“I am the epitome of Twentieth Century cosmopolitanism, but I should have an explorer in the time of Magellan”

  Errol Flynn.

Today is the birthday of Errol Flynn, one of the most handsome and manly men ever to make movies. 

Errol Flynn’s start in movies 

Errol Flynn burst onto the screen in Captain Blood, Michael Curtiz’ wonderful swashbuckler.  He almost came out of nowhere, but not quite.  After a bumpy life in which he had bought and run a tea plantation (and gone broke), run a copper mine (also went broke), he pitched up in England as an actor.  At the age of 25 he made a movie called Murder in Monte Carlo, for Warner Brothers.   This got him to Hollywood, where he had the huge good fortune to come to the attention of Jack Warner, the movie mogul and, of course, the head of Warner studios.  Jack Warner was one of the smartest men who ever lived and he saw Flynn’s virility, masculine beauty, athleticism and charisma and made this unknown the star of his movie. 

 Well, the Sea hawk was a huge success and Errol Flynn became the huge star we remember.

Errol Flynn as Captain Peter Blood

 There is no other actor like him.  Charming, sophisticated, witty and handsome, he filled the screen.  Women adored him.  But for all that, he was a man’s man and men admired him too.  Movie critic Pauline Kael once said of Cary Grant that to simply see him on screen makes us feel happy.  Errol Flynn had a similar quality.  When he appears on screen we feel our spirits lift and we know that nothing deter us, we can fight on to victory.    

For Flynn’s movie characters were what every man wants to be, venturesome, courageous, honourable, light-hearted and romantic.  The reason that he played though characters so well is that, as a man he was all of those things.  But there was something more, something special.  Errol Flynn was smart, witty, quick and knowing.  His persona was that of the worldly man who had bumped around, had his ups and downs.  What was different about him?

 He always loved life. 

 He was never cynical.  How important this is.  He has the manly quality par excellence, he imbues other men with confidence and joie de vivre.  By example he shows us that, whatever happens to us, life is a fight and a joy and a glorious journey, so keep smiling. 

Errol Flynn as Robin Hood

Flynn’s movies

 You can see it in his movies.  As Geoffrey Thorpe (a thinly disguised Sir Francis Drake) in the Sea Hawk, he is patriotic and calls on the patriotism of others, to fight tyranny.  We know in our hearts that his patriotic fervour is real.  Real men are patriots. 

 In Dawn Patrol we believe in his Captain Courtney pilot and officer, who is an honourable man, because it is transparently clear that Errol Flynn believed in honour.

 And then there is The Adventure of Robin Hood.  I was very lucky in how I saw this movie, because, for all my affection for Errol Flynn’s movies I had never seen “Adventures”. 

It was a cold winter and the occasion was a showing (at London’s National Film Theatre) of a fully restored print of The Adventures of Robin Hood. 

House lights go down and the screen lights up, Erich Korngold’s wonderful score plays and the credits scroll.  The first scene is the confrontation between Much the Miller’s son (Herbert Mundin) and the evil Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone).  Suddenly Robin Hood rides into shot and Errol Flynn’s presence fills the screen.  To a man the audience clapped!  Some of them stood and clapped!  It was a spontaneous recognition of the sheer charisma and good feeling that Errol Flynn brought the screen.  It was a wonderful moment that had a huge impact on me and I have never forgotten it.   

Ambushing Guy of Gisbourne, from The adventures of Robin Hood

Flynn’s manliness

Errol Flynn calls out to the adventurer in all men.  The English actor David Niven was his good friend and by all accounts Errol Flynn was a loyal and generous friend.  However he was still Errol Flynn, headstrong, impatient of authority, liable to get a friend into scrapes.  Niven’s autobiographies, especially Bring On the Empty Horses, is full of wonderful Flynn  stories.  My favourite has to be the grapefruit story.  Flynn was signed up to play the lead in “The charge of the Light Brigade”.  It was a big budget movie and hugely important to Warner Brothers.  However they were worried by Flynn’s drinking.  So the studio ordered him not to drink and told him they were going to enforce a “dry” set.  So Flynn set about circumventing what, to him, was a wholly unfair restriction.  He got a large syringe and methodically injected a crate of grapefruit with vodka.  He then took these with him to the set….

