Want to know the best Errol Flynn movies? How about the worst Errol Flynn movies? Curious about Errol Flynn’s box office grosses or which Errol Flynn movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Errol Flynn movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences? Well you have come to the right place.
Even though I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable movie buff, I knew very little about Errol Flynn before researching and writing this page. I basically knew two facts about Errol Flynn. One, he is the most famous Robin Hood of all-time and two, he made some pirate movies.
After a month of reading numerous books, checking out websites and watching a few documentaries on him, I am now much more familiar with the life and career of Errol Flynn. I would highly recommend checking out the Errol Flynn Blog for even more information on the life and times of Errol Flynn….just follow this link….The Errol Flynn Blog.
Errol Flynn (1909-1959) was born in Tasmania. As a child he used to play with a wooden sword that his parents told him had belonged to Fletcher Christian. Many times he would play on his grandfather’s boat…acting out Douglas Fairbanks pirate movies. This training would come in handy when he turned his attention to acting. He would appear in his first film when he was 24. By the time he was 26 he had already secured his first starring role in a big budget movie, Captain Blood. Captain Blood was a huge success and turned Flynn into a star. At 28 he turned into a superstar with his performance as Robin Hood in 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood.
From 1935 to 1950 Flynn was one of the most successful actors in Hollywood. However his “playboy lifestyle” began to catch up with him. Starting around 1950 his movie career started to stall as his off screen lifestyle started to impact his health. He would regularly smoke at least a pack of cigarettes a day and drank heavily. Problems with his liver and heart eventually led to a fatal heart attack in 1959. Errol Flynn has 64 acting credits from 1933-1959. In the table below Ultimate Movie Rankings ranks 50 of his movies in 7 different sortable columns. Television roles, cameos, and shorts were not included in the rankings.
Errol Flynn Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.
Errol Flynn Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Errol Flynn movies by co-stars of her movies
- Sort Errol Flynn movies by adjusted box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort Errol Flynn movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)… **** If the domestic totals are the same as the worldwide totals…then worldwide totals are unknown
- Sort Errol Flynn movies by how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Errol Flynn movie received.
- Sort Errol Flynn movies by Ultimate Movie Ranking (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
- Blue link in Co-star column takes you to that star’s UMR movie page
10 Possibly Interesting Facts About Errol Flynn
1. Errol Flynn was the first actor to play Fletcher Christian in a film that had sound. He played Christian in 1933’s The Wake of the Bounty…..later Clark Gable, Marlon Brando and Mel Gibson would play the same part.
2. Errol Flynn and the Perry Mason connection. One of his first Hollywood movies was The Case of the Curious Bride…which was one of the first ever Perry Mason movies. Flynn got to play the corpse. Later Flynn would co-star with Raymond Burr in Mara Maru….Burr would later go on to fame playing Perry Mason on the television series.
3. Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland were one of the screen’s most popular couples. They would appear in 9 movies together from 1935 to 1943. Olivia de Havilland is still very much alive as she approaches the century mark.
4. Errol Flynn was married 3 times in his life. His first marriage to Lila Damita produced a son named Sean. His second marriage to Nora Eddington produced two daughters named Deirdre and Rory. His final marriage to Patrice Wymore produced one daughter named Arnella.
5. His son Sean, followed in his dad’s footsteps and has 10 IMDB credits to his name. His most famous movie role was in The Son Of Captain Blood (1962). The Son of Captain Blood was a sequel to the movie that made Errol Flynn famous, Captain Blood(1935). Later Sean Flynn turned towards a career as a freelance photojournalist. Sadly, Sean Flynn went missing while on assignment in Cambodia in 1970.
6. The saying …”In Like Flynn” became popular when Flynn was tried for statutory rape in 1942 but was acquitted….during the very high profile case, comedians of the day started to use the saying and it caught on.
