Customer Reviews

The Errol Flynn Signature Collection, Vol. 2 (The Charge of the Light Brigade / Gentleman Jim / The Adventures of Don Juan / The Dawn Patrol / Dive Bomber)

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While every Errol Flynn fan has individual titles they will champion as 'Essential' Flynn, "The Errol Flynn Signature Collection, Vol. 2", combined with the first volume, offers a pretty complete collection of the premier screen cavalier's most memorable screen appearances...and two of the films in this collection ("The Charge of the Light Brigade" and "The Adventures of Don Juan"), are absolute MUSTS!

"The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1936): Flynn's follow-up to "Captain Blood" is a tour-de-force of adventure, romance, and spectacle, climaxing in, arguably, the greatest (and bloodiest) cavalry charge in screen history! More Rudyard Kipling than Tennyson, most of the story occurs in India, with noble Flynn saving the life of a genocide-minded tyrant, losing Olivia de Havilland (for once!) to future 'Will Scarlet' Patric Knowles, and chumming with doomed best friend (both on and off screen), David Niven. Eventually the action moves to the Crimea, and the infamous Charge, an astonishing spectacle that, sadly, cost the lives of at least one stunt man, and hundreds of horses (Flynn, himself, would be so distraught by the carnage that he helped establish the present standards against animal cruelty).

Unforgettable!

"The Adventures of Don Juan" (1948): Warner's attempt to resuscitate Flynn's sagging career failed, but the film is an absolutely enchanting, tongue-in-cheek swashbuckler many consider his last 'great' film! Looking a bit worn (he fell off the wagon early in the production, which ended up taking nearly a year to complete), Flynn is the immortal roué, too often caught during trysts (a familiar real-life dilemma for Flynn!). Returned to Spain in disgrace, accompanied by loyal Alan Hale (in the last of his 12 films with Errol), he eventually wins the heart of the Queen, foils a plot to overthrow the monarchy, and fights a furious duel with villain Robert Douglas, all to one of the GREATEST of Max Steiner's scores!

A real TREAT!

Two other films of the collection are also great Flynn; "The Dawn Patrol" (1938) re-teams Flynn with David Niven and Basil Rathbone (a VERY sympathetic 'villain', this time!), in one of the BEST WWI dramas, of burnt-out fliers pushed to their limits; "Gentleman Jim" (1942), one of Flynn's own personal favorites, is a funny, light-hearted biopic of boxer James J. Corbett, father of 'modern' boxing, with fabulous turns by Alan Hale (as Flynn's FATHER!), and Ward Bond (unforgettable as the aging John L. Sullivan).

The only (slight) disappointment is "Dive Bomber" (1941), in the collection, I suspect, because it was filmed in color! A dated tale of the Navy's research into the effects of high altitude flying on pilots, the film boasts a first-rate cast (including Fred MacMurray and Ralph Bellamy), and Flynn at his most handsome, but it lacks the charm and excitement of the other titles...Still, this isn't a bad film!

Happily, Flynn is BACK...and with his five WWII-themed films still to be released, perhaps a Flynn 'War' collection will be next!

The immortals of the screen's golden era transcend time because each of the true greats was an orginal. Unique. Incomparable. Gable, Garland, Garbo, Davis, Bogart, Cagney, John Wayne, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy...no one was like them before, or ever will be again. The same can surely be said about the wonderful Errol Flynn.

Warner Bros. has been quite generous in delivering us many Flynn titles in recent years, and there are dozens to go! This latest set will not dissapoint his fans, with 5 entertaining, classic vehicles, assembled in an impressive newly designed sleeve that takes the WB Signature Collection series to a higher plane of elegance and magnetism.

Every film here is top-drawer, but my particular favorite has to be CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE. An undeniable classic which has never looked so good. All the transfers here are the best I've ever seen, and the vintage extras Warner has included are like the cherry on top of the sundae.

I'm sure WB has another 2 or 3 Flynn sets waiting in the wings...and why not. He made several dozen films for the studio, and only a handful don't classify as timeless entertainment.

I also love great older movies, and will defer to the reviewers below as to the quality of the other Errol Flynn films in this set. To some of us, however, "Dive Bomber" is special. I agree that the dialogue's corny, and the storyline isn't very close to the reality of flight research of the time. Still, it was filmed, with great cooperation from the Navy, just months before our entry into WWII, at the end of the most colorful era in aviation. The scenes of actual carrier operations, filmed on the USS Enterprise, and the SB2U's, F3F's, TBD's, and other planes, yellow wings and all, in glorious Technicolor, are a priceless record of the time. It hasn't been widely available on DVD before, and some of us are very glad to have it now.

I was originally only going to get this one movie, but now I really look forward to watching all the others again, too!

This set is absolutely marvelous. Dive Bomber looks as if it was shot yesterday. The color is superb as it also is on Don juan. Keep them coming. You will not be disappointed with this set. At this price here on Amazon, it is a steal.

