IN LIKE FLYNN
US, 1095, 100 minutes, Colour.
Jenny Seagrove, William Gray Espy, Eddie Albert, William Conrad, Robert Webby, Maury Chaykin.
Directed by Richard Lang.
In Like Flynn was the pilot film for a prospective television series. It was obviously influenced by the great success of the Michael Douglas- Kathleen Turner- Danny de Vito series of Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile.
British actress Jenny Seagrove is a writer of James Bond style adventures - though she pretends that there is a male author and she is merely a researcher who travels around the world to get information and live the adventures. The supporting cast includes Eddie Albert, Robert Webber and William Conrad as untrustworthy Vietnam veterans.
There is a blend of tongue-in-cheek comedy as well as action adventure about Vietnam veterans missing in action and involved in corrupt organisations. The settings are the Caribbean, especially Jamaica. It is in the vein of the adventure action films of the '80s.
1. Enjoyable action adventure? Background of novel-writing? Tongue-in-cheek approach?
2. For the television audience, to prepare for a series? Characters, situations, exotic settings, action, special effects and stunt work? Musical score?
3. The title - and the memories of Errol Flynn and his real-life and screen adventures? In the James Bond, Romancing the Stone tradition? The battle of the sexes - and the woman author living the Flynn adventures while ascribing them to the male?
4. Terri Mc Lean as author, as researcher? Dominating character, with Fulton and the publishers, speaking on behalf of the anonymous author? Her hard deals? Interest in the Jamaica story, going to Jamaica, the information about the dead Vietnam veteran, the diamonds? Tracking down Woodstock, making him into the Flynn character? Talking, adventures with him? Colonel Harper and the pursuit, going to the nightclub? Her talking with White and believing him? The boat, the casino, the film about Vietnam, the truth about Dominic, Woodstock trying to find his brother, White and the invasion, the build-up to the attack, getting the helicopter - and going to safety? The importance of the voice-over as Terri worked on her novel, her descriptions of Flynn, of herself? Her down-to-earth approach, using devices from the novels - rescuing Woodstock from drowning in the pool? The blend of the serious and the comic? Her return to New York and Fulton's proposal for a daring night out to a meal and the movies?
5. Fulton, the publisher, caution, subservient to the author, pleading with Terri, the discussion on the return home?
6. Woodstock, background of Vietnam, in Jamaica, his article, discussions with Mrs Holden? The encounter with Terri, his being kidnapped, the attempted murder, her rescuing him? His reaction to the woman rescuing him? Further adventures, information, going to the club? To the casino, his search for his brother, the reappearance of his brother, the rescue? The Flynn-like hero?
7. Dominic and his being disfigured by napalm, his control of the organisation, sitting in isolation, leprosy, the plastic surgery? Colonel Harper and the efficient second-in-charge, his contact with Mrs Holden, with Terri and Woodstock? Organisation skills? White, the taxi-driver, his discussions with Terri, his explanations of the military, his coming in with the invading force, his greed for money? The irony of their all being finally destroyed at the end?
8. The background of the initial story, the veteran swallowing the diamonds, his death? His widow? Woodstock's brother? Dominic and the pressure of rounding up past collaborators, the man running the club in Jamaica? At the casino - and the irony of the film: Return to Apocalypse?
9. Popular ingredients of '80s action adventures? The background of the war? Errol Flynn-like stories? Romancing the Stone? The intrepid heroine?
