Cuban Rebel Girls

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.

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.

This film is so bad that it is a nightmare. The question is not so much what's bad about it, but rather what's good about it. Except for a very small amount of curiosity value---nothing is good about it.

The production values are the worst I have ever seen in a "professional" production. The film stock is grainy and fuzzy. The acting is horrid. Flynn looks like he died the following day, and scenery, props, forget it!!

For the small number of people who might be tempted to buy this video--don't!! It's not just mediocre, it's horrible.

Much better than what I expected after reading so much misinformation and moralistic rubbish about it, there are several elements that save "Cuban Rebel Girls" from oblivion. First, of course, it is somehow moving to see it as a product of love (or lust, take your pick), a vehicle conceived by Errol Flynn for his last woman, the 17-year old starlet Beverly Aadland. As it is, it is not bad: he even steps aside to let her be the center of the story that he conceived for her. To reflect on the plot, one has to consider first the second high point of the motion picture: it is a direct and fresh view of the first days of Cuban revolution, shot in Cuba and with the support of the Rebel Army. Those who make fun of the film apparently have no sense of the historic value of moving images, and in this case "Cuban Rebel Girls" contains valuable footage of the year the Cuban revolution triumphed, 1959 images of La Habana, the country side, the rebels, the sugar factories and even a brief moment of country music. In the movie, Flynn plays himself taking a trip to Cuba as a reporter covering the last days of the struggle to overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista. Simultaneously an American girl (Aadland), whose lover is fighting with the rebels in the island, helps a Cuban girlfriend to take guns to the army. It is a very simple story line, but quite effective, combined with the images of the real "barbudos" (the bearded men, as the rebels were called when they could not shave after spending long time hidden in the mountains). For the project I guess Flynn could not afford top professionals, so he had to make do with his pilot-manager Barry Mahom as director (who in latter days would produce, write or direct sexploitation movies), cinematographer Merrill S. Brody, whose camera set-ups were not always inspired and a cast of non-professionals who at least handled their few lines with enthusiasm. A third factor of interest for me is that this was Errol Flynn's last film: whatever you may think of it, as you compare it with his glory days, Flynn really touched my heart and made me smile with his last lines, wishing the best to all the rebels of the world who fight for a better life.

Sadly this was to be Fynn's last picture. It is the muddled story of a gang of teenage girls out to support Fidel Castro in his attempt to overthrow Batista. The movie was obviously conceived when the U.S. was still in support of the rebel leader. Star Aadland was Flynn's 16 year-old girlfriend at the time. During his career Flynn was arguably as much of a 'Come-back Kid' as President Clinton: Flynn was able to overcome lawsuits, sexual peccadilloes, alcoholism and just about anything else you can name, and still rebound with one more decent appearance on screen. Still, it is doubtful that he would have survived the embarrassment of this picture.