AGAINST ALL FLAGS: Blu-ray (Universal-International, 1952) Kino Lorber

Errol Flynn’s post-Warner Bros. career proved an uneven spate of projects that attempted to return the star to his swashbuckling roots. In his later years, Flynn despised his reputation as a pretty boy in cod piece, presumed the knave by haughty and exclusive women (usually played by Olivia DeHavilland), toting a sword, but undeniably, to wear his male pride and heart on his sleeve. Suffering from the ill effects of malaria, contracted in his native Tasmania decades earlier, and, a mild heart attack, that delayed shooting of 1942’s Gentleman Jim, but also denied Flynn the right to partake in the war effort, Flynn’s greatest folly – at least where his reputation was concerned – came later this same year when he went on trial for the rape of two 17-yr.-old girls. And while, at the age of 33, Flynn’s seduction could hardly be considered ‘worthy’ of his screen persona as a great romantic figure, at trial each of his accusers were outed for their various affairs with married men and abortions – so, hardly, the shrinking violets of the Sweet Polly Purebred ilk, molested by the big bad movie star. Flynn would remain a popular commodity with movie audiences throughout the rest of the 1940’s. However, by the time he set foot in front of the cameras for 1952’s Against All Flags, his best days were decidedly behind him. Indeed, the sins of his youth had caught up to his middle-age body, softening his once chiseled masculinity. Suffering from liver disease and hepatitis, Flynn nevertheless maintained an air of casual larceny that had made his early heroes so gosh darn appealing. And thus, his Lieutenant Brian Hawke, while hardly to cut a dashing figure of yore, nevertheless, retained a devilishly playful façade, capably to handle even the caustic defiance of co-star, Maureen O’Hara’s Prudence ‘Spitfire’ Stevens.

Although Flynn usually insisted on doing his own stunts, he was to suffer a broken ankle on the set of this movie. To shore up expenditures on the free-standing sets already built for Against All Flags, but now sitting idle, Uni hastily put into production Yankee Buccaneer, a B-grade quota quickie, starring their latest hunk du jour, Jeff Chandler. Upon his return, Flynn balked to perform a stunt, sliding through the sail on a rapier blade, an homage to Douglas Fairbanks’ The Black Pirate (1926), necessitating the use of a double. Flynn’s professionalism had its limits; co-star, Maureen O’Hara, later recalling how the actor’s addiction to strong drink caused him to improvise on the alcohol-free set to get his fix; injecting oranges with vodka, and sneaking in cocktails throughout the day, necessitating his premature departure from work every afternoon around four o’clock. Many of the romantic exchanges between O’Hara’s Spitfire and Flynn’s Hawke were shot solo, O’Hara reacting to a black flag to represent her costar. Near the end of the shoot, director, George Sherman was called away to begin work on The Lone Hand, necessitating the participation of Douglas Sirk to complete several days footage on the climactic sword fight. Against All Flags is a rather sumptuously mounted, but otherwise vacuous swashbuckler – artlessly photographed in garish Technicolor by the usually more competent, Russell Metty.  Alexander Golitzen and Bernard Herzbrun’s production design relies heavily on process shots, with ineffectual mattes that add an air of cartoony camp to the already stiflingly unoriginal artifice, as rather clumsily scripted by Æneas MacKenzie and Joseph Hoffman. George Stevenson’s costuming pours henna-haired O’Hara into a series of shoulder-exposing flouncy fluff, too obvious and unoriginal for the period, while co-star, Anthony Quinn is frequently attired in farcically oversized and colorful ensembles that belie his robust physicality. Only Flynn manages to escape such absurd costuming – chiefly left to his crisp linen pirate’s shirt, unbuttoned down to the navel.

