Erroll Flynn signed a new contract with Jack Warner in 1948 that allowed him to make one film outside of Warner's a year and this was the first one. He got loaned out to MGM for their adaptation of the first part of John Galsworthy's The Forsythe Saga. There were three male roles: a materialistic businessman, (Soames Forsythe), his Bohemian artist cousin, Jolyon Forsythe and a romantic young architect, Philip Bosinney. The lead female roles are Soames wife, Irene, whom he trats like a possession, played by Greer Garson and June Forsythe, Jolyon's daughter who he had abandoned to pursue his painting career, played by young Janet Leigh. She and Bosinney fall in love but Philip, upon meeting Irene, falls even more in love with her, as does Jolyon when he returns home. By the end of it, Philip is dead, Irene has left Soames to be with Jolyon and June has found somebody lese to marry.
It's basically an Edwardian soap opera. But it was considered a 'prestige' property and was given first-rate production values and a star-studded cast but it's also pretty dull going. It was a decidedly not as good a film nor as well acted as "The Adventures of Don Juan", but it's the sort of film that could burnish an actor's reputation and this no doubt is why he wanted to be in it - and to play against type as Soames. I've read one account that he was given his choice of playing Joylon or Philip but insisted on playing Soames or that Walter Pidgeon was to play Soames, for which he seemed perfect, while Flynn played Joylon but both actors wanted to play against type so they decided to switch roles. It's been suggested that playing either character would have been too much like the composer Flynn had just played in 'Escape Me Never'. But he'd also played a character not unlike Soames in 'Cry Wolf'.
Whatever, Flynn certainly comes off the best of the men as both Pidgeon and Robert Young are too old for their roles and lack the romantic qualities of their characters qualities. Young is also burdened with what appears to be an ill-fitting wig. Flynn may not have been much like Soames but he plays him perfectly, imbuing him with human qualities the script didn't suggest. He's legitimately in love with Irene but doesn't seem to know how to express it and is legitimately hurt when he loses her. He not a bad guy: he's an inadequate guy and Flynn presents him as a tragic figure. By this time anyone who did not think that Errol Flynn was a skilled actor had not been paying attention.
Although Soames and Irene have a decidedly imperfect relationship, Flynn got along famously with Garson, who wrote an affectionate forward to the book 'The Films of Errol Flynn' by Tony Thomas, Rudy Behlmer and Clifford McCarthy.
It's basically an Edwardian soap opera. But it was considered a 'prestige' property and was given first-rate production values and a star-studded cast but it's also pretty dull going. It was a decidedly not as good a film nor as well acted as "The Adventures of Don Juan", but it's the sort of film that could burnish an actor's reputation and this no doubt is why he wanted to be in it - and to play against type as Soames. I've read one account that he was given his choice of playing Joylon or Philip but insisted on playing Soames or that Walter Pidgeon was to play Soames, for which he seemed perfect, while Flynn played Joylon but both actors wanted to play against type so they decided to switch roles. It's been suggested that playing either character would have been too much like the composer Flynn had just played in 'Escape Me Never'. But he'd also played a character not unlike Soames in 'Cry Wolf'.
Whatever, Flynn certainly comes off the best of the men as both Pidgeon and Robert Young are too old for their roles and lack the romantic qualities of their characters qualities. Young is also burdened with what appears to be an ill-fitting wig. Flynn may not have been much like Soames but he plays him perfectly, imbuing him with human qualities the script didn't suggest. He's legitimately in love with Irene but doesn't seem to know how to express it and is legitimately hurt when he loses her. He not a bad guy: he's an inadequate guy and Flynn presents him as a tragic figure. By this time anyone who did not think that Errol Flynn was a skilled actor had not been paying attention.
Although Soames and Irene have a decidedly imperfect relationship, Flynn got along famously with Garson, who wrote an affectionate forward to the book 'The Films of Errol Flynn' by Tony Thomas, Rudy Behlmer and Clifford McCarthy.