La tornade

Errol Flynn and Kay Francis star in this movie about love and adventure. Ian Hunter meets Kay first and promptly falls in love with her, even though she admits she doesn't love him. But he does convince her to marry him and move to where he lives and works, a British outpost in the desert. By this means, she meets his second-in-command and right-hand man Errol Flynn. At first she doesn't take to him, even though most of the female viewers have already at first sight. (But he took to her; that's without saying.) But his hearty laugh startles her as it's similar to someone she loved very much and lost. Then, she begins to see him in a new light and spends a lot of time with him, as husband Ian has to travel to trouble-shoot, etc. Therefore, Kay and Errol, well.... Errol and Kay's good looks and chemistry and the movie's mysterious and menacing locale uplifts the material. And, their love scenes together are very exotic and romantic, with them walking hand in hand and getting caught in the moment, kissing.... Even if you don't consider the leads your favorites, I think you'll agree that Errol Flynn and the lovely Kay Francis do make a very passionate couple, and that you'll enjoy 73 minutes of them.

To see a lovely Kay Francis and a beautiful Errol Flynn share the pangs of romance in the dreamy sunsets of the Sahara is what this movie is all about. A great score by Erich Korngold whisks us along through their complex affair, romantic interludes and Flynn's courageous fight with the Arabs. The charms of the film have a faded edge, but I find this gives it a nostalgic appeal. Francis is wonderful to watch -- she's wistful, stylizes her performance with her usual grace, very appealingly. Flynn is a real handsome figure and gives an earnest performance, showing the conflicts of romancing is best friend and superior officer's wife. This is a pure movie movie -- to be watched for pleasure and the smile of nostalgia.

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.

The problem with this film is that it is based on a 1919 play from Somerset Maugham and has many of the sentiments of that period. Translated on the screen 20 years later it's a bit stodgy, and viewed many decades later, it seems very dated.

The other problem is that the film stars Errol Flynn but it's not an action film. Flynn was a great action actor, but with some few exceptions, all of them later in life, his best work was in action films.

The music from Erich Wolfgang Korngold is marvelous, and his work later with Flynn on "Robin Hood" would be one of the best scores ever.

If you're a Flynn fan you probably want to see this film, but otherwise it doesn't have much to recommend it.

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