Errol Flynn Books

I am a devoted Errol Flynn fan - this book actually showed a side of him that other books hadn't.

Most of this book is anything but 'lies, lies and more lies.' It is common knowledge in Hollywood, confirmed by scores of his contemporaries, that Flynn was a bisexual and quite a 'wild character'. Also an enthusiastic anti-semite. What do all these reviewers think he was, a choirboy? It is very funny to watch their outrage.

Wow so may negative reviews, I understand the need of many fans to rise and protect the honour of Errol Flynn.But come on - Flynn was no angel...read his own biography "My Wicked Wicked Ways" and was known throughout Hollywood for his carousing and drinking and bisexuality. As with most major Hollywood player's this side of his character was kept tightly under wraps by the studios careful to guard the reputation of their biggest money spinners.

I have read numerous biographies which proclaim Flynn to be bisexual including the recent Brando Unzipped...so for me that was never an issue.What I do have a problem with is the author's featherweight writing style and failure to name sources particularly when it comes to so called conversations.

The nazi spy story I do not believe for one minute - its just 'way out there'... And a huge problem with the title "SATAN'S ANGEL"...makes one think that Errol Flynn was involved in the occult and all sorts of outlandish deeds. Hardly.

Its a juicy afternoon read that really shouldnt be taken too seriously...

Even though many of the stories presented here are not backed up by fact I couldnt help liking Flynn more after reading this and admiring his individual personality.

If anyone really knew Errol Flynn, well besides the women in his life that is; it would have to be someone like his close friend stuntman Buster Wiles. Buster's book co-written with William Donati, takes the reader on a rare "behind the scenes" journey of what it was like working on those great Errol Flynn Warner Brother's movies -THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON and numerous others. How did Flynn always look so at ease doing all those daring and adventurous scenes? Well of course he had a lot of help, specially from the stunt profession. Wiles didn't double Flynn all the time, but he was always close by him doing all kinds of stunts from fights to horse falls to spectacular jumps.

The book is primarily about Buster's life story from his humble beginnings in the south, to his "riding the rails" in search of work. To his eventual arriving in Hollywood and becoming a stuntman by accident so to speak. His becoming one of Flynn's best friends covers the middle or Act 2 of his life. The final Act covers his many years as a placing judge at the Longacres Race Track in Seattle. There's plenty of humor to Buster's narrative but really I think one of his main purposes was to dispel the highly controversial and damning remarks made against his famous friend. In 1980 author Charles Higham claimed in his book "Errol Flynn: The Untold Story", that Flynn was a bi-sexual Nazi spy and a total fascist. Buster knew better and deeply felt the truth should be told. I for one agree. Of course having Errol Flynn in the title of any book really helps to sell it. Meaning no disrespect to Buster, it's still the iconic legendary swashbuckler himself that still fascinates us to this day. And I think this book has finally allowed him to rest a little easier.

Buster Wiles died just a couple of years after producing his book, "My Life With Errol Flynn," which was written with the help of author William Donati. If you want to see Wiles in action, take a look at the charge scene in Errol Flynn's "The Charge of the Light Brigade." The man leaping up from the ground and remounting his racing horse is not Errol, but Buster Wiles. Wiles' look at Flynn is a loving and respectful one. The two men were apparently good friends, and Wiles was distraught at the actor's death in October 1959. In his book he paints a picture of a lovable rogue who, unfortunately, let his demons get the better of him. Nevertheless, Wiles is extremely kind to Flynn and takes a number of potshots at Charles Higham's asssertions that the movie idol was a Nazi spy. William Donati has also added a section to the book in which his own investigations cast enormous doubt on Higham's allegations. "My Life With Errol Flynn" is good reading for fans of the screen's greatest swashbuckler.

Vernon "Buster" Wiles was born in Missouri, raised in Tennessee, and worked as a Hollywood stuntman for twenty years. Young Buster worked as a newsboy and a caddy, and enjoyed sports especially football and boxing. He tells of his job at the Bank of Commerce (pp.20-21). Buster traveled around the country doing various jobs which prepared him to become a stuntman. He had other jobs and businesses; people learned never to cross him (p.37).

Part II tells of his work as a stuntman in Hollywood pictures, and scenes off-camera. Her worked with Errol Flynn and became friends due to their sports interests. Errol's father was a Professor of Marine Biology at Queen's College in Belfast Ireland. Buster tells of his work in "High Sierra" where he played the rifleman who shot "Roy Earle", then doubled for Bogart to fall down the mountain (p.90). His main training was to run seven miles a day. After Pearl Harbor Errol Flynn was deferred due to heart murmur and tuberculosis (kept secret). Flynn did work for British intelligence (pp.112-113). Flynn sold War Bonds, and visited Alaska to entertain soldiers.

