Cuban Rebel Girls

It's sad that Errol Flynn did not get as a screen farewell with one of his three previous pictures before Cuban Rebel Girls. The Sun Also Rises, Too Much Too Soon, or The Roots Of Heaven were decent films of varying quality, but all showed Flynn as the actor he longed to be acclaimed for. This film which looks like it was shot with a Kodak home movie camera was both a tax write-off for Flynn and a lame attempt at propaganda for Fidel Castro.

Ironically enough in 1957 Flynn had done another Cuban based film, The Big Boodle shot in Havana with the cooperation of the government that Flynn was now saying was corrupt. It was nothing that the Motion Picture Academy would have paid any attention to, but next to Cuban Rebel Girls, The Big Boodle looks like Citizen Kane.

Done in a semi-documentary style, Cuban Rebel Girls has Errol playing himself as a war correspondent covering the revolution against Fulgencio Batista led by Fidel Castro. A little more than 20 years earlier Flynn in his salad days did something similar covering the Spanish Civil War from the Loyalist point of view. But Warner Brothers did no documentary about his adventures there, in fact Jack Warner was mighty bent out of shape.

The story of one girl from the USA intrigues Flynn. His teenage mistress at the time, Beverly Aadland played a young woman who goes down to Cuba with a girl friend who is a Cuban national who is bringing laundered cash for the revolution. Her boyfriend John MacKay is a mercenary who is fighting for Castro and Flynn assures us there were many Americans in those ranks.

Poor Aadland, even if Errol had lived I doubt she would have had much of a career. She was one of the worst actresses I've ever seen, reading her lines with no conviction whatever. She came off as a super dumb Valley Girl. But in fairness to her, the only professional in the cast was Errol Flynn, the others were equally as bad. And Flynn hardly summoned any conviction to even playing Errol Flynn.

This is such a sad ending for a screen legend that Flynn's legion of fans should do like Sam Goldwyn said and stay away in droves.

Errol Flynn, beloved as Robin Hood, Capt. Blood, etc, ended his career with this hilariously pathetic excuse for a movie. "Cuban Rebel Girls" portrays an American girl (Beverly Aadland, who's got nothing except her looks) going to Cuba to help her boyfriend fight for Fidel Castro's army in their revolution against Fulgencio Batista. It warps the mind not that they went to Cuba and made a pro-Castro movie - although I find that neat - but that Flynn dropped down to this. I wouldn't be surprised if knowing that he was part of it is what caused Flynn's death soon after. Worth seeing as an example of film-making gone terribly wrong.

I wonder whether or not Castro remembers that he participated with Errol Flynn in making this movie. If he does, he probably tries to hide it.

The production company of the film should give you a clue about the motive of the filmmakers here. Exploit Productions? Well, at least they were honest about what they were doing. The acting is abysmal; especially Beverly Aadland, who has to play a ditzy blonde following her boyfriend into the revolution. (by the way, he gets shot in the left shoulder and has a cast on his right shoulder later in the film; I'm pretty sure that this is not the medical solution for that). Despite Aadland, a drunken and overweight Flynn, and some unintentionally funny scenes (like having a company marching and singing loudly in the jungle on the way to a skirmish; thereby letting your opposition know exactly where you are), the film is still entertaining and instructive. Woody Allen would make a satire of this film about a decade later. But these people really believed that there would be a new Cuba; it just didnt turn out to be the Cuba they wanted it to be. This is not the worst film ever made; not even close. Of course, it is far from a good film, and should be viewed more as a semi-documentary rather than anything resembling a dramatic film. As far as exploitation films are concerned, there may be debate as to whom exploited whom here. Did Flynn exploit Castro, or did Castro exploit Flynn? You decide. I found the film interesting to view from a historical perspective.

Being a completest and a major fan of Errol Flynn's I bought this movie on DVD about 5 years ago, but allowed myself to be swayed by public opinion (describing it as the worst movie ever made) and promptly sat it on the shelf unwatched.

The other night however I finally decided to dust it down and pop the disc in the player for the very first time, and my end verdict? I have seen far worse films than this.

Firstly, the film is well narrated by Flynn and the story is easy to follow. I have seen many movies where the editing and story-telling is so badly handled that you haven't got a clue what's going on. Cuban Rebel Girls is very easy to follow, so there's no problem there.

