My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985)

Simply A Masterpiece

Boring

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Duncan Regehr deserves a lot of credit in this role. He has a lot of the same gifts as Errol Flynn - the intelligence, artistic flair, athletic ability, grace, height, charm, convincing romantic heroism and handsome good looks. He did an excellent job. I believe Flynn's daughter actually chose him for this role. He went on to become Zorro in the New World Zorro series on the Family Channel for 4 seasons, and did a superb job. Very few actors have the physical grace, perception and personality to effectively and compellingly portray heroes such as Robin Hood, Zorro, and so forth. Both Flynn and Regehr do. Very few actors could assay the role of Flynn himself. Actually, no one else even comes to mind. Regehr should have gotten an award, at least I can give him 5 stars in this review.

After watching this film, I thought to myself, they really glossed up Errol Flynn's life! The movie is really nice eye candy. They really got the 1930s and 1940s atmosphere of Hollywood just right. The costumes were great. All the women looked glamorous and all the men looked handsome and debonair.Is this a serious film about Errol Flynn's life? Nah! It's a fun movie based on all the scandalous stuff he did in his life.Why am I critiquing this film? This is a film that had a lot of promise but failed to deliver. Duncan Reagher was really good as Errol Flynn. He was not as good looking as the original, but he made you believe that Flynn was not just a handsome playboy who did not take himself seriously, but as a man who, although gifted with great talent, was kind of disturbed and unhappy inside. Flynn's love life was a disaster considering he had so many failed marriages. He also lost a lot of good friends during his life. He also suffered from unrequited love for the elegant Olivia DeHavilland. The last scene of the film showed Errol kind of begging for Olivia to stay with him and instead she walks away. He is shown in his tux, looking really empty and slowly walking around the pool as he pours his drink into the pool. It was a sad way to end the film but kind of fitting because everyone knows by now how he eventually fell apart from his alcoholism and his dissipated lifestyle.This film could've had much more depth, could've been better well-written. Sure they showed all the scandals but they never showed Errol Flynn's human center. Surprisingly, Duncan Reagher was able to put some emotional depth into the character of Errol Flynn even though the film writing didn't put any depth there.I'll probably never see this film again but I can still remember after viewing this film, "Gosh, this could've been so much more.....!" I give this film a D+.

I have a soft spot for this movie, if for nothing else it was filmed in the eighties and the subject is Errol Flynn, one of the greatest stars in Hollywood history. Whenever I think of Flynn I think of that line in "My Favorite Year" where the character Alan Swann says: "I'm not an actor, I'm a star!". Of course the character is a take off on Flynn, who did indeed show on a similar show, see the movie if your a Flynn Fan. But unfortunately, this film is pretty badly done. It's not the actors fault, one can see some effort on their part, though Barbara Hershey is abysmal as Errol's wife. The flick needed far more money, to make the scenes in the thirties and forties believable, and the director seemed to settle for first or second takes, because a lot of the scenes were pretty dreadful. The problem with the movie is that it failed to capture the true lust for life that Errol Flynn obviously had--anyone who's read the book, the first tell all by a major star, can't help but be disappointed. Perhaps someday some quick witted director will try again, we can only hope. Flynn is the one actor who can truly say that his private life was more interesting than his life on screen. Perhaps the most egregious sin of this effort was the fact that they sliced off two of the more interesting parts of Flynn's life--the first and the last: It makes no mention of his real life swashbuckling days in tasmania and New Guinea and on the waning part of his life, they leave off after the late forties, and forget a major part of his life. He died, after all, at only fifty. There are so many stories they didn't tell--and though time is a constraint, of course, they pumped up parts of the story that they basically invented. It really is too bad, this man's life is worthy of a bio film far more serious than this one. But one has to love this, if one is a fan of Flynn, simply because it is about him. And perhaps that's enough on one level. But the true love of life, and wickedness, and intensity, needs a better movie. Flynn is a complicated character--though very lovable in his ways, he was also someone who made other people unhappy because of his selfishness. But altogether, this movie isn't worthy of the magnitude of this guy's personality, his intense life, and the stories that he has to tell.

A few months back, I (like many others before me I'm sure) discovered the "legend" of Errol Flynn. Now, I call it a legend, because if you were to print this man's life story today, I'm sure no one would believe it. But make no mistake; in Hollywood, Errol Flynn was, and still is, a legend. I have heard it said many times that Errol Flynn's real life escapades far outweighed any that could be conjured up for him on the big screen. This is true. After reading the book "My Wicked Wicked Ways" (on which this movie is based) and a few other repitable biographies, I won't be the one to argue with that. As for the movie adaption of My Wicked Wicked Ways, all I can say was, it's OK. It's prettied up, but at least it gives you sort of an idea of what Hollywood was like back in the "Golden Years" of the 30's and 40's.The movie starts from Flynn's arrival in hollywood in the early thirties. He is simply one of the thousands of contract players that Warner Brothers has on the payroll, and waits, like most of the rest, for bit parts, and walk on roles. Duncan Regehr captures Flynn's personality pretty well. He was a man who lived for the moment, and a man who simply ignored any consequences to his own actions. He was fearless, but vulnerable. And of course, the ladies loved him! Everything else aside, I think what attracted everyone to him was not so much his looks, but his charm. Many of the people who worked with him commented that "No matter what he did, you could never stay mad at him for long." He'd tell a quick story, or smile that devilish smile, and everyone would forget that he was three hours late for shooting that day. He was also smart. Self taught, mostly. We get the feeling that he could have been anything he wanted to. The highlights along the way are some of the Flynn/Curtiz tiffs on set. Michael Curtiz directed Flynn in a bunch of films, and was NOT a fan of Errol Flynn. He usually had to beg and plead Flynn to get through a scene! Also, Barbara Hershey as Lili Damita, Flynn's on again, off again, on again, off again wife. The scenes between the two of them were hilarious. Also, the scenes between Flynn, and his friend, the doomed John Barrymore. Again, this was fluffed up a little bit, but if you are a fan of Errol Flynn's you should take a look at it anyways...also, read the book MY WICKED WICKED WAYS, I guarantee you won't be able to put it down... Some of my personal Errol Flynn film favorites are CAPTAIN BLOOD (1935) CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE (1936) THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) THE SEA HAWK (1940) THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON (1942) GENTLEMAN JIM (1942) OBJECTIVE BURMA (1945) THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN (1949) all these are highly entertaining, and will show you why Flynn was on top of Hollywood's star list for over ten years....LONG LIVE ERROL FLYNN!