Part III tells of his life after quitting the movie business; aches and pains took longer to heal. Buster worked as an agent for jockeys, and traveled up and down the Pacific Coast. His advice for betting on horses is on page 175. Buster loved the excitement of gambling, but his winnings often disappeared as fast as he got them. Buster was shocked to hear of Errol Flynn's death, but he knew he lived fast. The legends about Flynn aren't all true (p.185). Buster wrote this autobiography to correct the misinformation in the CBS film that fictionalized Flynn's life (p.202). He sets the record straight.

The important part of this book is the Appendix by William Donati, who checked the sources for Higham's biography. Wiles told of the lies in that book (p.208). Those who knew Flynn, like David Niven, didn't believe that book (p.210). The declassified documents show that it was not Errol Flynn but Dr. Hermann Erben who was the subject of investigation. There was nothing to Higham's story (pp.211-212). Dr. Erben first met Flynn in 1933 before Flynn began acting in Britain. Higham modified an official document to support his story (p.221)! Donati interviewed Dr. Erben (pp.229-237). Other examples of Higham's errors are given (pp.249-260). If Charles Higham can't be trusted (p.261) how reliable is his story? Does this controversy arise from the uncorroborated writings of Dr. Erben (p.264).

Another book written by someone who actually new Errol, his second Ex-wife Nora Eddington Flynn. This is a small book and a quick read, but good.

Yes, Nora may have an axe to grind, but I found no axe. Most of the book rings true for me. I've read Errol's autobiography and Earl Conrad's Memoir book, and a few other publications of writings of Errol's.

The only part that may make you squirm is when Nora claims on about 2 occasions Flynn beat her. The circumstances are of taking drugs from a drug addict kind of thing. On one of those occasions Nora claims Mr. Flynn senior was present. (I think the senior Flynn was alive during the publication of Nora's book).

Other then that the book shows additional insight into Errol Flynn after his statutory rape trial days, courting, marriage, and interaction in later years with Nora before his death.
Nora documents there strange living arrangements with Flynn early in there marriage, etc.
Pictures included show Nora and Flynn on his yacht, out dining, playing tennis.

Nora seems to try to paint the perfect picture of innocents of herself, but you can sort of read through it.
Nora also seems to want the reader to believe that Errol loved her best during and after there time together. (She writes Flynn gave about 6 women the same fake ring, but Nora claims her similar ring from Flynn had real stones or something).

Nora ends the book claiming her second marriage broke up because they just grew apart.
A little goggling shows her second husband Dick Haymes (who'd already been married 3 times and had kids by each wife prior to Nora. 6 marriages and 6 kids at his death) left her for the beautiful actress Rita Hayworth.

Even in Errol's autobiography he mentions that Nora most be crazy to want to marry a man with 3 ex's and 3 kids, and he was drinking.
Nora clearly loved Errol and I think continued to love him during the writing of this book.

One of a series on movie stars - an ideal book for film fans, as it concentrates on Flynn's career.

A fascinating account of one of Australia's most colourful and controversial sons.

At first I must say that I expected this to be a more indepth analytic review of Errol Flynn's life. While I was somewhat disappointed in the analyses, it does represent an interesting first look at his life from a psychoanalytic perspective. What is also good about this book is the authors discussion of the Flynn movie legacy although being a "Flynn fan" I was quite uncertain as to how the author arrived at such questionnable ratings of Flynn's movies. Find a used book if your expectations are high but enjoy a human perspective that the author brings to it.

This is a book that really didn't have to be. Divided basically into two parts, the first half is a short retelling of Flynn's life. The second half is a discussion of each of his films, including ratings, backstage gossip and sometimes a discussion of the film's historical accuracy. I got the book because it seemed that the combination of Psychoanalytical in the title and the mysterious authorial name (only a first initial and the author never provides any of his own credentials) meant that this was a slumming psychologist who would really give a clinical analysis of what ailed Flynn. Instead what this seems to be is just someone who is a big fan of Flynn's screen image and probably tries to identify with him, giving him the delusion that he is the only one to really understand Flynn. One sees much the same thing with the myriad books on Marilyn Monroe. But he seems to no more be a psychologist than I am. There is no true diagnosis here, only the obvious comments many could make from reading other books on Flynn. I might suggest here the Myers book which is far more thorough or the one by Conrad who at least spent a lot of time with Flynn, or even Flynn's ghost written (by Conrad) autobiography. As to the second half, his opinions are interesting, but not more so than anyone else's. He clearly hasn't even bothered to even see all the films and there are no pictures, making this far inferior to The Complete Films of Errol Flynn. The author doesn't seem to have a great command of English and typos and mistakes in this self-published work are common, once the word "flayed" being used where "flailed" was meant. Even worse, he has a meandering style that states a point, then winds back to it again, repeating it, often more than once, using almost the same words. It's not surprising that no real publisher would touch this.

