IN LIKE FLYNN

Australia, 2018, 97 minutes, Colour.
Thomas Cocquerel, Cory Large, William Moseley, Clive Standen, Callan Mulvey, David Wenham, David Hennessey, Isabel Lucas, Grace Huang, Costas Mandylor, Lochlyin Munro, Dan Fogler.
Directed by Russell Mulcahy.

Is Errol Flynn household name? The phrase which is the title of the film has entered into the English language, a linguistic memorial, so to speak, to Errol Flynn. So, it depends on knowledge of and/or interest in Flynn as to how engaging this film is.

For those in the know, Errol Flynn was from Tasmania and in his 20s lived an adventurous life. And this is the subject of this film, Errol Flynn before Hollywood and international success.

The screenplay gets down to things instantly. Here is Flynn leading a small expedition, travelling into almost-forbidden territory along Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River, locals working with him as carriers and guides, but a Hollywood producer with his cameraman trying to get exotic footage. They get more than they bargained for, painted headhunters attack them; they go beyond forbidden boundaries, decapitated heads, parts of bodies hanging from the trees, more than a touch of blood and gore, arrows, wounds, falling over cliffs, finally escaping the deadly dangers.

This gives something of the flavour of Flynn’s story, the cheeky Australian, mentioning that he is son of a professor, wandering the world, drinking, the touch of womanising, plenty of brawls and fights (some of which would describe his subsequent life, especially leading up to his untimely death in 1959). Thomas Cocquerel makes for a handsome and active, a potential swashbuckler.

The main part of this film is action and adventure, Flynn and his friend Rex (Corey Large), a bare knuckle fighter, going to an opium den, being drugged, but Flynn stealing the sailing boat from these Chinese pirates in Sydney. Flynn and Rex are bound fool New Guinea again, seeking gold. They are joined by a friend who has the touch of the top, Duke, and Charlie, who originally owned the boat which was captured by the Chinese pirates.

They sail up the coast of New South Wales and Queensland, bond between themselves, find themselves in Townsville which is being run by an absolute rogue who has all kinds of business interests, setting up illegal knuckle fights, serving as religious Minister on Sundays (with David Wenham playing him all stops out).

So, more fistfights, Flynn meeting an old girlfriend, Rose (Isabel Lucas) who ultimately out-Flynn’s Flynn. They escape, make their way to New Guinea but don’t quite arrive there. Flynn’s alternative? To remember the offer from the Hollywood producer, try his luck, go to Los Angeles where we see him filming Captain Blood with Olivia Haviland (though he had appeared in five films and two shorts before this). Up on the screen comes a close-up of Blood and Olivia and the caption The End. The end of this film – but, the beginning for Errol Flynn who achieved instant success and popularity, top Hollywood presence during the 1930s and 1940s, declining in the 1950s to his death.

A pity that this film doesn’t show Errol Flynn’s performance for Charles Chauvel in the semi-documentary In The Wake of the Bounty where he plays, rather woodenly and giving no indication of future screen career and presence, Fletcher Christian. The screenplay is based on Flynn’s book Beam Ends – where, perhaps, he did not mention Chauvel’s film and his performance, preferring the Hollywood image.

1. The title? The use of the saying? Based on Errol Flynn?

2. Audience knowledge of Errol Flynn, his background, Australia, Hollywood, his career?

3. Papua New Guinea, the 1930s, the Subic River? The mountains? Sydney, the bare knuckle fights, the opium dens? The boat? The sequences at sea? Townsville, the walls, the fights? The ocean and the reef? The musical score?

4. The introduction, the Hollywood producer and cameraman, in the Sepik area, wanting film at any cost, the encounter with the headhunters, the dead bodies, continued filming, the wounds, the cliff, the attendant and his being saved by Flynn, Flynn being saved by him? The dangers, the action adventure? The escape? The offer for him to come to Hollywood?

5. Flynn and his background, no explanations, the mention that his father was a professor? The desire to find gold in Papua New Guinea? His friendship with Rex, Rex and his fighting skills, joining Flynn? The opium den, the woman and the drugs, the boat, Flynn deceiving her? Taking the boat? The arrival of Duke, his background and name, Rex’s attitude towards him? The boat, the encounter with Charlie, the background of his story, the boat, the Chinese woman, the flashbacks to his wife and daughter, their picture? The preparations to sail? Their goal?

6. The characters of these adventurers, their interactions, the coin with the hole and Duke shooting it? The rivalries?

7. The episodes in Townsville, Travers, all his deals, allegedly a minister, his son with him? The corruption? The organisation of the fights, the brutality? Flynn and his fighting? His encounter with Rose, the memories of the past, the money, her betraying him?

8. The Chinese woman, arrival, wanting the boat back, the fights? Rose and the robbery?

9. The continued journey, stuck on the reef, the boat on fire, Charlie and his remaining in the boat, his death? Duke trying to rescue him, drowning?

10. Errol Flynn as an adventurer, his Australian style, In Like Flynn? Going to Hollywood, the filming of Captain Blood, The End?