Against All Flags was originally planned as an indie production, written by MacKenzie and director, Richard Wallace as a vehicle for Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., who had just made Sinbad the Sailor for Wallace. For reasons never entirely disclosed, the project failed to materialize and MacKenzie, still eager to see it reach the screen, then sold the property outright to Universal who immediately saw it as a perfect pic, either to reunite Flynn with co-star, Alexis Smith or further advance the career of up-and-comer, Yvonne De Carlo. Flynn’s arrangement with Universal afforded him his usual salary plus a percentage of the profits. But filming was repeatedly delayed while Flynn completed Mara Maru (1952) for his alma mater. During this hiatus, producer, William Goetz assigned screenwriter, Joseph Hoffman to spruce up the dialogue, and costars, Tony Quinn and Maureen O’Hara, as well as director, George Sherman were signed on to partake. O’Hara approached her role with trepidation at the outset as Flynn, whose reputation was, even then, quite notorious, had made sexual advances to her a year earlier. However, as O’Hara later wrote in her memoirs, “He had won me over. I respected him professionally and was quite fond of him personally. Father Time was slowly calming his wicked, wicked ways, and deep within that devilish rogue, I found a kind and fragile soul.”

If O’Hara resisted Flynn’s charm while working on this picture, depending on the source consulted, she had absolutely no compunction about wearing her collar and cuffs on flagrante delictos with co-star, Tony Quinn. A word here: while Quinn waxes rather rhapsodically about his romantic involvement with the luscious O’Hara, suggesting theirs was a passionate indulgence, virtually to be repeated on the various movies they worked on together – despite each being wed to other people at the time – O’Hara makes virtually no mention of whatever may or may not have transpired after hours in her memoirs. She also never spoke of the affair with Quinn – leaving everything open for discussion. Production hit its first snag when Flynn initially balked at shooting a scene where he fences against O’Hara’s Spitfire. Sherman assured his star, not only was O’Hara up to the task, but Flynn, who had since allowed his fitness to lapse, had better get into shape – fast – to keep up with his costar. O’Hara’s prowess with a sword earned Flynn’s respect and the two got on famously together thereafter. While much of the action was confined to backlot sets and sound stages at Universal, several days at Palos Verdes, California added a thin air of authenticity to the production. This was to be Flynn's final swashbuckler made in Hollywood – a somewhat depressingly second-rate nod and farewell to the genre he had single-handedly shaped into a fine art throughout the 1940’s.

Against All Flags begins with the flogging of Lieutenant Brian Hawke (Errol Flynn), an officer aboard the British merchant ship, Monsoon. It’s all a ruse, Hawke volunteering for a dangerous mission to infiltrate a motley crew of pirates stationed at Diego Suarez on the coast of Madagascar. Posing as a deserter, Hawke initially arouses suspicion, especially from Captain Roc Brasiliano (Anthony Quinn), who convenes a tribunal of the Coast Captains in which Hawke’s reputation is spared by Spitfire Stevens (Maureen O’Hara) – the only female pirate among the lot. She inherited her position from her father. Proving his mettle in a duel with a condemned pirate using boarding pikes, Hawkes garners Spitfire’s admiration, but incurs Brasiliano’s contempt. Indeed, Brasiliano is still not buying Hawke’s act. Assigned to Brasiliano’s cruiser, the ship comes across a Moghul vessel loaded with riches. Looting the ship against Hawke’s protestations, as it will be judged as a blatant act of aggression and bring down the wrath of the British, Brasiliano ignores the warning and takes the ship’s harem of women aboard to sell into slavery, including Princess Patma (Alice Kelley) the teenage daughter of the Moghul Emperor, who has been disguised by her chaperone, Molvina McGregor (Mildred Natwick) to resemble just another harem girl.  Smitten with Hawke after he rescues her from the burning ship, Patma confides in him, he is only the third man she has ever seen. Upon their return to port, Spitfire is jealous of Patma. Hence, when Patma is put up for auction, Spitfire outbids Hawke to keep her closer still and away from Hawke’s presumed ‘interests’, unknowing Hawke’s only concern is to keep Patma safe from the other pirates.

