Trafic à La Havane

I recorded "The Big Boodle" when it played on TCM and expected to see a "train wreck" of a movie based on articles and books I have read. I was most pleasantly surprised to see a very entertaining film. I thought that Errol Flynn and the supporting cast were uniformly good. Errol again showed what a great star and actor he really was. The plot was plausible and the pace of the movie moved right along. I am surprised by the negative reviews. "The Big Boodle" is a more substantial film than many more critically acclaimed films... and,by that,I mean mainstream movies that are supposedly "A" quality. Errol brings a worldly weariness appropriate to his role. I was surprised to see how fit he appeared and how involved he was in his portrayal. I believe that he would have been magnificent as Rhett Butler in "Gone With The Wind" which he lost reportedly, due to Betty Davis' refusal to make that movie with him in the leading role. "The Big Boodle" shows what a serious and outstanding actor he was in even a modestly budgeted film

Errol Flynn - a casino dealer- gets handed fake pesos by a myserious blonde gambler. After he confronts her outside the casino, a trio of thugs jump him. Not only are the police not sympathetic about the mugging, they arrest him for possessing counterfeit money.

And we're on our way. Like Cary Grant in North by Northwest, Flynn is a shmoe stuck in the middle of something. The movie has him trying to unravel that mess.

Everybody is shady on some level. The dames are gorgeous. The location work is top-notch. The photography is beautiful.

Flynn, despite the high mileage, still looks quite dashing. I mean, geezus, if I still looked that good at 48 and had female companionship half as old, I'd be on top of the world.

And, as always, he's convincing in his role. He doesn't get the acclaim Hollywood's famous hambones get - Cagney, Muni, Kirk Douglas, Brando, et al. And compared to limited-range actors like Cooper, Wayne, Gable, Bogart, et al, he's a thespian.

It's really too bad semi-literate Americans had such limited expectations of their movie stars that guys like Flynn were rarely allowed to stretch. And when they did their movies bombed. Historical perspective is a different matter. I enjoy his darker movies and this was no exception.

For fans of Errol Flynn, this is a rather tough film to watch. That's because after a lifetime of wild living and booze, the once handsome actor looks pretty lousy for a 48 year-old. He's puffy, flat and lacks the spark and charm that made him a matinée favorite in previous decades. Here, he's just "phoning it in" in a low-budget and rather dull film and it's only of much interest to fans with morbid curiosity or who want to see every film this star made.

The story has Flynn playing a lowly blackjack dealer in a Cuban casino--quite a comedown compared to other characters he'd played in the past. While it is interesting to see street scenes of pre-Castro Cuba, the rest of the film is a dull affair concerning Errol being tossed, quite innocently, into a bunch of murderous counterfeiters. Because he was no longer the glamorous hero, he spends most of the film being beaten up and hassled. The best fight for him is at the end when he barely manages to beat up a doughboy-like villain. Not exactly CAPTAIN BLOOD or ROBIN HOOD--it's really a shame Flynn's final films are generally of this low quality.

But actually acting ... several rungs higher than the last Roger Moore 007s. Get setting... high end Barista Havana.

The women are not high end Hollywood, the character actors are unfamiliar but good... and the plot suitably twisted.

It was great seeing Errol Flynn play the role as Ned Sherwood who gets himself involved in a counterfeit ring of gangsters in Havana, Cuba during the Pre-Castro Cuba days. This film is entirely filmed in Cuba and there is plenty of running around the famous Morro Castle and the Cuban Lighhouse. Rosanna Rory, (Fina Ferrer) plays a very sexy blonde gal who is fully stacked and simply loves Ned Sherwood. Gangster's beat up Ned quite often and he is hounded by the Cuban police and also has the attention from another gal who is Rory's sister. Rory's father is a banker in Cuba and is getting upset with all the counterfeiting going on, so his two daughter's manage to get the printing plates hidden in different locations and the gangster's are hot after Ned and Rory. This is a great black and white film and does cover up the features of Errol Flynn's face from all the booze and hard living he had done in his past. Entertaining film.