La tornade

While on leave from his desert post somewhere in The Empire, Col. Wister (Ian Hunter) meets an American widow (Kay Francis), falls in love and marries her. He brings her back to his desert outpost, which has been overseen in his absence by Capt. Roark (Errol Flynn). She takes one look at Flynn, and you can probably write the rest. And Col. Wister is a noble, stiff-upper-lip representation of the British Lion (they're good sports).

There is no new ground broken in "Another Dawn", it's all been done before. The 3 principals acquit themselves very well and add some polish to a familiar theme. The picture is held together by Hunter and Francis, with Flynn tagging along as eye candy. Good but not spectacularly so, it is a harmless way to pass 75 minutes.

****** 6 of 10

This is not the sort of movie you'd think it would be, as the film is set abroad and is about a British outpost. Considering this AND that the film stars Errol Flynn, you would expect that it would be an adventure film like LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER or CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE--and if so, you'd be wrong. The film is purely a romantic melodrama about a woman (Kay Francis) who marries a man he likes and respects (Ian Hunter) but eventually falls in love with suave and romantic Errol Flynn (and, in 1937, who WOULDN'T have fallen for Errol?!). The problem is exacerbated because Francis genuinely loves Hunter as a friend and Errol is loyal to Hunter because he's his commanding officer, but their glands won't be satisfied until they break the awful news to nice-guy Hunter. This is, overall, a very sappy and sticky movie. Some will no doubt like it, but the ardent and more "wussified" Flynn isn't as satisfying a character as he played in most of his other films. And, the plot itself seems very old fashioned and...well...silly. Not a bad film, but certainly a lesser film and one that is mostly of interest to those who want to see every film Flynn made--even the weaker ones.

Well, I didn't have as violent a response as the first post I read, but "Another Dawn" is from another era and didn't survive it, trust me. It's all pip-pip, jolly good, and honor is all in this dated film starring the handsome Errol Flynn and the lovely Kay Francis. She's a widow who marries Flynn's commander, though she still mourns her late husband. When she meets Flynn, guess what, she finds she can love again. Yeah, like who couldn't. They're both too honorable to do much about it, though.

Most of the film takes place post-World War I in a Sahara outpost so there is lots of sand and some battles. Flynn is subdued in this, and Francis is radiant. Some of the dialogue is actually quite poetic - probably because they're quoting poems - and if it were in, say, The Rains Came, it would have worked very well - but it only adds to the melodrama in this film.

Films such as "Another Dawn" are interesting as artifacts of a lost time when, I suppose, people had stronger values and lived for the greater good. When it's a stronger script and production, of course, these marvelous qualities are worth revisiting, admiring, and feeling guilty about. Alas, however, nobility is not well served by "Another Dawn."

On the positive side, the makers of this film did leave over a few cliches for someone else. And it is entirely possible that when this picture was made the story elements had been used only dozens, rather than hundreds, of times before. But while numerous movies more than fifty years old have held up very well, this is one that has become an unintentional parody of itself.

The romantic femme fatale, mourning a lost love of her youth, and convinced she can never love again; the dashing, devil-may-care adventurer, certain that no one female could ever hold him; the middle-aged paragon of duty, service and principle, asking only to be allowed to worship that desirable woman, expecting not love, but merely loyalty, in return; the coward scorned by his mates, living for nothing but a chance to redeem himself. And much more, including British colonials, devious Arab chieftains, the burning desert, a suicide mission, memorable dying words, and of course, a young, spectacularly handsome Errol Flynn.

They don't make them like this anymore.

I watched this movie solely because Errol Flynn was in it. My all time favorite. However I was serendipitously introduced to Kay Francis, one of Hollywood's great female stars. She has since become one of my most adored actresses from a bygone era of great female actresses. Why movie land has not highlighted this movie and these two great film stars together is a mystery to me. Further, it would have been refreshing to see them together on other projects. This movie tugged at my heart as I watched it very late one night. My teenage children thought it was mushy. They were probably on target since they don't get a chance to see REAL acting like this, but rather a lot of sex scenes and nudity. To all E.F. or K.F. aficionado's, rent it, copy it, see it. You'll be glad you did.