Cuban Rebel Girls

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.

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.

The production company of the film should give you a clue about the motive of the filmmakers here. Exploit Productions? Well, at least they were honest about what they were doing. The acting is abysmal; especially Beverly Aadland, who has to play a ditzy blonde following her boyfriend into the revolution. (by the way, he gets shot in the left shoulder and has a cast on his right shoulder later in the film; I'm pretty sure that this is not the medical solution for that). Despite Aadland, a drunken and overweight Flynn, and some unintentionally funny scenes (like having a company marching and singing loudly in the jungle on the way to a skirmish; thereby letting your opposition know exactly where you are), the film is still entertaining and instructive. Woody Allen would make a satire of this film about a decade later. But these people really believed that there would be a new Cuba; it just didnt turn out to be the Cuba they wanted it to be. This is not the worst film ever made; not even close. Of course, it is far from a good film, and should be viewed more as a semi-documentary rather than anything resembling a dramatic film. As far as exploitation films are concerned, there may be debate as to whom exploited whom here. Did Flynn exploit Castro, or did Castro exploit Flynn? You decide. I found the film interesting to view from a historical perspective.

Errol Flynn, beloved as Robin Hood, Capt. Blood, etc, ended his career with this hilariously pathetic excuse for a movie. "Cuban Rebel Girls" portrays an American girl (Beverly Aadland, who's got nothing except her looks) going to Cuba to help her boyfriend fight for Fidel Castro's army in their revolution against Fulgencio Batista. It warps the mind not that they went to Cuba and made a pro-Castro movie - although I find that neat - but that Flynn dropped down to this. I wouldn't be surprised if knowing that he was part of it is what caused Flynn's death soon after. Worth seeing as an example of film-making gone terribly wrong.

I wonder whether or not Castro remembers that he participated with Errol Flynn in making this movie. If he does, he probably tries to hide it.

It's sad that Errol Flynn did not get as a screen farewell with one of his three previous pictures before Cuban Rebel Girls. The Sun Also Rises, Too Much Too Soon, or The Roots Of Heaven were decent films of varying quality, but all showed Flynn as the actor he longed to be acclaimed for. This film which looks like it was shot with a Kodak home movie camera was both a tax write-off for Flynn and a lame attempt at propaganda for Fidel Castro.

Ironically enough in 1957 Flynn had done another Cuban based film, The Big Boodle shot in Havana with the cooperation of the government that Flynn was now saying was corrupt. It was nothing that the Motion Picture Academy would have paid any attention to, but next to Cuban Rebel Girls, The Big Boodle looks like Citizen Kane.

Done in a semi-documentary style, Cuban Rebel Girls has Errol playing himself as a war correspondent covering the revolution against Fulgencio Batista led by Fidel Castro. A little more than 20 years earlier Flynn in his salad days did something similar covering the Spanish Civil War from the Loyalist point of view. But Warner Brothers did no documentary about his adventures there, in fact Jack Warner was mighty bent out of shape.

The story of one girl from the USA intrigues Flynn. His teenage mistress at the time, Beverly Aadland played a young woman who goes down to Cuba with a girl friend who is a Cuban national who is bringing laundered cash for the revolution. Her boyfriend John MacKay is a mercenary who is fighting for Castro and Flynn assures us there were many Americans in those ranks.

Poor Aadland, even if Errol had lived I doubt she would have had much of a career. She was one of the worst actresses I've ever seen, reading her lines with no conviction whatever. She came off as a super dumb Valley Girl. But in fairness to her, the only professional in the cast was Errol Flynn, the others were equally as bad. And Flynn hardly summoned any conviction to even playing Errol Flynn.

This is such a sad ending for a screen legend that Flynn's legion of fans should do like Sam Goldwyn said and stay away in droves.