Okay...I just bounced around this set and can tell everyone that the transfers are typically excellent for Warner Bros (the absolute BEST studio at handling classic titles!)...the extras are plentiful and just too much fun. The Warner Bros Night at the movies concept is really terrific and they seem to work hard to dig up material from the day that really add to the experience and place the films in historical context.
and speaking of the films...WOW! Its nice to see Errol out of the green tights and in a suit and tie. There isn't a clunker in the group...Charge of the light brigade is a stone cold classic and another in a long series of pairings with Ms DeHavilland, Dawn Patrol features David Niven (also co-starring in Charge)...Dive Bomber is an early Technicolor triumph and perhaps the jewel of the collection is Gentleman Jim (reportedly Flynn's favorite of his films). What Flynn set would be complete however without a swashbuckler and Adventures of Don Juan ...delivers the goods with a brilliant technicolor transfer ...and commentary by the late great director Vincent Sherman!!

This is a terrific package at a ridiculous price...I've spent this much for 2 tickets for a current movie and this is a collection I will treasure. Thanks WB! Please let 2008 bring volume 3!!

Months ago I reviewed volume one of this DVD Flynn filmography and carped my behind off about the fact that a "signature" collection of Errol Flynn
films that failed to include "The Charge of the Light Brigade" was close on to insanity, and opined at the time that this must mean a volume two was in the works that would be headlined by "Charge", and might also include the marvelous "Gentleman Jim". Happily, it looks like I was right.

This second Flynn "Signature" collection has both "Charge of the Light Brigade" and "Gentleman Jim" included, as well as "Adventures of Don Juan", "Dive Bomber", and "The Dawn Patrol" , and is a pretty decent cross-sampling of the actor's product.

I have stated in reviews before that "Light Brigade" remains...after all these decades...the single most amazing footage of horse action ever put to film. The charge in the movie is as legendary in its own right as the real charge at Balaclava was. In its stuntwork, cinematography, and editing, it is an absolute jaw-dropper. The screen story leading up to the charge is a fictitious weaving of events based on India's Sepoy rebellion and is used to develop audience repugnance for a villain named Surat Khan, who later appears with the Russians in the Crimea. The sequence where Khan is confronted by Flynn's Geoffrey Vickers at the movie's end is a classic cinema moment of "you're gonna get YOURS, sucker!".

Now for Dive Bomber. I mention this film specifically because it relates directly to spurious nonsense put out in a book called "The Secret Life of Errol Flynn" by Charles Higham , published back in the late 70s and claiming that Flynn was some kind of Nazi spy. Long discredited by more grounded researchers, among the claims made in this "biography" was that Flynn "had" Dive Bomber made at Pearl Harbor so he could get shots of the naval base to get to the Japanese so they could plan their attack. This was/is utter rubbish. Flynn had no power to "have' movie footage shot at his beck and call. The old Studio System didn't work that way. You were a
contract employee and you went where the studio sent you and did what they told you. You had NO say in the matter. So Flynn couldn't "arrange" ANYTHING with regard to "Dive Bomber". AS to Pearl Harbor, it is never shown in the movie. No Battleship Row, no naval base, no nothing....for while the opening of the film declares itself to be "In Hawaiian Waters", this is a fiction as all of Dive Bomber was shot at San Diego, with some footage added from NAS Pensacola (and land-based Japanese spies had all the details of Pearl in Imperial hands before Dive Bomber ever filmed).
Watch this movie and understand from it how totally LAME and stupid Higham's claims were.

Watch it also with something ELSE in mind. "DB" has, in effect, a companion movie out there in DVD-land that is well worth a looking at.
That movie is John Ford's/John Wayne's "The Wings of Eagles" ,the biography of famed naval aviator Frank "Spig" Wead. a pioneer of the Fleet air arm. Breaking his back in a fall down some stairs (as shown with Wayne in the film), Wead became a disabled retired officer who turned Hollywood screenwriter and Broadway playwright. Two famous films are the products of "Spig" Wead's mind and fingertips; "They Were Expendable", with Duke and Robert Montgomery, and "Dive Bomber". The latter came right out of Wead's own experiences in Naval aviation, and from that of his colleagues. An ongoing bit of inter-service "ragging" between army and navy pilots goes on in "Wings of Eagles" and shows up again in "Dive Bomber". A massed flight of bombers roars over a navy assemblage at "Pearl Harbor" early in the film and is watched by a visiting army type, who allows as how they fly "almost as good as army pilots". This is PURE "Spig" Wead. Watch Dive Bomber and The Wings of Eagles both and see how they correlate to each other.

"Adventures of Don Juan" is Flynn's last big WB epic swashbuckler. It was a tough shoot, basically because of Flynn's increasing dissipation due to mild TB and increased boozing and drugging. Look closely at him and realize that there is a lot of help from make-up here in making him look better than in real life....and that only THIRTEEN years separate Don Juan from Captain Blood. View the two films sequentially and the realization is stunning. Don Juan doesn't look thirteen years older than Peter Blood----he looks twenty or twenty-FIVE years older! Flynn's downhill run here is saddening. Don Juan is a GOOD movie though; beautifully shot and edited and well crafted by Vincent Sherman. It ran long in production due to Flynn's illnesses , but Sherman pieced it all together brilliantly. The Score by Max Steiner is a masterpiece and the difficult leap down the bottom of a staircase at the end was done by stuntman Jock ("Jocko") Mahoney, who later turned actor and played "The Range Rider" and "Yancy Derringer" on 1950s television.

