Brian Aherne on the Screen

If talent and good looks were all that it took to become a Hollywood legend, then Brian Aherne would be remembered alongside such contemporaries as Clark Gable, Cary Grant and James Stewart: not just as an actor revered by vintage film aficionados, but as a star who continues to shine brightly, whose name remains familiar to newer generations. One of the most classically handsome leading men to grace the screen, Aherne was also one of its most accomplished actors. That combination should’ve assured him of celebrity, if not longevity — but it didn’t. Studios began wooing him in the early ’30s, but within a decade, they’d washed their hands of him. He hadn’t been eager to play by their rules, and they were no longer willing to play by his.

Errol Flynn Goes to War

This essay has nothing to do with Errol Flynn going to war. (He tried to enlist in every branch of the service during WWII, but was declined for health reasons.) It’s not even about the five wartime films he starred in between 1942 and 1945. It started that way — thus the title — but once I saw those five, I wanted to see more of Flynn, and ending up viewing all the films he did for Warner Bros. between 1935 to 1950: from his first starring role in Captain Blood to his final film before he began exploring freelance options, Rocky Mountain.