7. His drinking was legendary.…he would inject oranges with vodka and eat them during his breaks so no one would know he was drinking on the set….during a play in the late 1950s his assistant would stage alcohol throughout the set, so Flynn could drink while performing.
8. Errol Flynn and Alan Hale Sr. (one of my favorite character actors) appeared in 11 movies together. Alan Hale Sr. was the father of Alan Hale Jr….better known as The Skipper on Gilligan’s Island.
9. The movie My Favorite Year is based on Mel Brooks’ encounter with Flynn on a television show in the 1950s….in that movie Peter O’Toole played the Flynn character. Also Jude Law portrayed Errol Flynn in The Aviator.
10. Check out Errol Flynn’s career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
Steve’s Epic Errol Flynn You Tube Video
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
HI FLORA
1 As I’ve said before we share so many idols such as Glenn, Greg, and Richard Widmark and I also like the Fonda family so I look at the positive side of our likes and dislikes.
2 I too like Myrna Loy and admire her efforts to promote civil liberties in her day and her activities on behalf of the war effort. Although I joke a lot with Bruce about her to try to wind him up I seriously object to only what I regard as the hyperbolic statement of Bruce’s that she is the greatest box office actress of all time. I think that the following must be considered as being at least in contention for that title – Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, Betty Grable and Julia Roberts with my own Joan Crawford also in the mix but as you say we all have our preferences.
3 I am glad that you don’t think that I’m wasting time in arguing my corner with Bruce and I respect your own preferences in the matter. As always it has been a pleasure exchanging ideas with you and I hope you are keeping well.
Thanks, Bob. I am doing well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOFXahqVhT8
Bob, did you just post this? If so the UMR is back to normal, I hope.
Thanks for the review, rating, info and trivia, always appreciated.
Glad you enjoyed the pictorial presentation.
I clean up the posters I don’t tamper with the writing on them. Some posters have different billing orders, especially foreign posters where the films get released years later in some cases. As for Patrice Wymore, she was born Patricia Wymore and changed her name later so it wasn’t really a poster flub.
Two Errol Flynn films scored 10 out of 10 – The Sea Hawk and Robin Hood. There are 8 films scoring 9 out of 10 including Captain Blood, Gentleman Jim, Dawn Patrol and Charge of the Light Brigade.
Robin Hood tops all the charts with The Sea Hawk in 2nd place, except on Bruce’s critics chart where Captain Blood is 2nd and Sea Hawk 3rd.
Flynn’s leading ladies –
Alexis Smith 4
Ann Sheridan 3
Anna Neagle 2
Ava Gardner 1
Bette Davis 2
Brenda Marshall 2
Dorothy Malone 1
Eleanor Parker 2
Gina Lollobrigida 1
Greer Garson 1
Ida Lupino 1
Joan Blondell 1
Kay Francis 1
Maureen O’Hara 1
Miriam Hopkins 1
Olivia de Havilland 8
Patrice Wymore 2
Rosalind Russell 1
Ruth Roman 1
Viveca Lindfors 1
HI STEVE
1 Thanks for the feedback, explanations and additional information.
2 What you say about the posters etc makes sense though I’m sure that regarding your Patricia/Patrice point whilst he was born Archibald Alexander Leach ole Cary Grant wouldn’t have been too pleased if he had been billed that way on posters! Thespians tend to take seriously everything about themselves.
3 For example according to Grant wife Dyan Cannon they were in a hotel suite watching the Oscars when Cary [long largely neglected by the Academy]started to jump up and down on the bed screaming at the TV and shouting “Those guys they’re awarding have all got wigs and I’ve got my own hair!”
4 Quite a “harem” of leading ladies ole Flynn worked with. I remember when Livvy DeHavilland was interviewed and the interviewer suggested that Flynn probably had a tendency to flirt with his leading ladies Livvy snapped back “Well he knew better than to try anything on with me!”
5 I recall too Ray Milland being interviewed on the BBC by English presenter Simon Dee and the latter asked Ray if he knew how many leading ladies he had had and Milland smilingly replied “Please don’t express it THAT way!
