AAR

[Ellen AAR]

[Cora]

In addition to the premature old age, another big problem with Flynn is that the studio (Warner Bros) didn't quite realize what they had in him. Flynn obviously excelled in swashbucklers, but he only got to make three proper ones at the prime of his career, Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Sea Hawk. There is also The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex from the same period, but that one's more of a straight historical and less of a swashbuckler. And while Bette Davis is a wonderful Elizabeth I, she doesn't mesh well with Flynn at all.

But once WWII began for the US, Warner stopped making swashbucklers and instead pushed Flynn into war flicks and westerns, for which he was not suited at all (unlike Burt Lancaster, who was good in anything). In the 1930s/40s, Warner Bros was the most political of the major studios (unlike its current incarnation), which resulted in a lot of very fine films (and some bad propaganda flicks plus a couple of schizophrenic films which cannot figure out what they want to be). But they didn't quite know what to do with Errol Flynn.

And by the time Flynn got back to making swashbucklers in the late 1940s and early 1950s with Don Juan and another one set in Scotland the title of which I've forgotten, he was past his prime.

[LizE]

[LizE]

Vincent Perez . . . any excuse to post a photo or two will do!

[Nana]

Christian Bale? He even looks kind of Errol Flynn-esque.



Although in a Dark Knight smackdown, I'd take Aaron Eckhart, myself.

[Susan/DC]

Yesterday's Washington Post had an interesting article about what made the earlier movie stars so compelling compared to today's stars -- it was how they could move. I must admit that a man who moves well, a man who knows his body and uses it with skill but without self-consciousness, is very sexy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/09/AR2009010901212.html

[Cora]

That's a great article, Susan. I never really thought about it, but a lot of the appeal of actors like Errol Flynn, Gene Kelley, Burt Lancaster or indeed Cary Grant comes from the way they move.

I have one minor niggle, though. Cary Grant was originally from Bristol, which means that he most certainly was not a Cockney kid, since Cockney is spoken in London.

[CD]

[Cora]

Alex Kingston? That's the mini-series of approx. 10 years ago, though I do not recall Daniel Craig being in it.

[Susan/DC]

[iluvarake]

[Skrabs]

[Kristie(J)]

The original movie played on TV on Saturday night and as much as I love Pirate movies, I'd never seen this one before then so I knew I had to watch it. I LOVED it. It was very much like a romance book
Acting has changed so much over the years that it would be interesting to see this remade.

[Lynda X]

I nominate Johnny Depp or Hugh Jackmanfor "Captain Blood."

As a teenager, I adored Flynn (I still do, in spite of knowing that I wouldn't have liked him in person, and boy, did his degeneracy catch up with him quick). I think "The Sea Hawk" is MUCH more romantic than "Captain Blood," although there was something very special about deHaviland and Flynn.
If you haven't seen both, do yourself a favor and get them. Priceless.

PS Flynn's "Robin Hood" is the best of ANY version too!

[iluvarake]

Johnny Depp. He's always original, he can do the brooding undercurrent of the character and he's absolutely gorgeous when he needs to be.
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Justin managed to look superior and bored and disbelieving all at once. No mean feat for a man who'd just fallen from a tree.