And about Flynn's narration: It is my understanding that more than anything else Flynn wanted to be taken seriously as a war correspondent. He didn't care about acting, but he did want to be a writer. Well this side of him shines through with this film. Right from the start it feels less like a movie and more like a typical documentary of the period. Some recognition of this from other reviewers would have been nice.

Another aspect of the film that gets savaged by reviewers is the picture quality. I have a brand new Panasonic 50 inch TV that shows up bad picture immediately, and the picture quality in this movie is just fine!

People also maintain that all the acting is abysmal. Well, once again I feel that this is unfair. I've seen far worse acting on a hundred occasions, and in particular the guy playing Aadland's boyfriend happens to say his lines very well!

But there is no doubt that this film is an amateurish effort. Flynn's role is almost pointless - apart from the well handled narration, and he does indeed appear to be inebriated for at least the last scene he's in. To be fair again though; Flynn was drunk through most of The Sun Also Rises, and horrible in The Roots Of Heaven. He was noticeably drunk all the way through that movie, whereas in Cuban Rebel Girls his narration is sober, and so are his first few scenes. Considering this was made in the year he died, and of how much pain I was in watching him in Roots Of Heaven, I was pleasantly surprised by his efforts in this film.

The aspect of this film that I find the hardest to handle is Flynn's seeming obsession with young girls! Of all the things to criticize I would have thought someone would mention this, since it makes him sound every bit like a one-track-minded dirty old man.

One last point to make: before having watched this film I knew nothing about the Cuban Revolution. After having watched it I had at least a small appreciation for the type of things that went on, and the effort the people went through to support it. To say this film is a waste of time and not worth watching is both ignorant and unfair...in my opinion.

CUBAN REBEL GIRLS, the wretched last film of legendary star Errol Flynn, is a tragic epitaph. It's only 'value' is the morbid opportunity to see the actor's physical deterioration in the last few months of his life, coupled with his inability to give an even cursory performance.

While the rationale behind the production was the obvious tax write-off that a failed film could provide, there are mysteries and legends surrounding it, as with many of the significant events in Flynn's life.

One legend involves the financial backing of the film. Flynn was nearly broke, despite maintaining an outwardly affluent appearance ("I believe you should always dress in your best suit, and present your best 'front', when you're borrowing money," he would tell his biographer, Earl Conrad). The actor had already taken (and spent) an advance from Putnam to write his autobiography (which would be published posthumously as 'My Wicked, Wicked Ways'), and the publishing firm, fearing the actor would not fulfill his obligation, assigned veteran journalist Conrad (with two court stenographers) to follow the actor, and interview him daily. Legend has it that Flynn also went to a variety of sources, some less 'savory' than others, to borrow 'front' money for a film he said he was making. As time passed, and the film hadn't appeared, Flynn found himself in an awkward and potentially dangerous situation with his backers...so he took what little he had left of the borrowed cash to assemble a crew, write a script, and shoot a 'quickie' in Cuba.

The other legend involved his girlfriend, sixteen-year old Beverly Aadland. Flynn had been the defendant in a number of statutory rape trials, dating back to 1943, and had been acquitted, usually because the teens in question could 'pass' as older, and, in some cases, even had faked IDs. With his well-publicized sexual appetites, Flynn was an easy 'target' for publicity-hungry young women of easy virtue. Aadland, who had already been involved with the actor for several years, seemed to vindicate his critics' charges that Flynn was not the 'innocent' that his lawyers claimed him to be, but truly had a 'thing' for young girls (making him the Roman Polanski of his time). But the voluptuous teen was, according to friends of Flynn, genuinely in love with the aging star, nursing him through his bouts of malaria, keeping him supplied with vodka, and tenaciously guarding what little privacy he could maintain. Her one dream was to become an actress, and Flynn, according to legend, wrote CUBAN REBEL GIRLS to give her the opportunity no studio ever would, with her notoriety.

Sadly, whether CUBAN REBEL GIRLS was created as a tax write-off, a product of a last-minute attempt to appease backers, or as a 'Valentine' to a controversial love, Errol Flynn's swansong was simply awful.