Against All Flags (1952)

 

AGAINST ALL FLAGS (1952)

By Ralph Santini – ***

                Of all the many “unmemorable” Errol Flynn features he appeared in the 1950s, Against All Flags is probably the best he ever made in the decade. Sure it’s got plenty of flaws, but that doesn’t prevent me from recommending it to collectors who enjoy vintage escapism. It is also the only film that co-starred fellow swashbuckler favorite Maureen O’Hara who is absolutely gorgeous wearing those beautiful black boots she wears. It also co-stars Anthony Quinn who also appeared opposite O’Hara in the Tyrone Power pirate film “The Black Swan” and his character of the main villain is quite possibly the most flawed in this script. Quinn has never been hammier and the way his character was written, particularly under George Sherman’s quick direction seems no better than ordinary. But never mind that, it’s Flynn’s chemistry with the fiery redhead O’Hara that shines in the picture in spite it’s minor nature. After all Errol Flynn is no Tyrone Power nor especially a John Wayne when it comes to the traditional leading man Maureen O’Hara needs in a movie but I think it was nevertheless about time they appear in a film together for the first, and, like is said, only time. It is also the surprisingly effective storyline developed for this movie that lets me have a soft spot for this one.

                The plot is basically Errol Flynn playing Lieutenant Brian Hawke being at the beginning flogged and revealed that it was to use the scarred back for his espionage adventure against Anthony Quinn’s arrogant, quick tempered Roc Brasiliano who plots to conquer the Indian Ocean and it’s rulers. When Hawke shows up in Libertania, the hot-headed, arrogant Brasiliano mercilessly suspects him that he is a spy and he won’t take any chances with him. Fortunately Maureen O’Hara’s Spitfire Stevens decides to persuade Brasiliano by bringing Hawke to the meeting of the “Captains of the Coast” that includes Captain Kidd (Errol Flynn fellow cohort himself, Robert Warwick) and three more pirate ship captains. Kidd and Stevens argue with the overly suspicious Brasiliano about his joining them with the pirates, so it’s decided to put Hawke to fight with a supposed traitor with boarding pikes. The fight is nearly won by the traitor but it turns out he was cheating with a rum bottle that was luckily shot broken by Stevens. Although still not satisfied with Hawke’s affirmed victory against the traitor he reluctantly hires him for ship to sail in order to attack and Indian ship boarded by a Scottish governess (Mildred Natwick, satisfying) large group of beautiful women including a well-known Indian princess (the youthfully charming 19 to 20 year old Alice Kelley) who seems to have a large crush with Hawke, our film’s hero. After this rescue, one thing leads to another ranging from jealous rages from Spitfire Stevens, more espionage and more trouble, and, well you get the idea.

                The movie relies on plenty of action, a lukewarm story, Errol Flynn’s one-shot chemistry with Maureen O’Hara, beautiful Technicolor cinematography by Russell Metty and reasonable calling shots by George Sherman. It is weakened however by Anthony Quinn’s hammy portrayal of the overly arrogant villain, plus every scene involving the Indian princess, especially when annoyingly asking Flynn to kiss her again, saying “again?”. In the case of Quinn’s performance, consider every scene his villain is seen, especially in his first appearance when he arrogantly confronts the traitor before fighting Errol Flynn with Board Pikes; Quinn knows the traitor is lying saying he took no booty until he tortures him with knives size by size until he whines and confesses that he meant no harm. That scene is pretty much pretentious and annoying. 

                But can there be a worse thing than Anthony Quinn’s hammy performance as the villain? Yes I do think so. That would be Allice Kelley’s empty performance as the Indian princess who all she cares about is being in love with Errol Flynn. Flynn looks like he is in very little mood to flirt with teenagers, after all, there is some strong gossip in Flynn’s real life past about a scandal involving him and two teenage girls and I’ll bet that Flynn really didn’t want to remember such horrible experience in his life. And the more I see her saying “Again?” the more I find the film to be quite flawed.

Other moments in this film include a rather interesting torture scene where Flynn is pretending to scream in a desperate way before the crabs come to his feet. I really like how he pretends to be in serious agony in order to fool his enemy because at least, in my opinion, it shows that Flynn’s character shows very little weakness, unlike some of the other swashbucklers from around the same time as Against All Flags. I also don’t mind Mildred Natwick’s portrayal of the Scottish governess, she seems be an old lady who won’t take any chances in order to see that the Indian princess is saved from Anthony Quinn’s villainy. She also seems very scolding with the princess which can make me see how she feels about her the way I do, annoying, indiscreet and overly flirtatious. One more thing I might like to add is that the film seems to contain more comedy than most of Errol Flynn’s swashbucklers. I personally find the comedy to be very good natured in the sense that Errol Flynn and Maureen O’Hara play a sort of “Taming Of The Shrew” chemistry formula that I personally find very funny with satisfying romantic touches.

Against All Flags is one of those swashbucklers that seem more like a parody than it is a serious swashbucklers, but that doesn’t prevent me from recommending this film, because I personally think this is actually Errol Flynn’s best color film of the 50s. With his satisfying chemistry with Maureen O’Hara it can be easily be regarded as just a minor gem and that’s mainly because of the flaws that I’ve mentioned for Æneas MacKenzie and Joseph Hoffman’s likeable screenplay directed by George Sherman who was at that time making mainly Westerns for Universal Studios who coincidentally happens to release this film. If Quinn’s villain would have been more psycho, and the film excluded the Indian princess from the screenplay I’d rate it three and a half stars but since these elements actually happened I’m only going for only the three stars that you have noticed at the beginning. I can also conclude that Flynn and O’Hara themselves are reason enough to enjoy this little piece of escapist entertainment.