I've seen "The Strawberry Blonde" (I believe that was actually one of Cagney's singing roles, come to think of it) and liked it. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it even has a bouncing-ball singalong (period 'karaoke') screen at the end for the audience to join in the title song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaIBGEVUFHQ
I don't remember it as being particularly great, but it's good enjoyable entertainment.
David Niven was a contemporary, friend and sometime housemate of Errol Flynn: you can see them acting together in "The Dawn Patrol" (an excellent WW1 film) and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (a bit generic but still enjoyable). Unlike Flynn he had a long and successful career over forty years or more; he doesn't have Flynn's high-wattage charisma or looks, but he has the unmistakable debonair charm of a 1930s Englishman in Hollywood. He starred as a straight actor in "Raffles" and "A Matter of Life and Death" and was hilarious (really, really, hilarious) in "Bachelor Mother" and "The Moon is Blue". He plays Fritz von Tarlenheim in the Roanld Colman/Douglas Fairbanks Jr "Prisoner of Zenda" and an uninspiring Edgar Linton in the Laurence Olivier "Wuthering Heights", and supports Doris Day in "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" (amusing) and won an Oscar alongside Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in "Separate Tables" (devastating). He is memorable as the playboy father in the award-winning "Bonjour Tristesse"; not so memorable as Percy Blakeney in "The Elusive Pimpernel" (a Powell & Pressburger film that should have been great but somehow wasn't).
He wrote two highly entertaining although not necessarily accurate memoirs ("The Moon's a Balloon" and "Bring on the Empty Horses") which are well worth a read, and he is generally worth looking out for when you spot him in the credits of a film in a supporting part; he was never really a first-rank Hollywood star (a few leading roles aside), but he was a pretty good actor and a charming comedian.
I did see The Charge of the Light Brigade (and cried afterward), so that must be where I remember him from.
This is sort of changing the subject, and I'm almost afraid to ask, but as long as we're talking about Errol Flynn and contemporaries thereof, do you have any thoughts on Tyrone Power?
I don't have any particular impression of Tyrone Power, I'm afraid! Looking up his filmography I see that I've watched him in "Zorro" and in "The Black Swan", both of which I enjoyed, but he didn't particularly register with me as an actor.
What I mainly know about him is that he died inconveniently in the middle of shooting "Solomon and Sheba", and that he is allegedly still visible in the long shots in place of the actor who subsequently substituted for him :-P But I haven't seen the film.
Looking up his filmography I see that I've watched him in "Zorro" and in "The Black Swan", both of which I enjoyed, but he didn't particularly register with me as an actor.
That's more or less what I thought, until I saw The Razor's Edge and almost couldn't believe I was watching the same actor. His performance was heartbreaking.
Well, I'm entirely prepared to believe that he may have hidden depths as an actor, like Flynn; I'll keep an eye out for him.
(In fact, I suspect it may actually be harder to play a convincing swashbuckler than to play a 'straight' part, just as it's easier for a talented comic actor to play tragedy than vice versa. It takes a good deal of credibility to take a larger-than-life character and make the audience believe in him whole-heartedly, rather than just looking clumsy and embarrassed.)
Well, I'm entirely prepared to believe that he may have hidden depths as an actor, like Flynn; I'll keep an eye out for him.
May it be worth your while.
(He has the dubious honor of being my first-ever celebrity crush, so I might be a tiny bit biased, but you'll have to judge for yourself.)
(In fact, I suspect it may actually be harder to play a convincing swashbuckler than to play a 'straight' part, just as it's easier for a talented comic actor to play tragedy than vice versa. It takes a good deal of credibility to take a larger-than-life character and make the audience believe in him whole-heartedly, rather than just looking clumsy and embarrassed.)
Interesting speculation. I imagine that any actor in such a role would have to trust himself completely; if he doesn't believe in what he's doing, neither will the audience. And looking damn sexy while he does it doesn't hurt, either. *cough*
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I don't remember it as being particularly great, but it's good enjoyable entertainment.
David Niven was a contemporary, friend and sometime housemate of Errol Flynn: you can see them acting together in "The Dawn Patrol" (an excellent WW1 film) and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (a bit generic but still enjoyable). Unlike Flynn he had a long and successful career over forty years or more; he doesn't have Flynn's high-wattage charisma or looks, but he has the unmistakable debonair charm of a 1930s Englishman in Hollywood. He starred as a straight actor in "Raffles" and "A Matter of Life and Death" and was hilarious (really, really, hilarious) in "Bachelor Mother" and "The Moon is Blue". He plays Fritz von Tarlenheim in the Roanld Colman/Douglas Fairbanks Jr "Prisoner of Zenda" and an uninspiring Edgar Linton in the Laurence Olivier "Wuthering Heights", and supports Doris Day in "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" (amusing) and won an Oscar alongside Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in "Separate Tables" (devastating). He is memorable as the playboy father in the award-winning "Bonjour Tristesse"; not so memorable as Percy Blakeney in "The Elusive Pimpernel" (a Powell & Pressburger film that should have been great but somehow wasn't).
He wrote two highly entertaining although not necessarily accurate memoirs ("The Moon's a Balloon" and "Bring on the Empty Horses") which are well worth a read, and he is generally worth looking out for when you spot him in the credits of a film in a supporting part; he was never really a first-rank Hollywood star (a few leading roles aside), but he was a pretty good actor and a charming comedian.
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This is sort of changing the subject, and I'm almost afraid to ask, but as long as we're talking about Errol Flynn and contemporaries thereof, do you have any thoughts on Tyrone Power?
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What I mainly know about him is that he died inconveniently in the middle of shooting "Solomon and Sheba", and that he is allegedly still visible in the long shots in place of the actor who subsequently substituted for him :-P
But I haven't seen the film.
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That's more or less what I thought, until I saw The Razor's Edge and almost couldn't believe I was watching the same actor. His performance was heartbreaking.
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(In fact, I suspect it may actually be harder to play a convincing swashbuckler than to play a 'straight' part, just as it's easier for a talented comic actor to play tragedy than vice versa. It takes a good deal of credibility to take a larger-than-life character and make the audience believe in him whole-heartedly, rather than just looking clumsy and embarrassed.)
From:
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May it be worth your while.
(He has the dubious honor of being my first-ever celebrity crush, so I might be a tiny bit biased, but you'll have to judge for yourself.)
(In fact, I suspect it may actually be harder to play a convincing swashbuckler than to play a 'straight' part, just as it's easier for a talented comic actor to play tragedy than vice versa. It takes a good deal of credibility to take a larger-than-life character and make the audience believe in him whole-heartedly, rather than just looking clumsy and embarrassed.)
Interesting speculation. I imagine that any actor in such a role would have to trust himself completely; if he doesn't believe in what he's doing, neither will the audience.
And looking damn sexy while he does it doesn't hurt, either. *cough*