Great On Screen Couples: Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland

This legendary couple appeared in 8 films together from 1935 to 1941, all for Warner Bros. They made a varied mix of swashbucklers, westerns, comedy, and period films. Their first pairing came in the rousing Captain Blood (1935), which was Flynn's first starring role, making him an overnight sensation. Olivia had already appeared in three films prior to Captain Blood. I've seen this film twice and it's a beaut. Terrific action sequences and the undeniable chemistry of Flynn and de Havilland on full display. Olivia beat out Jean Arthur and Bette Davis for the role of Arabella Bishop and the rest is history. Blood was so successful Warner Bros quickly paired the duo up the next year for The Charge Of The Light Brigade.

Set in 1854 India, the film had Flynn cast as a British officer fighting the Russians in The Crimean War. Olivia plays Flynn's fiancee. I have yet to see this film so I can't critique on it. But it sounds interesting. For their next film together would be their masterpiece, The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Everyone knows the legend of Hood and Flynn was positively electric as the dashing archer. Olivia was equally as good as Maid Marian. Everything came together for this entertaining film. To this day, I still say this is the most vibrant and gorgeous looking film ever made. And one of the best music scores in history.

Screwball comedy was in it's heyday during this time and Warner Bros decided to pair up Errol and Olivia for one called Four's A Crowd (1938). This is another of the duo's films that I have yet to see and since screwball comedy is my favorite genre, I am hankering to see it.

I did see their next film though, the terrific western Dodge City (1939). And let me tell ya something, Errol looks just as comfortable firing six shooters like he does shooting a bow and arrow or swordplay. Dodge City is one of the best westerns ever made and solidified Flynn and de Havilland as one of the premiere on screen couples in film.

They switched gears for their next film, with the historial drama The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. And while this is not solely a Flynn and De Havilland production because of Bette Davis top billed role, this film showed that Errol and Olivia could make just about any type of film.

When Santa Fe Trail (1940) debuted, it marked the pair's seventh outing and it was another huge success. While it was a very entertaining western, I liked Dodge City more. Santa Fe did have an outstanding supporting cast of newcomers such as Ronald Reagan and Van Heflin.

  And lastly, for their final film together, came 1941's They Died With Their Boots On, an film based on General George Custer and his infamous last stand. Another western and another solid hit. At this point, Olivia's star was rising and she wanted more starring roles, so the pair parted ways after a successful 8 film run. They firmly established themselves as the ideal romantic leads of Hollywood period adventures. No doubt. And while Olivia went on to have a successful career post Flynn, he was not as fortunate. Still but before his career ended, he did turn in two top notch performances in The Sun Also Rises (1957) and Too Much, Too Soon (1958). But we will always have those 8 wonderful films he and Olivia did. Nothing can ever change that.

Lili Damita

Lili Damita (July 10, 1904 – March 21, 1994) was a French actress who had appeared in 33 movies between 1922 and 1937. She was educated in convents and ballet schools in France, Spain and Portugal. At 14, she was enrolled as a dancer at the Opera de Paris.

She performed in several silent films before being offered her first leading role in, Das Spielzeug von Paris (1925) by director Michael Curtiz, whom she married in 1925 (they divorced a year later). She was an instant success, and Curtiz directed her in two more films: Fiaker Nr 13 (1926) and Der Goldene Schmetterling (1926). Damita also performed in, (Die Grosse Abenteuerin(1927), The Queen Was in the Parlour(1927).

In 1928, at the invitation of Samuel Goldwyn she went to Hollywood, making her American debut in a film titled, The Rescue. Her films include: The Cock-Eyed World (1929), the semi-silent, The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1929) and This Is the Night (1932). A comedy film directed by Frank Tuttle. It based on the play Pouche (1923) by Henri Falk and René Peter, and the English language adaptation, Naughty Cinderella (1925), written by Avery Hopwood. Cast: Lili Damita, Charles Ruggles, Roland Young, Thelma Todd, Cary Grant, and Irving Bacon. It was a remake of the 1926 film, Good and Naughty with Pola Negri. This is Cary Grant's first motion picture.

The story begins...While having a night of fun in Paris with her lover, Gerald Gray. Claire Mathewson loses her skirt in a limousine door, arriving home only in her slip, Claire is met by her husband Stephen, a javelin thrower who is supposed to be in Los Angeles for the Olympics. Gerald and Claire insist the trip was to find Gerald a wife. Stephen, hires the down on her luck Germaine, as Chou-Chou, a glamorous actress. After watching them together, Claire becomes jealous, demanding that Germaine leave Venice. Germaine, refuses to give up her wonderful vacation.

This Is The Night, the first of the Screwball comedies that Cary Grant becomes famous for later on. The humor is wonderful and Cary is very funny in this film. It may remind you a little of the silent film format.

In 1935 she married her second husband, Errol Flynn, with whom she had a son, Sean Leslie Flynn (born 1941). Following the marriage, she retired from the screen. The couple divorced in 1942. (Barbara Hershey portrayed her in the TV film My Wicked, Wicked Ways (1985) based on Errol Flynn's biography.)

Escape Me Never( 1947).

Escape Me Never( 1947). Cast: Errol Flynn, Ida Lupino, Eleanor Parker and Gig Young. It was adapted by Lenore J. Coffe(uncredited) and Thames Williamson and was directed by Peter Godfrey, with music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

A romance between aspiring composer Caryl Dubrok and Fenella MacLean is quickly ended by her parents when they believe that Caryl living with a young widow named, Gemma Smith and her son Piccolo. Caryl learns that Gemma lives with his brother Sebastian a composer. Sebastian says that they go after Fenella and clear up the terrible misunderstanding. At first, Sebastian wants to leave Gemma and Piccolo behind, but when she says that she is going accept a marriage proposal from someone else, Sebastian decides to bring her along.

