit, Merrill’s Marauders, whose real-life actions were not unlike the fictional Objective Burma.
Two communists, Alvah Bessie and Lester Cole, were involved in the writing, but they mostly reworked Northwest Passage (1940).
Flynn gave perhaps his best performance, restrained, and a completely different characterization from Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).
Flynn was hooted at for not serving in the war, but according to biographer Tony Thomas, “was medically fourth-rate, which in itself was an embarrassment. Neither he nor his studio wanted the public to learn that he had developed a heart condition, that he had recurrent malaria, that he had tuberculosis and that back in New Guinea he had suffered from gonorrhea. Even at the peak of his fame, Flynn sometimes collapsed on the set from overexertion. And this was a man who performed beautifully on the tennis courts and in the water—a total contradiction.”
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2 comments:
Those roles were the type of image that Errol believed himself to be in real life. He was not but the man BELIEVED himself to be so.
TCM's Errol Flynn Star of the Month concludes Monday Night though Tuesday afternoon with a series of films. The best is Raoul Walsh's Gentleman Jim (1942) with Alexis Smith, and Bond along with Flynn, at 8 pm ET Monday night.
Gentleman Jim was supposedly Flynn's favorite role, as Heavyweight Champion James J. Corbett. Alexis Smith plays his love interest and Ward Bond his rival John L. Sullivan, whom he defeats in the climax.
Flynn shows off his boxing skill, far better than other Hollywood actors who play boxers.
Tuesday Morning at 9:45 ET, TCM shows Peter Godfrey's Cry Wolf (1947) with Flynn, Barbara Stanwyck, Richard Basehart, and Geraldine Brooks. This is Errol Flynn's only venture into film noir.
Film Noir Guide: "The talented Stanwyck manages to make this tedious melodrama somewhat enjoyable, but swashbuckler Flynn is cast badly against type."
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