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Rating:  -
Obviously, I like Errol Flynn so I was thrilled when this box set was offered. As with many of the Warner Brothers disc sets, there's the Warner Night at the Movies extra features which includes cartoons, short subjects and newsreels of the year the featured film was released. Perhaps not a group of his best films (as others have mentioned) but enjoyable none the less. Virginia City is my favorite out of the 4 of them, mainly due to Humphrey Bogart and the other top notch stars. Yes, I have the same last name as Rocky Mountain co-star (and Flynn widow) Patrice Wymore, however, I'm not directly related (though my former inlaws are distantly related to her). I think the set is well worth the price (or even better on sale).
Rating: -
I am very favourite of Errol flynn movies. I would like to watch more errol flynn movies (war)etc.. I have about 22 movies of Errol Flynn.
Rating: -
Errol Flynn western collections I have been waiting a long time
for it because he was my number one actor when I was young
Rating:  -
The four movies that make up this set are, for the most part, conventional westerns with plenty of action and a fair amount of entertainment value. They depend heavily on Errol Flynn's charm and star quality. The exception is Rocky Mountain. Alone among the others it packs a real punch and offers us Flynn as a man who doesn't charm, woo or perform stunts. It's a very good movie and a quality performance.
Rocky Mountain (1950):
Lafe Barstow, a captain in the Confederate army, and his seven men are holed up in the Nevada Mountains vainly waiting for promised assistance from a California renegade. Their assignment was to raise an army of Confederate sympathizers in California. It's 1865. They've rescued a stage driver and a woman passenger, the fiancée of a Union officer, from an Indian attack. They've tricked and captured a Union patrol. And they know Shoshone warriors are gathering in force to wipe everyone out.
This was the last western Flynn made. Warner Brothers put as few resources into the making of this movie as they could get away with. There are a handful of actors, with only Flynn being a name, and perhaps 50 extras on horseback. It was shot at one location outside Gallup and on what looks like just one studio set. It's in black and white. The screenplay is workmanlike, but in the best sense of the word. About a third of the movie is shot at dusk, night or early morning when a lot of set deficiencies can be covered up. In fact, Rocky Mountain is probably the smallest scale movie Flynn ever made.
It's poetic justice that Rocky Mountain turns out to be a very good film, especially because of its small scale. The movie didn't have the budget to screw things up by trying to turn the story into something bigger than it was. Flynn plays Barstow as a man with burdens. There's none of the Flynn charm and easy smiles. As Barstow's options dwindle he faces reality with none of the Hollywood posturing that takes place in bigger budget movies. To accept the situation and take action is something he and his men simply shrug their shoulders about and then get on with.
Virginia City (1940):
Could any two less likely major stars be chosen to carry a Hollywood oater? There's Errol Flynn, an Australian with an accent of sorts who made his name waving a sword at sea and shooting arrows in forests. There's Miriam Hopkins, one of the most sophisticated and slyest actresses Hollywood has ever seen, but whose career as a major star in major movies had declined since the late Thirties. Yet together with Randolph Scott and director Michael Curtiz, they turn Virginia City into a rouser, part full-blown action western and part patriotic soap opera. With the movie slightly more than two hours long, Curtiz crams in more set-ups than probably he should have, but even all those separate piece-parts look good.
Randolph Scott, a Confederate officer, is in Virginia City readying a big gold shipment destined for Richmond. Errol Flynn, a Union officer, has arrived to stop him. Miriam Hopkins, a Confederate spy, is there to help Scott but winds up liking both. Humphrey Bogart skulks around, miscast, as a villain.
San Antonio (1945):
San Antonio is better than a routine western, but still not much more than a pleasant way to spend an hour and a half. It's the story of Clay Hardin and his determination to bring to justice to the king pin of a ruthless rustling operation. For me, the real pleasure was watching two notable actors, Victor Francen and Paul Kelly, as the villains. Francen was a Belgian who came to America in 1939. He played men who were suave to their fingertips, worldly in outlook and perfectly at home at the roulette table. He always had a gracious smile while he said the most threatening things and did the most deadly deeds. Paul Kelly, on the other hand, was made of rougher material. If you want a sample of outstanding acting so bizarre it's memorable, just watch the scenes Kelly shares with Gloria Grahame in Crossfire.
Montana (1950):
Morgan Lane (Errol Flynn) shows up on horseback in the Montana Territory with a lot of sheep following him. All he wants is a chance to prove that cattle and sheep can share the same land profitably. While he's trying to do this, sometimes with humor, sometimes with his fists, men will die, a great stampede will take place and a passionate cattle queen will find out that at least one sheepman smells better than sheep. At one point Flynn strums a guitar and sings...
"I met a certain someone who makes me feel that way.
And ever since I met her I'm a singin' in the saddle
`Skidoodle diddle daddle'
all the day."
He smiles while singing this, but he must have needed a drink afterwards.
Rating: -
I would have given this set a nice big 5 stars except for one thing. Confederate Honey is editted. I asked if Warner Home Video would be sending out replacement discs about this and was told "No". I think if enough of the customers who bought it made a formal complaint about it they would reconsider, right? Couldn't hurt to try.
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