Your RDA of Irony

Hollywood Bondage

My wife would like to send a sympathy card to Olivia de Havilland.  Last Saturday while we were playing television roulette with the remote, we alighted upon “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”  Karen had never seen the Errol Flynn classic before.  (You don’t ask a guy if he ever seen it; you ask how many times?  In my case, six or seven times.)  When Karen learned that the film was made shortly before “Gone With the Wind”, she felt such pity for Miss de Havilland, “Going from Errol Flynn to Leslie Howard.” 

Yes, on face value (and Flynn’s gorgeous face in particular) it would seem that de Havilland had a dismaying descent.  Imagine Maid Marion running off with Isaac of York.  However, Olivia was under contract, and in the Golden Age of Hollywood that contract was a gilded yoke.  She was expected to do whatever the studio ordered.  A musical comedy with Mussolini?  If that is what Jack Warner wanted….   

Between 1938 and 1939, Olivia de Havilland appeared in nine movies.  Four were with Errol Flynn; Warners Bros. knew a winning combination.  In addition to “…Robin Hood” and a trifle of  a comedy called “Four’s A Crowd”   together they won the West in “Dodge City” and she caught his lopped head in “Elizabeth and Essex.”  Miss de Havilland also made the  crime caper “Raffles” with a pleasant but still unknown British actor named David Niven.  And lest Katherine Hepburn have a monopoly on madcap heiress roles, Miss de Havilland played one in “Hard to Get” opposite the aging male ingenue Dick Powell.  (Powell hated his typecasting, and he actually looked forward to losing his looks and becoming middle-aged.)

She also costarred in two films with George Brent.  Mr. Brent was a popular leading man of the Thirties, and we have been wondering why ever since.  He has no allure or charisma, no dramatic depth.  Brent simply seems like a well-spoken middle-aged dullard.  You can imagine him playing a doctor in a Lipator commercial, but not as a romantic lead.  Today he is best remembered as Bette Davis’ costar in “Dark Victory.”  In that film, Davis passes up a charming rogue (Humphrey Bogart) and an adorable playboy (Ronald Reagan when he was still a Democrat) for this well-spoken, middle-aged drip.  Of course, her character was supposed to have brain tumor and it evidently effected her libido. 

And Miss de Havilland got to be in two films with him!

Suddenly, Leslie Howard doesn’t seem that bad.

  1. Joan Stewart Smith says:

    Eugene, I’d choose George Brent over Leslie Howard any day. I think George was very studly. Oh, well, handsome is in the eyes of the beholder.

    • Eugene Finerman says:

      Dear Joan,

      First, reassure me that you are not auditioning for the remake of “The Snake Pit.”

      Aesthetically, Brent might be somewhat better looking but Howard–but it is a minor distinction. We are not comparing Errol Flynn with Eugene Palette. In terms of personality, I think that Howard is more appealing. Ironically, Ashley Wilkes may be his worst role; the character is a cipher and Howard really is too old for the part. However, Howard is a “bloody” marvel as Henry Higgins in “Pygmalion”.

      By the way, as long as I am addressing the dirty old woman in you, Basil Rathbone was a handsome man too. Whoever won that swordfight in “Robin Hood”, Maid Marion was likely to have goodlooking children.

      Eugene

      • Joan Stewart Smith says:

        Eugene, I have no strong feelings about George, but I do about Basil! I was first introduced to Basil Rathbone performing an abridged enactment of “A Christmas Carol” on a scratchy old LP. We played this album over and over each Christmas throughout during my childhood. I had no idea what he looked like until I was older. When I finally saw him, it was like seeing an old friend who was there all my life.

        So, I cannot see him objectively! Or again, beauty is so relative!

        Joan

  2. Peg Pruitt says:

    I thought that Leslie Howard was a perfect “Sir Percival Blakeney, Bart.” in The Scarlet Pimpernel, one of my all-time favorite novels.

    • Eugene Finerman says:

      Peg,

      I agree with you about Sir Percy, but I still think that Leslie Howard’s greatest role was as Henry Higgins in Pygmalion. Of course, the wonderful irony is that a Hungarian Jew–Mr. Leslie Stainer–is playing the quintessential Englishman.

      There is a memorable comment from Tony Curtis, nee Bernand Schwartz: “When I went to Hollywood, I wanted to be the Jewish Leslie Howard but I discovered Leslie Howard beat me to it.”

      Eugene

  3. Leah says:

    Quibbles: Wasn’t Captain Blood before Robin Hood also? Isn’t Private Lives of E & E after? Brent’s not my type either, but he apparently had effective charms: he had his way with just about every Warners actress (although not, I think DeHavilland), very notably with Bette Davis. He was the more successful ladies’ man with his colleagues; Flynn mostly roamed farther afield.

    Leslie Howard, though not as exquisite as Flynn (and let’s face it: who was, man or woman, outside Garbo and Dietrich?), is plenty appealing to someone looking for brains to go along with looks (which was something his wife had to deal with often, I believe.)

    • Eugene Finerman says:

      Leah,

      “Captain Blood” was Flynn’s introduction to the American public, his first collaboration with Olivia de Havilland and the first time he kills Basil Rathbone in a duel. Remember my chronology was limited to 1938-39, and the films Miss de Havilland made in addition to “Robin Hood” and “Gone With the Wind”.

      It is interesting that you mention George Brent’s womanizing. He was married to Ann Sheridan and, coming home early, discovered that she was having an affair with Errol Flynn. Flynn also won the ensuing fight.

      Eugene

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