One evening, when Sebastian and Gemma perform without Caryl. A beautiful woman catches Sebastians eye, he does not know that it is Fenella. He sends Gemma home, while Sebastian stays behind with Fenella, and is inspired to write the music that he will use in his ballet.

The next day, Gemma goes to the hotel to pick up their pay, she learns Fenella is staying there and explains the mix up. Fenella so upset that Sebastian is really Caryl's brother that Gemma leaves with Sebastian. Gemma and Sebastian marry and move to London, where he continues his work.

The MacLeans also return to London, followed by Caryl, who becomes engaged to Fenella. Sebastian finishes his music and everything is going well until one day during rehearsals, Piccolo becomes very ill. Sebastian refuses to go with Gemma to the hospital. Fenella tells Sebastian that she has broken her engagement to Caryl and wants to go back to her family's home in the country. While Gemma's life falls apart. Sebastian realizes how much Gemma means to him, and rewrites the music for her. Will Gemma and Sebastian ever find each other again?

I just saw the film, Escape Me Never, on TCM for the first time. I thought it was a very charming film. This film is quite a change of pace for Flynn. In this film you see Flynn's natural ease and... he is still very sexy even in rags!

Ida Lupino, was an English-American film actress and director, and a pioneer women filmmaker. In her forty-eight year career, she performed in fifty-nine films, and directed nine others. She also performed in television shows fifty-eight times and directed fifty other episodes.

Lupino was born into a family of performers. Her father, Stanley Lupino, was a music-hall comedian, and her mother, Connie Emerald, was an actress. Ida trained at RADA and made her first movie in, The Love Race(1939).

It was after her performance in, The Light That Failed (1939) that Lupino was taken seriously as an actress. She called herself "the poor man's Bette Davis."  Lupino best known films are: They Drive by Night (1940) and High Sierra (1941), both opposite Humphrey Bogart. The Hard Way (1943),  Road House and On Dangerous Ground.

Objective, Burma!

Objective, Burma!(1945). War film. Director: Raoul Walsh. Cast: Errol Flynn.

Before the recapture of Burma can begin, a radar station hidden in the Burmese jungle must be destroyed. Captain Nelson leads his men through the jungle, aided by Lieutenant Sidney Jacobs and two Gurkha guides. The paratroopers are told that they will parachute into the jungle, destroy the station and head to an abandoned airstrip, where they will be picked up. Middle-aged reporter Mark Williams, will join them to collect information for his book about the war. Nelson believes that Williams age will keep him from keeping up with his men.

They find the station and destroy it, but now the Japanese know that they are there and escape becomes more difficult. The men find the airstrip, but a Japanese patrol prevents the rescue plane from landing. By radio, Nelson's next orders are to be picked up two days later at another airstrip. The men split into two groups.

Nelson's group reaches the meeting place first, a plane drops supplies, because the landing fields have been taken over by the Japanese. Nelson and his men will have to walk through the jungle. Two wounded men from the other group arrives and tells them that the rest of the company was captured by the Japanese. Nelson's men set out looking for them, pursued by the Japanese. Will they get there in time to save the other group of men and get out of the jungle alive?

I just saw the film, Objective, Burma! I think this maybe one of Errol Flynn's best performances.

Errol Flynn.

Errol Flynn, was best known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films and his flamboyant lifestyle. On TCM today, is one of my favorite Errol Flynn movies, Adventures of Don Juan(1948). Adventure/romance. Director Vincent Sherman. Producer Jerry Wald. From a screenplay by George Oppenheimer and Harry Kurnitz based on a story by Herbert Dalmas. Cast: Errol Flynn and Viveca Lindfors, Robert Douglas, Alan Hale, Ann Rutherford and Robert Warwick. Also in the cast are Barbara Bates, Raymond Burr and Mary Stuart. Music score was by Max Steiner. Cinematograper Elwood Bredell. Costumes: Leah Rhodes, Marjorie Best and Travilla.

After a romantic moment with a beautiful woman, Don Juan barely escapes an angry husband, when he and his friend, Leporello, are stopped by soldiers keeping the road clear for a Spanish Duke. Trying to avoid the husband who is hot on his heels, Don Juan pretends to be the Duke, only to find out that he is expected to marry Lady Diana and so decides to play along. Don Juan and Leporello, are quickly arrested after the real Duke arrives and Don Juan is to be deported to Spain in disgrace for his royal punishment. Before Don Juan can leave England, the Spanish ambassador, asks if he would help stop the war between Spain and England. Next in my favorite scene, Once in Spain, they stop to have dinner at an inn. A group of Duke de Lorca's soldiers arrives and start to make trouble for the people in the town. After winning the sword fight with the soldiers, he is accepted by the people as a hero.

When Don Juan meets with Queen Margaret, she tells him that because he pretended to be the Duke, he disgraced the state. Also, he destroyed any possibility of a political marriage, that would have prevented the war, between England and Spain. But when Don Juan takes one look at the beautiful Queen Margaret, he promises to defend her throne and capture her heart.


FUN FACT:
At the end of the film, the young woman in the coach asking Don Juan for directions is Errol Flynn's wife, Nora Eddington.

I really enjoyed this film, the script is great with a lot of very funny lines. Flynn plays the part with a wonderful flair.

Please check out Classic Becky's Errol Flynn DVD Box Set Review.