The Master of Ballantrae comes for Errol Flynn just as he is leaving his long term contract with Warner Brothers. Although the part of rakes-hell Jamie Durisdeer would have been a great role for him ten to fifteen years earlier for him, by the time he gets around to filming it at 44 he was just too old for the part.
If you read the novel or merely a synopsis of same you'll realize how very much is left out of the story. It's a bit more complex than what we have and after the film concludes the brothers Durisdeer go on for some considerable time, both meeting with tragic ends. But that's not what you see here.
In fact the novel is told from the point of view of the Mervyn Johns character, the steward at the Durisdeer estate. It's 1745 and Bonnie Prince Charlie has landed in the middle of a war between France and Great Britain to assert the House of Stuart's claim. Even though he's a Catholic, the heart of Scotland is with the Prince. But something tells the Durisdeer clan to hedge their bets. Older brother Errol Flynn sides with the Stuarts while younger brother Anthony Steel goes with the House of Hanover.
After the Battle of Culloden where the flower of highlands was cut down, England did not impose an easy peace on Scotland. The brothers do fight and Flynn is fouled in a duel with Steel. It's exile for him until he can return and denounce the brother.
Flynn is a driven character, driven by thoughts of revenge. It's kind of hard to sympathize with him though. He's engaged to Beatrice Campbell, but has no problem making a little whoopee with Yvonne Furneaux. Now that WAS in keeping with the real Errol Flynn. Still he's supposed to be in his twenties doing this and Jack Cardiff's beautiful color cinematography is not a help in this case.
Two actors really standout in this film though. The first is Roger Livesey as Irish soldier of fortune Francis Burke who gets the role of sidekick to Errol Flynn after they find each other in the wake of Culloden. The second is for French actor Jacques Berthier as a gentleman pirate who Flynn and Livesey fall in with.
Flynn and Jack Cardiff hit it off though. Cardiff got involved in Errol Flynn's ill-fated disaster William Tell. Supposedly in that unfinished epic of which little has been seen is some of the best work Cardiff ever did. He remains to this day as the United Kingdom's number one color cinematographer.
William Keighley who directed Flynn in what some say was his greatest film role in The Adventures of Robin Hood directs The Master of Ballantrae. If he had only done it in 1938 as he did Robin Hood.
If you read the novel or merely a synopsis of same you'll realize how very much is left out of the story. It's a bit more complex than what we have and after the film concludes the brothers Durisdeer go on for some considerable time, both meeting with tragic ends. But that's not what you see here.
In fact the novel is told from the point of view of the Mervyn Johns character, the steward at the Durisdeer estate. It's 1745 and Bonnie Prince Charlie has landed in the middle of a war between France and Great Britain to assert the House of Stuart's claim. Even though he's a Catholic, the heart of Scotland is with the Prince. But something tells the Durisdeer clan to hedge their bets. Older brother Errol Flynn sides with the Stuarts while younger brother Anthony Steel goes with the House of Hanover.
After the Battle of Culloden where the flower of highlands was cut down, England did not impose an easy peace on Scotland. The brothers do fight and Flynn is fouled in a duel with Steel. It's exile for him until he can return and denounce the brother.
Flynn is a driven character, driven by thoughts of revenge. It's kind of hard to sympathize with him though. He's engaged to Beatrice Campbell, but has no problem making a little whoopee with Yvonne Furneaux. Now that WAS in keeping with the real Errol Flynn. Still he's supposed to be in his twenties doing this and Jack Cardiff's beautiful color cinematography is not a help in this case.
Two actors really standout in this film though. The first is Roger Livesey as Irish soldier of fortune Francis Burke who gets the role of sidekick to Errol Flynn after they find each other in the wake of Culloden. The second is for French actor Jacques Berthier as a gentleman pirate who Flynn and Livesey fall in with.
Flynn and Jack Cardiff hit it off though. Cardiff got involved in Errol Flynn's ill-fated disaster William Tell. Supposedly in that unfinished epic of which little has been seen is some of the best work Cardiff ever did. He remains to this day as the United Kingdom's number one color cinematographer.
William Keighley who directed Flynn in what some say was his greatest film role in The Adventures of Robin Hood directs The Master of Ballantrae. If he had only done it in 1938 as he did Robin Hood.