"Gentleman Jim" was among Flynn's favorite Flynn movies and his enthusiasm shows in his performance. The charm is on full blast. The fight scenes were very well staged and believable and much of this was because Flynn actually had been a boxer in Australia prior to his movie career. A scene at the end of the film with Corbett exchanging admirations with John L. Sullivan (Ward Bond)is touchingly depicted.
great movie.

"The Dawn Patrol" is another winner and it allows Flynn to ACT. And he shows he can do that very thing. This is a good performance and fits right in with the performances of Basil Rathbone, David Niven, and others.
Flying scenes and battle scenes are excellent here, even if some of the footage hasn't stood up to the aging process that well. As good a film as "Hell's Angels" in many respects, although not as visually spectacular.

All told, an excellent volume two. And still out there are: Virginia City, San Antonio, Desperate Journey, Edge of Darkness, Objective Burma,
Santa Fe Trail, Rocky Mountain, Montana, Silver River, perhaps The Prince & the Pauper, and two or three others to ponder. You could likely get four volumes of good entertainment oput of old Errol.

This one is a good deal all around.

I have found over the years with few exceptions that the classics such as Humphrey Bogart, James Stewart, Errol Flynn and others are the best. The second signature series for Flynn has three of the movies I have been wanting for some time with my favorite being Charge of the Light Brigrade, then Dawn Patrol followed by Don Juan and Gentlemen Jim. the other moves are very good as well with each movie made with a crispness that many movies lack today with there dependence of special effects. A good story, acting and great scenes make each movie a treasure to own.

Flynn had always been a favorite of mine when I was growing up. He was so great as a pirate, pilot, or whatever he took on as a role. I bought this collection primarily for "Dawn Patrol." As a retired fighter pilot, Vietnam and earlier era, all of us pilots watched Dawn Patrol while on air defense alert. I still feel that this movie catches the dilemma of being a pilot and then being a commander that has to send his pilots up to die. Much the same as in Twelve O'Clock High and Command Decision, the commanders all had the same experiences. The cast in this one is outstanding: Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven (another favorite actor of mine), Barry Sullivan, Donald Crisp, and on.. all wonderful! The experience level of the young pilots when they arrived for combat was horrendously low, accounting for their short-lived careers. If any one of them could survive a few weeks, gained experience, and did not get shot down, they stood a chance of getting a lot of missions. Some didn't make it past the first day! Good aerial combat scenes for the technology at the time. Special effects nowadays produce stunning aerial scenes as in the current movie "Flyboys." I liked Flyboys, but Dawn Patrol is still the best. The devil-may-care attitude of these young fighter pilots was one of the reasons I chose to go into the Air Force when I became of age.

This is a great study of the stresses of command and the responsibilities that come with it. I look forward to watching the rest of the movies in the collection.

These handsome DVD transfers confirm opinions held in some cases over 50 years. "Don Juan", while not as brilliant as some Technicolor restorations (Adventures of Robin Hood, Wizard of Oz) looks gorgeous, and the tongue-in-cheek commentary by 90 years plus director Vince Sherman confirms the impression of super teamwork at the always economical Warner studio of those days.

"Gentleman Jim" is one of Raoul Walsh's delightful sentimental comedies, and not surprisingly one of Flynn's own favourites. "Light Brigade" is a brilliant print , and far more spectacular than remembered - and what a cast. Mike Curtiz has his usual fun with battle scenes and spectacle, and the only black mark is for cruel treatment of the horses in the charge scene. "Dawn Patrol" is superbly cast and scripted, and directed with great flair by the often overlooked Edmund Goulding, settled into Warner's after being fired by Louis B Mayer, and doing a wonderful job on uncharacteristic material. Goulding's efforts are only a little spoiled by the poor special effects re-used from The 1930 Howard Hawks version, but the aerial battles stand up well. Flynn shows he really is an actor, magnificently supported by Rathbone, Niven and the ever-reliable Donald Crisp. Those were the days...

"Dive Bomber" is the least of the bunch, but no Curtiz picture is entirely without interest, and early Technicolor continues to be a revelation.

A great set, with the usual nutty extra features, Vitaphone shorts, newsreels, Merrie Melodies and so forth. Great entertainment, with Flynn at his considerable best.

An excellent way to round out one's collection of these additional gems, given the right-on selection of such entertaining fare. Flynn himself may have been disappointed that the collection didn't contain more of his latter-year dramatic work, for which he received his best reviews, but marketers may be reserving those for a third collection. If a third collection is planned, I hope that, besides his best dramatic moments, it will include films representing Flynn's comedic and musical talents, which were considerable, although virtually untapped at Warner Brothers. How ironic it would be if such a third set did eventually appear; it would be proof indeed that the broad range of his work was appreciated at last, and maybe then that secretly sensitive soul of his could rest in peace.