June 20 Errol Flynn

Happy Birthday Olympia Dukakis, Errol Flynn, Audie Murphy, Martin Landau, Gail Patrick, Nicole Kidman and John Goodman.

TCM celebrated Errol Flynn’s birthday with a marathon of film. I watched Footsteps In The Dark. The title is the story of a book, written by Errol, under a pen name F. X. Pettijohn. The film starts off during a quiet night with 2 men Errol and Allen Jenkins walking along the outside of the house spying a window and a ladder. The ladder is moved to a window. Errol climbs up the ladder to the window, climbs in and sees a woman sleeping in a bed. The clock strikes 3 (AM). He goes back to the window, waves and closes the window. The next time we see him he is in his pajamas climbing into bed.

The next day after breakfast with his wife and mother-in-law he gives his friend and lawyer Carothers a ride to work. His mother-in-law has hired him to find out and stop the writer Pettijohn. Errol tells the lawyer “telling her the truth would be unnecessarily cruel, so I don’t tell her”. He goes to his office, he is an investment councilor, gets a few updates on what he needs to take care of and signs a few checks. He then leaves. Jenkins, his chauffeur, drives the car to a garage. Errol goes to another garage and gets into on older model family car. Jenkins gets in the passenger side. They drive to a cottage. They go in, take off their hats and jackets and sit behind desks. Errol dictates and Jenkins types. He lives almost a double life.

The film is a comedy/mystery with more over the top comedy than The Thin Man films. Errol is witty, charming, intelligent and plays several characters to get information to solve a murder. He imitates Jenkins with a NY accent. He poses as Tex “Lucky” Gilbert with a drawl (out of the side of his mouth), dances ungracefully and lumbering walk. He as a writer is smarter than the police officer William Frawley. Frawley gets everything wrong, almost opposite of everything we the audience see.