By Robert Matzen, GoodKnight Books, $34.95, 224 pages
Was there ever a more gorgeous example of male pulchritude than the 30 year-old Errol Flynn? That’s how old he was when he was Robin Hood, and he seems to have been 360° of photogenic. Of course, for the guys, there was the 26 year-old Olivia de Havilland–both beautiful and brainy—who went on to much bigger and better adventures than Maid Marian, while Flynn was stuck in the Robin Hood mold forever. By the way, Robin Hood was the first BIG adventure story ever filmed in Technicolor, and this book is lavish with black-and-white photos and descriptions of the process as well as the stars.
Errol and Olivia were a big item for several years, in spite of his marriage to Lili Damita, an actress several years older than he was. The similarities in their respective childhoods are eerie, even though they were both born in the Pacific Rim: she in Japan, he in Tasmania.
One could never tire of leafing through this book—the photos are mind-boggling all on their own. But the text easily holds its own, too. There are numerous references, including footnotes and an index. If you plan to give someone a copy, be sure to buy two copies! You won’t want to part with it, otherwise.
Reviewed by Kelly Ferjutz