6 Anyway look forward to your next swashbuckler – I think you said you’d 3 for us altogether.
Good post Bob, thanks. I like the quotes.
I think I’ll add Alexis Smith to my video list, maybe Ida Lupino too. There are currently 60 names on my ‘to be considered’ video list, all born before 1950.
Good idea Alexis and Ida.
That’s a great idea, Steve.
STEVE
1 And cue for women to go out and buy bathing suits. Anyway thanks for clarifiying the iDs of the women.
2 I agree it’s difficult to keep track of all posts because of the delays. You have now responded to all of my recent ones except (1) Flynn Part 2 just sent this morning so it’s a bit early for that to turn up (2) a post I sent to you on Sunday 10.45am on Site Index page asking you to say how the AFI legends lists affected you personally
3 By the way I noticed that Flora seems to enjoy some of the banter and discussions between you and me but made no mention of the exchanges between he Work Horse and me. Maybe she thinks Bruce and I argue too much about Myrna, Bruce’s Cameo Craze etc – or as you would express it that we’re wasting too much of everybody’s time.
Bob, I thought things were back to normal at the UMR but my reply to p.2 of your Flynn review is facing delays at the airport, sorry.
Strangely enough my Dan Duryea comment went straight to the page. Maybe the mere mention of the name ‘Bob’ causes problems with Spam Control? Maybe if I called you ‘Senor Roberto’ my post might get past the gates? 😉
I read your exchanges with Bruce too, Bob. I don’t think you are wasting people’s time. For what it’s worth, I am a Loy fan. And I am not a Brando fan. Please don’t hold that against me. We all have our own preferences. 🙂
1 FLYNN 1-25 – BEST POSTERS – Santa Fe Trail, Cry Wolf, Rocky Mountain, Desperate Journey {Errol sharing star billing with the future Mr President] , Kim with Flynn as usual in the company of “sultry beauties” Charge of the Light Brigade,the foreign language ones for Objective Burma and Liz and Essex, the whole sequence of posters for The Adventures of Robin Hood and par excellence –indeed glorious in my eyes – a highly original one for The Sun also Rises, one of my favourite Ty Power films and a stunner for Captain Blood
2 I also greatly admired the poster for They Died with Their Boots On though I see you’ve given Quinn top billing even though he was a minor actor at that time with just a supporting role. That’s the sort of stunt Bruce pulls in his co-star links columms and with his distribution of grosses! Conversely in Lilacs in the Spring and King’s Rhapsody your posters give Flynn 1st billing whereas Anna Neagle was first named in those two flicks at least in the UK when they were initially released. Is “British” not good enough for you? Paul Dacre the obsessively patriotic editor of the British Daily Mail will be after your scalp! [King’s Rhapsody was Sean Connery’s uncredited debut role]
3 A marvellous run of STILLS my personal faves being (1) Footsteps in the Dark lobby card (2) Flynn with O’Hara in another of her swashbuclking “tomboy” roles. I remember in that one Maureen O keeps competing with some lesser “wench” in begging Errol for “more” [ie lovemaking!] (3) Virginia City (4) ensemble in Sun Also Rises [3 great legends together] (5) as Custer (6) Dawn Patrol and (7) 3 luscious coloured ones from Liz and Essex, Sea Hawk and Captain Blood – really beautiful.
4 You and Bruce agree on 4 of the top 6 Best reviewed Flynn movies and as I think your often stunning pictorials well- capture how prolific a stand-alone attraction Errol was in his hey day I feel overall the video is worth a 98% rating Great stuff.
Note I see that in your poster for King’Rhapsody bills Patrice Wynore [married to Flynn at the time] as Patricia. A small point but I mention it because our minds often trick us into thinking we are looking at the normal version of this or that when wer are not. It used to irritate me that before he hit the Big Time with 10CMTS and Ben Hur marquees over here kept referring to Chuck as “Charles” Heston