 The studio heads rang the studio and asked if Flynn were drinking.  No, came the reply, and he is eating healthily, lots of fruit!

 Now that is a man!

 This is a short article but I must pay tribute to Errol Flynn as a serious actor.  His athleticism and sheer style led many people to overlook his qualities as an actor.  But one of my favourite roles is Errol Flynn as Mike Gilbert, a good man lost to drink, in The Sun Also Rises.  Here he honestly, carefully and respectfully lays bare the self-loathing and helplessness of the alcoholic.  It is a difficult performance to watch, much less to like, but it is magnificent.      

Errol Flynn was a real man.  He was not perfect and he knew it, he talked honestly about his mistakes and flaws.  However he always tried to live up to the virtues that ment so much to him.  Politically correct people often sneer at these values, the underlying argument being that manly men are a sham and that these values like courage, honour and patriotism are worthless and unreal.  The great glory of Errol Flynn is that he was a fallible man, lived out his failings in public and was unrepentant about living for adventure, and for values that real men stand for.       

Errol Flynn sailing

God bless you Mr Flynn, for a life of courage, laughter and adventure.

Further Information

Errol Flynn’s daughter Rory, runs his offocial website here.  It gives a real sense of who Errol Flynn was and the homepage introduction says it all, succinctly and sincerely

10 Flynn Movies

Here are my ten favourite Flynn movies:

 The Adventures of Robin Hood

One of the finest movies ever made and one of Errol Flynn’s best performances.  He was gentle, manly, debonair and fearless as Robin.  Add to this Michael Curtiz inspired direction, Erich Korngold’s music and the great Basil Rathbone and you have a masterpiece.     

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

 The SeaHawk

My second favourite Flynn movie.  His English privateer Geoffrey Thorpe is a masterpiece of passion and patriotism and there is the most magnificent swordfight at the movie’s end.  Also, an indirect and urgent plea for the US to join England in the war against the Nazis.

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

 Elizabeth and Essex

Flynn’s performance, slated at the time, is now considered to be a piece of craftsmanship acting.  By turning off his worldliness and making Essex a victim of his own passions, Flynn gives us a man doomed for all the wrong reasons.

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

 Dawn Patrol

First world war air combat, a brave, honourable and chivalrous pilot in a war made ruthless by new technologies.

Get it in the US here

Kim

As Mahbub Ali, the rascally trader with an eye for girls, Flynn is great.  Mahbub Ali is of course an intrepid spy for the British in India.  Interestingly, Flynn underplays his part here and becomes the quiet heart of the movie.  

Get it in the US here

 Dodge City

Just huge fun.  Cowboys, clichés and adventure, Flynn plays this with one eyebrow permanently arched and some great lines.  

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

 Captain Blood

The evolution of Peter Blood, from disgraced doctor to buccaneer.  Flynn’s blood is honourable, whilst knowing full well the perils that honour may bring.  A man with a sword against his enemies, an adventurer’s dream.

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

Adventures of Don Juan

Flynn was older now and the pace of this movie is sometimes suspect, but his ability to play heroic men of conviction is undiminished.    

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

 The charge of the Light brigade

Flynn as the man of duty and honour, whose worldly nature and sharp mind tell him that charging the guns is suicide but whose commitment to honour allows him no other choice.  Simply beautifully played.

Get it in the UK here and in the US here

 The Sun also Rises

A magnificent performance here, as rich drunk American Mike Gilbert, and the sort of part that Flynn always wanted to play.  Hemingway’s novel called for a good man fallen into desparate alcoholism, and Flynn gives a pitch-perfect performance.  Hemingway and Flynn were both manly men and their meeting in this movie was absolutely right.

Get it in the UK here and in the US here