Birthday Legends: Errol Flynn

Happy Birthday to Classic Movie Legend, Errol Flynn, born today, June 20th, 1909!

Although Errol Flynn is often remembered most as the nefarious, swashbuckling hero of a bygone era, his abilities as an actor can often be overlooked. So today, the day of this glorious classic star’s birth, I would like to remember him not only as a brazen hero of fantastical proportions, but also as an actor who demonstrated a passion for his craft.

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We’ll start with Errol Flynn, the swashbuckler in Captain Blood (1935, Michael Curtiz director)

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But we shall not forget Errol Flynn demonstrating the complexities of an Earl infatuated with concepts of love and power in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939, Michael Curtiz director)

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And of course we can’t forget Errol Flynn, the romantic General Custer, taking his last heroic stand in They Died with Their Boots On. ( 1941, Raoul Walsh director)

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Minoo Allen for Classic Movie Hub

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Classic Movie Countdown: Best Picture #’s 22 and 21

22. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Other Nominated Films:
Alice Adams, Broadway Melody of 1936, Captain Blood, David Copperfield, The Informer, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Les Misérables, Naughty Marietta, Ruggles of Red Gap, Top Hat

It was a few years ago when I first watched Mutiny on the Bounty and I still remember the experience as if it was yesterday. In fact, it’s one of the films that got me interested in Classic films.  Mutiny on the Bounty is a magnificent and thrilling film that chronicles the real-life mutiny aboard the HMS Bounty and its aftermath. It features powerful performances by its three stars: Charles Laughton as the sadistic Captain Bligh, Clark Gable as the rebellious Fletcher Christian, and Franchot Tone as the humane Midshipman Byam. Interestingly, all three actors were nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, but lost to Victor McLaglen for his role in The Informer (the only nominee not from Mutiny on the Bounty). This helped spark the subsequent creation of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. To date, Mutiny on the Bounty is the last film to win Best Picture without winning in any other category. It is also interesting to note that James Cagney, David Niven and Dick Haymes had uncredited roles as Extras in the film. Producer Irving Thalberg may have had an ulterior motive when casting both Gable and Laughton in the same film.  It’s been said that, Thalberg purposely cast Laughton, who was overtly gay, against Gable, a notorious homophobe, in the hopes that some ‘real life’ tension between the two actors would create an even more powerful and authentic on-screen intensity. Stacking the deck even further, it is also said that Thalberg thought Gable would be intimidated working with Laughton who was a classically trained British actor, and that Laughton believed that he, himself, should have been nominated in 1935 for his performance in The Barretts of Wimpole Street rather than Gable who won Best Actor for It Happened One Night.

Nominated for 8 Oscars, Winner of 1
Best Picture – M-G-M (WON)
Best Actor in a Leading Role – Clark Gable
Best Actor in a Leading Role – Charles Laughton
Best Actor in a Leading Role – Franchot Tone
Best Director – Frank Lloyd
Best Film Editing – Margaret Booth
Best Music, Score – Nat W. Finston (head of department)
Best Writing, Screenplay – Jules Furthman, Talbot Jennings, Carey Wilson

Lt. Fletcher Christian: When you’re back in England with the fleet again, you’ll hear the hue and cry against me. From now on they’ll spell mutiny with my name.

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