The Sisters(1938).

The Sisters(1938). Directed by Anatole Litvak. The screenplay by Milton Krims is based on the best-selling 1937 novel of the same title by Myron Brinig. Cast: Errol Flynn, Bette Davis, Anita Louise and Ian Hunter.

The story begins during the 1904 presidential election, sisters Louise, Helen and Grace, all plan on attending A ball held on the same evening. Tom Knivel, is about to propose to Louise when Frank Medlin,from San Francisco, asks her to dance.Later Frank at Sunday dinner in the Elliott home announces he and Louise plan to marry and the couple leave for San Francisco. Grace marries the jilted Tom and Helen marries Sam Johnson.

Louise and Frank are having a hard time making a living, when she becomes pregnant and she decides to keep her condition a secret. But.. the truth comes out when Louise suffers a miscarriage and her heartbroken husband begins to drink heavily. Frank's writing suffers as a result of his drinking and he loses his job. Louise finds a job at a department store.

Frank leaves San Francisco, to work on a ship bound for Singapore. When Louise arrives home, she finds a note from Frank and rushes to the docks, where a policeman mistaking her for a prostitute arrests her. By the time she is released, Frank's ship has left.

A few hours later, Louise's apartment building, is destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. When her father has not heard from her, he travels to San Francisco to look for her and finds her staying with her friend Flora Gibbon in a bordello.

Two year shave passed and things have gotten back to normal will Frank ever find his way back home?



This is a charming movie featuring Errol Flynn and Bette Davis. Davis gives a wonderful performance as the less fortunate of three sisters who is determined to stand by her man.

Fun Fact:

Several people are in studio records/casting call lists as cast members, but they did not appear or were not identifiable in the movie. These were (with their character names, if any): Edwin Brian (Newsboy), Rosella Towne, Susan Hayward, Paulette Evans and Frances Morris (Telephone Operators), John Harron, Lew Harvey, Richard Bond and Mira McKinney. The 4 telephone operators were possibly among a group seen only from the rear and are not recognizable.




Anita Louise (January 9, 1915 – April 25, 1970), made her acting debut on Broadway at the age of six, and within a year was performing in Hollywood films. By her late teens she was being cast in leading and supporting roles in major productions.

Among her film successes were: Madame Du Barry (1934), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935), Anthony Adverse (1936), Marie Antoinette (1938), The Sisters (1938), and The Little Princess (1939).

By the 1940s, she was reduced to minor roles and acted very infrequently until television in the 1950s, which provided her with further opportunities. In middle age she played one of her most widely seen roles as the gentle mother, Nell McLaughlin, in the CBS television series My Friend Flicka from 1956–1957, with co-stars Johnny Washbrook, Gene Evans, and Frank Ferguson.

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex(1939)

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). Romantic/drama. Cast Bette Davis, and Errol Flynn. Director: by Michael Curtiz, and was based on the Maxwell Anderson play. Supporting cast: Olivia de Havilland, Donald Crisp, Henry Daniell, Henry Stephenson, and Vincent Price. The score was composed by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, who later used a theme from the film. The elaborate costumes was designed by Orry-Kelly. Among the film's five Academy Award nominations was a nomination for Best Color Cinematography. Bette Davis was thought to receive an Academy Award nomination for her role; instead, she was nominated in that year for Dark Victory.


Earl of Essex returns from his battle at Cadiz to be greeted by Lady Penelope Gray and other ladies of the court and the jealousy of Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Robert Cecil. Queen Elizabeth, in love with Essex, fears his thirst for power and puts him down him for the high cost of his victory. Proud and thinking the Queen is wrong, Essex travels back to Wonstead. Francis Bacon, wants to smooth things over, suggests that Elizabeth appoint Essex Master of the Ordnance in order to stop the uprising in Ireland. To serve his country, Essex returns to court where he falls victim to Raleigh and Cecil who conspire to turn him and the queen against each other by sending Essex to Ireland against the Queens wishes.. Later his pleas for help go unanswered and facing death, he is forced to surrender to Tyrone. Unknown to either Essex or Elizabeth, Cecil, Raleigh and Penelope have been intercepting the lovers' letters, and so Essex returns to England, believing that he has been betrayed by his queen.

This has to be one of Davis best dramatic performance ever!

Fun Fact:

The sixth of nine movies made together by Warner Brothers' romantic couple Olivia De Havilland and Errol Flynn.

Donald Crisp (27 July 1882 – 25 May 1974) was an English film actor. He was also an early motion picture producer, director and screenwriter. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1942 for his performance in How Green Was My Valley.

While touring with the company in the United States and Cuba, Crisp first became interested in a career in the theatre. By 1910, Crisp, now using the name Donald, was working as a stage manager for director George M. Cohan. It was during this time he met and befriended film director D. W. Griffith. When Griffith moved to Hollywood in 1912, Crisp accompanied him.

From 1908 to 1930, Crisp, in addition to directing dozens of films, also appeared in nearly 100 silent films, though many in bit or small parts. One notable exception was his casting by Griffith as General Ulysses S. Grant in Griffith's and The Birth of a Nation in 1915. Another was his role in Griffith's 1919 film Broken Blossoms, as "Battling Burrows".

Crisp worked as an assistant to Griffith for several years and learned much during this time from Griffith. His first directing credit was Little Country Mouse, made in 1914. Over the next fifteen years, Crisp directed some 70 films, most notably The Navigator (1924) with Buster Keaton and Don Q, Son of Zorro (1925) with Douglas Fairbanks. His final directorial effort was the 1930 film The Runaway Bride starring Mary Astor.

THE ADVENTURES OF DON JUAN (1948)

Adventures of Don Juan(1948). Adventure/romance. Director Vincent Sherman. Producer Jerry Wald. From a screenplay by George Oppenheimer and Harry Kurnitz based on a story by Herbert Dalmas. Cast: Errol Flynn and Viveca Lindfors, Robert Douglas, Alan Hale, Ann Rutherford and Robert Warwick. Also in the cast are Barbara Bates, Raymond Burr and Mary Stuart. Music score was by Max Steiner. Cinematograper Elwood Bredell. Costumes: Leah Rhodes, Marjorie Best and Travilla.

After a romantic moment with a beautiful woman, Don Juan barely escapes an angry husband, when he and his friend, Leporello, are stopped by soldiers keeping the road clear for a Spanish Duke. Trying to avoid the husband who is hot on his heels, Don Juan pretends to be the Duke, only to find out that he is expected to marry Lady Diana and so decides to play along. Don Juan and Leporello, are quickly arrested after the real Duke arrives and Don Juan is to be deported to Spain in disgrace for his royal punishment. Before Don Juan can leave England, the Spanish ambassador, asks if he would help stop the war between Spain and England. Next in my favorite scene, Once in Spain, they stop to have dinner at an inn. A group of Duke de Lorca's soldiers arrives and start to make trouble for the people in the town. After winning the sword fight with the soldiers, he is accepted by the people as a hero.

When Don Juan meets with Queen Margaret, she tells him that because he pretended to be the Duke, he disgraced the state. Also, he destroyed any possibility of a political marriage, that would have prevented the war, between England and Spain. But when Don Juan takes one look at the beautiful Queen Margaret, he promises to defend her throne and capture her heart.

FUN FACT:
At the end of the film, the young woman in the coach asking Don Juan for directions is Errol Flynn's wife, Nora Eddington.

I really enjoyed this film, the script is great with a lot of very funny lines. Flynn plays the part with a wonderful flair.