The 50s was a decade of bizarre projects for Errol Flynn: abandoned swashbucklers, troubled French dramas, pro-Castro documentaries, epics shot in Africa, el cheapo B pictures, British musicals. This was one of two of the latter he made for the husband and wife team of Herbert Wilcox and Anna Neagle, who turned out a number of immensely popular films over the years, which they liked to rehash.
It’s a totally weird picture; to understand it you gave to appreciate it was based on a play, which in turn was constructed as a vehicle for Neagle that referenced much of Neagle’s career to that point. There’s a colour credit sequence, then it goes to black and white and is set in London 1944 with Neagle working for ENSA (which she did in real life) and being romanced by the director (which she did in real life); then she gets conked on the head during an air raid (which also featured her popular film Piccadilly Incident), and we flash back to Nell Gwynn in colour (which Neagle played in 1933), then we go back to the war only now we’re in colour and Neagle is being wooed by Peter Graves, then she dreams of being Queen Victoria (whom Neagle played twice to great popular effect), then we cut to a Hollywood star (Errol Flynn) who it turns out is Neagle’s father, and we flashback to when Flynn was a song and dance man just before World War I and courted Neagle’s mother (played by Neagle). They get married, he goes to war, she becomes a star, she dances in a Cochran show (just like the real Neagle), he feels emasculated, leaves her and becomes a Hollywood star, they get back together but she dies (just like in Picadilly Incident), leaving Flynn to inspire their daughter (Neagle) to follow her love (Farrar) to Burma. Got that? Right.
It’s a mess – fascinating, but a mess. Neagle was over 50, wasn’t much of a dancer and telegraphed everything but she was still pretty and game – you can tell she was a trooper. There are some alright numbers and I really liked the colour. I was most interested in the performance of Errol Flynn. He’s far too old for his role, especially around World War I, and isn’t believable as a song and dance man – in his 1950s films Errol was only really believable as a lecherous drunk. But you know it’s lovely to see him do a soft shoe number with Neagle; he’s not much of a singer, but he can move, and he seems to be having a fun time. And he even gets to do a bit of emotion: one bit, when he’s on a movie set thinking of his former wife, he’s actually quite touching. One of Farrar’s characters head off to Burma and a barmaid says “give my regards to Errol Flynn”
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