"However, if you are a Flynn completist, and you happen to stumble upon a used copy for no more than 50 cents, you might go ahead and add it to your collection - if only to keep it out of the hands of someone else.. Or it might make a useful thing to start the logs burning in your fireplace on a cold winter night. Or still again, it might be worth keeping in one of your drawers for its limited curiosity value, as yet one more piece of garbage about Errol Flynn that has no redeeming value, and is about as bad a book as it could possibly be." Lincoln Hurst

It appears that there is a love/hate relationship with this novel. And it looks as if hate is on the fast-track. Not for me, I found it a bizarre fascinating read. Geoff Nicholson is known as a farcical writer, and I can see some of that exhibited in this novel, but it needs more. This was no laugh out loud novel, sort of a hehehe under your breath. Some of the story is so far fetched that I can envision a movie screen with the characters looking at each other in confusion.

Jake is a down at the heels wanna-be actor, working in a photo shop when one day a former classmate, Sacha, appears, and within a day Jake has been hired to appear in a film about Errol Flynn. Dan Ryan, the director starts sending reams of paper, books about Flynn, music and what not. Jake has difficulty keeping up with all of the info flying at his feet. And then he realizes that he wants to play Errol Flynn. This seems to have been the plan all along and off he goes to make a movie. Nothing is ever as it seems we are told, and that is true here. The film is strange, Errol Flynn is shown as the sexually explicit man he was, warts and all are fully filmed. Dan Ryan, the director becomes more unhinged and the dark side of movie making is exposed. Dan Ryan's, wife Tina, seems to be made of sterner stuff but is that really true? The novel moves from London to Hollywood to Las Vegas and the desert in-between. The charcters are more outlandish and overdone as the story moves on, but that is when the fun really begins. The novel bogs down at times, but at the same time I needed to know the ending of this strangely elusive novel. The sex talk is explicit, but there is nothing here that has not been said time and time again.

This is a novel of obsession, the dark side of Hollywood with a twist. Not enough of a twist to keep Errol Flynn intact, but this was entertaining in a bizarre sort of way. Would Errol Flynn approve? No idea, but why should we care?

Recommended. prisrob 01-01-08

Looker

Sex Collectors: The Secret World of Consumers, Connoisseurs, Curators, Creators, Dealers, Bibliographers, and Accumulators of "Erotica"

Bedlam Burning

This is not a book about Flynn - but a sleazy novel using Flynn's name-not for flynn fans

This is one of the worst biographies ever written about Errol Flynn. The book is an absolute fraud. The information is mostly from Higham's paranoid imagination that see a Nazi under every rock. The author also has misquoted his so-called declassified documents in order to weave his many slanders and lies.

If you want a good book about Errol Flynn, DON'T buy this one. Higham belabors Flynn's supposed homosexuality and status as a spy ad nauseum - and with very little, if any at all, fact to back the allegations up. Most sources, when they're named at all, are dead now so they can't be questioned; very few paper references are cited; and the book sounds much more like a work of fiction than an autobiography. A much better book is the newest one, Inherited Risk, by Jeffrey Meyers.

Another typical example of slandering a Celebrated person postmortem. The book is a load of Doggy-do. The author never allowed facts nor ethics to impede his need to jump on the "Make some dough by ripping a dead guy" modern bandwagon. Buy MY WICKED WICKED WAYS, or Errol Flynn: A Memior, or Errol Flynn: The Life and Career, or From a Life of Adventure, if you want to read about the real and Joyous, or even the real and not so joyous Flynn. I gave Higams book 1 star only because they did not have a lower rating.

Or rather Made Up. Higham's book is fully readable, but it lacks truth. Higham is probably the proto-James Ellroy, who takes real persons out of Hollywood history and wraps them in fiction.
This book is well written but that's it. The whole Nazi spy/homsexual angle has been exposed as a fraud by the late, great Tony Thomas. Do yourself a favor and borrow this book at the library if you want to read it. Don't buy it.
"It's not a book to be tossed aside lightly, but rather thrown with great force..." -(...)

The untold story is an eyepoping story about a bloke who lives life to the max.From the age of 5 on flynn took life by the balls .A cautionary tale about the use of drug and its distruction of potential for change .Flynn no doubt was a ... to a lot of people but at the nub hollowood bored him.Many fantasic tales of daring do this fella was no ...kisser.

When one reads "The Two Lives of Errol Flynn," one gets the sensation that it was written in a very great hurry. Indeed, the writing is stilted and, in a number of instances, grammatically incorrect; the chapter titles -- all taken from Flynn's films -- seem forced; and an overwhelming portion of the text seems lifted straight from the pages of Flynn's pseudo-autobiography, "My Wicked, Wicked Ways" (Flynn did not write the book -- ghost writer Earl Conrad did). It is unfortunate that Freedland, who apparently interviewed a number of the people in Errol Flynn's life, could not have pieced together a better written and more comprehensive look at this legendary screen swashbuckler.

Charles Higham's so-called biographies are filled with rumors printed as truth (and many of the rumors seem to be created by Higham, himself).

The fact that his books sell well when released, but are never republished speaks for their worth.

"The best ammunition against lies is the truth, there is no ammunition against gossip. It is like a fog and the clear wind blows it away and the sun burns it off." - Ernest Hemingway