Posted by
Townhall Movie Girl on Saturday, December 27, 2008 6:54:59 PM
A belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to each and every one of you!
And it is again my great pleasure to bring you my answer to Dirty Harry’s Place Daily Hubba-Hubba. The other week (and thanks to all who gave props) I was thrilled to present my all favorite actor/movie star, Russell Crowe, in the role that made him a star in the United States: Bud White of LA Confidential.
Today, let us go back in time a bit as I go with another all-time favorite and here’s hoping that once more, you approve. I’m just afraid that there were so many lovely photographs of him, I couldn’t choose only one so….
He was the original Tasmanian Devil, years before his studio, Warner Brothers, created the hyperactive animated one. He was the original sexy Australian bad boy, decades before the tabloids christened Kiwi Russell Crowe with that moniker, and he was born over fifty years before New Zealand gave the world the future Gladiator.
He was the first actor I developed a crush on, winging his way into the heart of a ten-year-old watching The Adventures of Robin Hood for the first time on some later late show (and not long after I saw his ‘cameo’ in one of the best efforts given by another Warner superstar named Bugs Bunny).
Only years later did I realize how incredibly beautiful that face was, and how this was a perfect example of movies preserving for eternity that fleeting moment in time. As a child, all I could think was that he was nice looking, although my grandmother – who had a passion for movies as well -- would still smile fondly and tell me of the times she first saw him at ‘the pictures,’ and how the women would swoon as they had a decade before over the likes of Valentino. It is very easy to see why.
Even now, an unbelievable seventy-plus years later, one looks at him…and let’s admit it, that is one of the most breathtaking faces to ever appear on the silver screen. Despite the overabundance of alleged sex symbols today (and it is so easy for Hollywood and the drive-by media to grant that title to every George, Brad, Tom, Shia and whatever else may come along, deserving or not), few – if any – in Movie Girl’s humble opinion will ever come close to dethroning the most dashing swashbuckler of all time (the mighty Fairbanks notwithstanding).
Until we see what Ridley Scott’s Nottingham will signify (with Russell Crowe rumored to be playing both Robin and the Sheriff), there is only one Robin Hood to welcome us to Sherwood (and it is not the notorious Prince of Thieves from the heyday of Mr. Costner). There is only one outlaw to disguise himself to enter Prince John’s archery tournament – and accept the prize from the hand of the beautiful Maid Marion (Olivia DeHavilland, his finest costar). There is only one Saxon to again do battle with a deliciously wicked Basil Rathbone (a foe in several Flynn movies).
Errol Flynn may be one of the best things to appear in a pair of leggings in forever! *vbg*
Before Maximus Decimus Meridias went from being a general to a slave to a gladiator that defied an empire, we had a doctor who became a slave who became a pirate who defied an empire, and that was Captain Blood; and of course, if we were again Olivia DeHavilland, how could we resist purchasing said slave…and then wondering of our fate when the former slave turned good pirate rescues us from the bad pirates. Captain Jack Sparrow – your days are definitely numbered!
If we are Flora Robson’s Queen Elizabeth I, there is only one man we would look to when it comes to protecting our beloved England from the dominion of Spain…and that is the dashing Sea Hawk, Captain Geoffrey Thorpe. (The author at The Mave calls The Sea Hawk “Very likely the greatest sea adventure film of all time, and arguably the best of all of Flynn's movies.” Okay, I will agree on it possibly being Flynn’s best. The greatest sea adventure? Oh Movie Girl’s heart would have to rank Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World #1), but hey, they could tie for first place, and there’s nothing like two incredibly loyal, patriotic, brave, courageous, handsome and heroic English sea captains protecting their nation against the French or the Spanish navies. Geoffrey Thorpe is – in many ways – the Elizabethan version of Nelson-era Captain Jack Aubrey…and it is difficult to resist either one although they have differing personalities. Thorpe may be my favorite of Flynn’s characters, with Robin Hood running a very close second. The Sea Hawk – in terms of great adventure movies – is a tight runner up to my beloved Raiders of the Lost Ark.
And it is hard not to consider sharing one’s kingdom with the likes of Flynn’s Earl of Essex (who is not exactly the historic Earl of Essex). Must have made it very hard for Bette Davis’ Queen Elizabeth I who ends up…well, I’ll let you check out the movie for yourself and find out. Even this Tudor England buff likes this one, inaccuracies and all, and it is one of the best older woman-younger man pairings ever.
So this week’s salute is to the most striking Tasmanian Devil of them all. Hard living, hard drinking, lover, devil, bad boy, a true screen idol, a man’s man who lived a man’s life – this is a comet that shows no signs of burning itself out, even seven decades after his Robin Hood won our hearts.
Merry Christmas to my first ‘love’.