“In like Flynn” they used to say. Or so they say they used to say. I don’t actually remember people saying that phrase. Maybe my mother did when I was a kid. Or my Uncle Landy. That sounds like something he would say. And then he’d probably follow it up with something like, “Did you know that saying is about Errol Flynn? You probably don’t even know who Errol Flynn is, do you?”
Buy Errol Flynn Collection Blu-rayBut I did know who Errol Flynn was. He was Robin Hood. I knew who Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre were too. I’m not sure if I’d seen any of their films, but Bogart and Lorre got parodied in Bugs Bunny cartoons, and if I hadn’t sat down to watch The Adventures of Robin Hood, I at least knew about it. Certainly, I had seen the Disney animated version of Robin Hood, which lifts quite a bit of its story from the Errol Flynn movie.
But I’m drifting away from the point. What I mean to say is that even as a young boy living in the 1980s, decades after he was a big star and 20 years after he died, I knew who Errol Flynn was. He was that big of a celebrity.
Truth be told, I’ve not seen a lot of his films. Before I received this boxed set, I’d only ever seen two of his films (The Adventures of Robin Hood and Adventures of Don Juan, both of which are included here). I liked both of those films, and I found Flynn had quite the screen presence, so I was excited to finally get to see some more of his films. I can now, without hesitancy, say I can’t wait to discover even more.
It is a very nice set covering many of his biggest hits, and somewhat lesser-known films through a ten-year period (1938-1948) at which he was at his creative peak.
The Adventures of Robin Hood was a huge success, and it remains the film he is best known for. It is a grand film and super fun to watch. It hits upon all the classic moments you expect from a Robin Hood film. There’s the first encounter with Little John (Alan Hale, Sr.) upon the log bridge and they have a stick-fighting contest. He meets Maid Marion (Olivia De Haviland) while robbing a coach. There is the arrow-shooting contest where Robin wins by splitting his opponent’s arrow in half. And there is lots of terrific sword-fighting action. The final battle is one for the ages.
Michael Curtiz’s direction is as solid as they come, especially the fight sequences, which have some great blocking and some occasional arty bits of cinematography. The color scheme is bold and bright, with the characters wearing pastel costumes that make it look like a cartoon. The sets are beautiful and enormous. Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains both make for an excellent villains.
If I’m being honest, I find myself getting a little bored when the action slows down and we have to spend time detailing the plot or concentrating on the romance. Luckily, these moments don’t last long, and before you know it, our heroes have their swords out and are ready once again for action. The film is a true delight.
With the huge success of The Adventures of Robin Hood, they naturally engaged Flynn and director Michael Curtiz (plus Claude Rains, and Alan Hale, Sr.) to team up almost immediately after for another grand adventure. The Sea Hawk is basically Robin Hood on the sea, with a plot that mimics the earlier film a great deal.
Here, Flynn plays Geoffrey Thorpe, a privateer attacking Spanish ships for their loot. He’s no longer stealing from the rich to give to the poor but ostensibly helping the English Empire keep the growing Spanish Armada at bay. There is a lot of political nonsense as the relationship between England and Spain is tenuous. They are at peace, but Spain is building a huge armada, and Thorpe keeps raiding Spanish ships, much to the displeasure of Ambassador Don Córdoba (Claude Rains.). His daughter, Doña María (Brenda Marshall), is the love interest.
But much like Robin Hood, the plot for this one is uninteresting. I didn’t care a lick about any of it, but also, like Robin Hood, this film regularly disrupts the plot for some entertaining action sequences. The Sea Hawk moves that action from Sherwood Forest to the high seas, which provides plenty of opportunities for cannon blasts, rope swinging, and, of course, sword fighting. For my money, the action here is better than it is in Robin Hood.
From the high seas, we now move to the American West. Once again, Michael Curtiz is in the director’s chair, and Alan Hale, Sr., is the comic relief. Olivia de Havilland is back as the love interest, and future President Ronald Reagan is the sidekick (am I the only one who hears Doc Brown from Back to the Future declaring, “Ronald Reagan, the actor? Then who’s vice president, Jerry Lewis?” whenever Reagan pops up in a film?).
Santa Fe Trail is a strange film, and the worst of this bunch. It is set just before the Civil War, and slavery is very much at the center of it, but not in the way you would expect. Or hope. Flynn plays Army Col. Jeb Stuart, whose family owns a plantation in Virginia. He never explicitly condemns his family or slavery, for that matter, but does indicate that the South will eventually decide on its own that slavery is no longer useful to them. He basically shrugs off the entire thing as if that’s a problem for someone else to worry about.
The abolitionist John Brown (Raymond Massey) is the villain of our story. You read that right; the guy who is opposed to slavery is the bad guy of the movie. Ostensibly, he’s in the wrong from the film’s point of view because he dares to use violence in his opposition. On a couple of occasions, characters explicitly say that the South will never give up slavery if forced to, even with guns, that they’ll have to decide on their own to do it willingly. Looking around at the state of our country today, I’m not sure if they were wrong. Some people would go back to slavery right now if they were allowed. Anyway, the movie is well made, but that’s about the only good thing I can say about it.
The next two films are World War II propaganda pieces that come from two very different angles. Edge of Darkness is set in a small Nazi-occupied village on the coast of Norway. The villagers are on edge, but unsure of what to do. Some want to start a straight-up rebellion and try to force the Nazis out. Others fear reprisals from such bold actions and have heard of other villages being completely destroyed for attempting such things.
Flynn plays Gunnar Brogge, a man who, alongside his girlfriend Karen Stensgard (Ann Sheridan), is already on the side of the rebellion. Karen’s father, Dr. Martin Stensgard (Walter Huston), is more cautious. Kaspar Torgersen (Charles Dingle), a local merchant, is completely on the side of working with the Nazis.
The film does a great job of building up this tension from all angles. Those who are secretly fighting the Nazis live in constant fear of getting caught. Those who are more on the fence are terrified their inaction will only make the enemy more bold.
The film begins at the end with a Nazi reconnaissance team coming to the village when they notice the Norwegian flag is flying high. What they find is a town full of corpses, both German and Norwegian. So we know from the beginning how it ends and that the villagers put up a fight. And yet the getting there is still top-notch cinema.
Objective Burma is a much more standard wartime propaganda piece. Flynn portrays Captain Nelson, an Army paratrooper who leads his men deep into Burma to destroy an important Japanese radio tower. The mission goes well but getting back becomes a problem. The Japanese have the airfield surrounded that they were going to fly out of, so they must walk many miles through enemy guarded territory to get back to base.
There are plenty of big action scenes, which are well staged, but mostly forgettable. The big propaganda comes when they come to a village and find that the Japanese have utterly slaughtered some of their comrades that were separated from the group earlier. Soldiers cry out in disgust and essentially say that we must wipe the Japanese off the face of the Earth. I’m more forgiving of that than I am of the pro slavery business in Santa Fe Trail. At least we were actually at war with the Japanese when this film was made.
Other than the propaganda and a few racial slurs directed at the Japanese, Objective Burma is a fine war film with some truly harrowing moments, especially toward the end when the men are out of food and supplies and become surrounded by the enemy.
We end, more or less, where we began with this set, with Errol Flynn back in romantic swashbuckling mode. I don’t imagine it was lost on anyone that Errol Flynn got to play Don Juan, the historic libertine who spent his life seducing women. That phrase “in like Flynn” purportedly comes from Errol and his romantic prowess.
When the film focuses on Don Juan’s seduction of beautiful women and running from their jealous husbands, it’s a lot of fun, but then it gets bogged down inside a plot that involves a lot of political intrigue but isn’t all that interesting. I previously reviewed the standalone Warner Archive Blu-ray of this film.
These six films detail the full range, dexterity, and absolute charisma of Errol Flynn. He’s at his best in adventure films where he charms us with a sword in his hand and a twinkle in his eye, but films like Edge of Darkness and Objective Burma allow him to demonstrate his true acting chops, revealing a soulfulness not seen in his other work.
All six of these films have previously been released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive. This collection simply combines those releases into one case. They have all been given high-quality transfers and come with a variety of extras.
