Errol Flynn Adventures (TCM Spotlight/Warner DVD Set)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C+     Films: B

 

 

In his short career, Errol Flynn moved from big screen hero to a major star filming propaganda against the Axis Powers during the Second World War.  During this time, he made a series of film dramas (usually in the War genre) that served as propaganda films.  Grittier than hits like The Adventures Of Robin Hood and all made in black and white, five of them have been collected in the new Errol Flynn Adventures DVD set from the TCM Spotlight series and Warner Home Video.

 

In well-restored copies, this set offers the following films, usually directed by the tough Raoul Walsh and always with the energy distinctive in Warner Bros. films.  The 1943 release Edge of Darkness is the exception in that it is directed by journeyman filmmaker Lewis Milestone, whose career was set for life when he made a hit out of All Quiet On The Western Front.  Flynn teams up with a woman (Ann Sheridan) to quietly rally the people of Norway to defy the Nazis two yeas into their occupation of the country in a small town.  Walter Huston, Judith Anderson and Ruth Gordon lead the impressive cast.  Extras include The United States Service Bands musical short, WWII Looney Tunes shorts: Hiss & Make Up, plus To Duck…. Or Not To Duck and trailers for Edge of Darkness and The Hard Way (1943).

 

All the films have vintage news reels.

 

Getting to the Walsh films, the silliest and most obvious piece of propaganda is 1942’s Desperate Journey, where Flynn, Alan Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and others battle killer Nazi Raymond Massey and company in this airplane fighter flick.  The good guys get shot down and (oh boy!) it turns out to be a “happy accident” when they catch onto something that could help them win a big battle.  This is my least favorite of the films and the weakest in its writing.  Extras include live-action music shorts Borrah Minnevitch & His Harmonica School, plus another United States Army Air Force Band chapter, the Academy Award-Nominated The Tanks Are Coming, complex and very modernist Looney Tunes cartoon The Dover Boys At Pimento University or The Rivals Of Roquefort Hall and two trailers: one for Desperate Journey and the other for 1942’s Murder In The Big House.

 

 

Northern Pursuit (1943) is one of the better films, taking place in the Canadian mountains (the Nazis had murderous expert skiing teams, a point not discussed as much these days) and Flynn (playing Canadian here) is the expert skier who pretends to help them, only to foil them.  Not a great film, but has some interesting, amusing and sometimes unintentionally funny skiing sequences (give or take the rear projection) that have the advantage of being in black and white, but Inception and the Bond films they are not.  Still, watchable for its time, you should see this one at least once and Gene Lockhart also stars.  Extras include three live-action shorts: The Rear Gunner, Over The Wall and All-Star Melody Masters, Looney Tunes short Hop and Go and trailers for Northern Pursuit and 1943’s The Constant Nymph.

 

 

In 1944’s Uncertain Glory, Flynn is a thief and womanizer who has to put his luxuries aside to battle Nazis when his beloved France is threatened, sparing him from the guillotine as the Nazis want men of the Resistance turned in or they will kill 100 people.  Paul Lukas, Lucille Watson, Faye Emerson and a then actor-only Sheldon Leonard also star.  Extras include another military musical short, but this time from The United States Coast Guard Band, two Looney Tunes cartoons: Brother Brat and Russian Rhapsody and trailers for Uncertain Glory and 1944’s The Mask of Dimitrios.

 

 

That leaves Objective, Burma! (1945), a late hit in the WWII cycle has Flynn and company take out a key Japanese stronghold on their turf to destroy their Imperialist plans.  William Prince, George Tobias, Henry Hull, Mark Stevens and Henry Hull lead the cast and there is something more realized here than in the earlier films, as the cycle had found itself just as (little did they know) the war would soon be won.  Extras include the only feature-length audio commentary in this collection, once again featuring the smart, reliable Rudy Behlmer, Jon Burlingame and Frank Thompson, the Joe McDoakes short So You Think You’re Allergic (see the whole McDoakes collection elsewhere on this site), classic Looney Tunes cartoon A Tale of Two Mice with their knock-off of Abbott & Costello as mice and trailers for Objective, Burma! and 1945’s Pride Of The Marines.

 

 

The 1.33 X 1 black and white image is pretty good for this format on all five films, upgraded nicely, though each shows their age at points as expected.  The Director of Photography needs were handled by Bert Glennon (Rio Grande, the 1953 House Of Wax) on Journey, the legendary James Wong Howe (Seconds, Hud) on Burma and the rest by Sidney Hickox (The Big Sleep, White Heat) and each disc has some demo shots.  The sound is Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono on all films and sounds good, but 2.0 Mono might have helped some moments not sound as compressed.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo