THE LIFE AND WORK OF ERROL FLYNN: A PSYCHOANALYTICAL BIOGRAPHY [Paperback]

Borina Dramov (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 7, 2005

ERROL FLYNN "Those first thoughts of death, destruction and suicide began to occur within me--which would not easily or perhaps ever vanish. I no longer had such an interest in living. I didn't give a damn, in fact. Much of the will to live had gone." Like Hemingway, he sat with a gun to his head. He contemplated suicide. Three nights in a row he sat at the edge of the bed with a revolver to his head. The third night it was in his mouth. He, Errol Flynn, had power, fame, money, women, yet it was all an empty victory. He had been destroyed by the rape trial. "That which I had, my big house, my yacht, my bank account, seemed hollow. None of these could take the place of self respect, which I had lost." He would write in his autobiography, "Inside I was smarting, terribly wounded from the scar of the rape trial." He had other aspirations for his life than becoming a phallic symbol. Everyone thought they knew Errol Flynn, but they didn't. He was a complicated man who camouflaged his true self from the outside world and only through some of his own writing could one glean the type of person he really was and what he had hoped to be. No one could enter with aplomb and grace like him, who clicked his heels in salute like him, who was the greatest swashbuckler like him, a terrific horseman who held his sword and lance as if they were part of him; no one could be as great a leader like him, tall, handsome, dashing, whose voice, eyes and mannerisms would make ladies fall in love with him and men follow him to the end of the earth. The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Sea Hawk, They Died with Their Boots On, and Objective Burma are some of the finest films ever made, and undoubtedly no one has been able to replace him. He was a natural actor who lived his roles and his characters, but who aspired to be a writer and war correspondent. He was a man marred by an ugly childhood of neglect and abandonment, who rose out of sheer fortitude of his char

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

B. Dramov graduated from the University of Southern California School of Medicine. Dr. Dramov, a neurologist, lives and works in California's Central Coast.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (March 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1418432431
• ISBN-13: 978-1418432430
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,809,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars unnecessary, August 16, 2006

By 

P. Cornelius "pcornelius" (Mountain View, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: THE LIFE AND WORK OF ERROL FLYNN: A PSYCHOANALYTICAL BIOGRAPHY (Paperback)

This is a book that really didn't have to be. Divided basically into two parts, the first half is a short retelling of Flynn's life. The second half is a discussion of each of his films, including ratings, backstage gossip and sometimes a discussion of the film's historical accuracy. I got the book because it seemed that the combination of Psychoanalytical in the title and the mysterious authorial name (only a first initial and the author never provides any of his own credentials) meant that this was a slumming psychologist who would really give a clinical analysis of what ailed Flynn. Instead what this seems to be is just someone who is a big fan of Flynn's screen image and probably tries to identify with him, giving him the delusion that he is the only one to really understand Flynn. One sees much the same thing with the myriad books on Marilyn Monroe. But he seems to no more be a psychologist than I am. There is no true diagnosis here, only the obvious comments many could make from reading other books on Flynn. I might suggest here the Myers book which is far more thorough or the one by Conrad who at least spent a lot of time with Flynn, or even Flynn's ghost written (by Conrad) autobiography. As to the second half, his opinions are interesting, but not more so than anyone else's. He clearly hasn't even bothered to even see all the films and there are no pictures, making this far inferior to The Complete Films of Errol Flynn. The author doesn't seem to have a great command of English and typos and mistakes in this self-published work are common, once the word "flayed" being used where "flailed" was meant. Even worse, he has a meandering style that states a point, then winds back to it again, repeating it, often more than once, using almost the same words. It's not surprising that no real publisher would touch this.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Different View of the Flynn Legend, May 17, 2008

By 

David Korotkov "psychologydave" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: THE LIFE AND WORK OF ERROL FLYNN: A PSYCHOANALYTICAL BIOGRAPHY (Paperback)

At first I must say that I expected this to be a more indepth analytic review of Errol Flynn's life. While I was somewhat disappointed in the analyses, it does represent an interesting first look at his life from a psychoanalytic perspective. What is also good about this book is the authors discussion of the Flynn movie legacy although being a "Flynn fan" I was quite uncertain as to how the author arrived at such questionnable ratings of Flynn's movies. Find a used book if your expectations are high but enjoy a human perspective that the author brings to it.