Now, Spitfire informs Hawke she plans to depart for Britain via Brazil, where she can catch a legal ship. Spitfire hopes Hawke will accompany her on this journey. Brasiliano, who desires Spitfire for his own, stirs with renewed hatred for Hawke. Meanwhile, Hawke, who has been gathering intel on the pirates to help the British invade their harbor, is unearthed in his purpose by Brasiliano, who orders Hawke be tied to a stake on the beach and left to drown or be eaten by the king-sized crabs. Spitfire feigns stabbing Hawke in Brasiliano’s presence, but actually uses her knife to free him from the stake. Predictably, fate intervenes by way of British warships entering the harbor. The pirates prepare to sink the vessel, only to discover their own cannons have already been sabotaged. To escape this deluge, Brasiliano, learning of Patma’s real identity, lashes her to the bow of his ship, knowing the British will not fire upon it. Mercifully, Hawke arrives to free the girl. With Spitfire’s assistance, Hawke and Brasiliano clash swords, ending with Brasiliano’s death. For his conspicuous bravery, Hawke is granted a boon by the British, using it to obtain full immunity for Spitfire, whom he likely plans to marry.  

Viewed today, Against All Flags is a by-the-book’ adventure yarn with little, if any, originality to recommend it. Even at a little under 90-minutes, the picture tends to run long. Errol Flynn and Maureen O’Hara have some marvelously antagonistic on-screen chemistry. Indeed, the best moments in the picture are the simple sparring between master and potential mate, her Spitfire pulling a gun on Flynn’s randy Hawke when he first attempts a kiss while ‘educating’ the otherwise savvy Spitfire in the manners and customs of ‘merry ole England’. Alice Kelley is wasted as the sexually forthright girl who desires Hawke for her own; purring on cue, but rather nonsensically to revert to the cliché of the damsel in distress. O’Hara is a valiant successor to Olivia DeHavilland (still, Flynn’s greatest costar) and sincerely holds her own in his presence. It is the stars that count here – with Tony Quinn a distant third, as the stock baddie of the piece. Regrettably, the movie is gravely hampered by its cheap-jack sets and woefully artificial matte work. The whole point to matte paintings is to extend our disbelief in this make-believe world of sex and swordplay. But David S. Horsley’s SFX are so one-dimensional, hollow and lacking in any sort of reality – even one, fancifully attained, the effect is instead that of a ‘cut and paste’ backdrop that, at every moment, takes the viewer out of the story by drawing undue attention to itself as simply a piece of not terribly convincing movie-land trickery, further exposed by the use of Technicolor, and never entirely to blend into the real life, full-sized sets. Against All Flags made money. But it hardly rates as a Flynn classic. Instead, it signals – rather, painfully – how far Flynn had fallen - no longer, the dashing rogue.

Against All Flags arrives on Blu-ray via Kino Lorber’s alliance with Universal Home Video. Yep, this one’s another half-hearted flub from Uni, who insist on overlooking their back catalog, merely to dump tired old transfers to third-party distributors. Likely, nothing has been done to upgrade the video remaster made for Against All Flags some time ago. Certainly, nothing to ready it for Blu-ray. So, what’s here is sincerely flawed. Age-related artifacts are intermittent – and, if not entirely distracting, then present and accounted for nonetheless. The real issues relate to Technicolor mis-registration – a lot of it, creating disturbing halos around background detail. Okay, it’s not as egregious as what’s come out of Uni in the recent past. But the blue record misalignment results in green and yellow outlines, disappearing/reappearing from shot to shot. Grain levels are also wonky. Dissolves and fades adopt a heavy and thick patina while the bulk of the movie homogenizes the grain field with some untoward digital massaging that also smooths out and occasionally eradicates all fine details, leaning toward a waxy image. To counterbalance this, Uni has also added some artificial sharpening that creates a lot of digital noise in background information. Finally, color balancing is uneven at best. Flesh toggles between relatively accurate hues, to overly saturated browns and pinks. Garbage in/garbage out. The 1.0 DTS mono is adequately represented. Extras are limited to a new audio commentary with Stephen Vagg, who offers some anecdotal back story that is worth a listen. We also get trailers for this and other like-themed fare from Kino. Bottom line: I do not support second-rate preservation of movies in hi-def. Either restore and remaster, or forgo a disc release entirely. Uni has done nothing to massage the ravages of time to an acceptable level. Badly done! Pass, and be glad that you did!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

2.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

2.5

EXTRAS

1