Green Light

Warner Bros. occasionally gave ERROL FLYNN a break away from his usual swashbuckling roles but should have paid more attention to finding a better source material. The Lloyd C. Douglas novel is an uneven mixture of religion, psychiatry and sudsy melodramatics, never quite sure what the net results ought to be. Flynn is not the problem. He turns in a fine performance as a doctor who nobly sacrifices his own reputation when a medical mistake made by an older doctor could ruin the man's life. He looks as handsome and fit as ever.

If this were made in the '50s or '60s, no doubt Ross Hunter would have persuaded Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson to have a go at it, as they did in Douglas' THE MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION, another story about a doctor who pays for his mistake, all done up in glossy technicolor.

But it soon becomes clear that this is a weak tale, full of platitudes and moralizing by a preacher (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) who neatly sums up his philosophy of right and wrong with simplistic slogans. The message is poured on pretty thick before the story reaches the point where Flynn takes a medical risk in order to prove his theory about spotted fever.

It's all very obvious, slick and artificial, but at least the performances are earnest. Anita Louise and Margaret Lindsay can't do too much with the pallid female leads but Walter Abel does nicely as a dedicated physician and Henry O'Neill is believable as the medical man who makes a serious error during a critical operation.

Frank Borzage directs the proceedings with dignity but gets little help from a stagnant script. Max Steiner contributes one of his lesser scores, more subdued than usual in providing any melodic themes.

Interesting only in the fact that it provides Flynn with an offbeat role as a physician.

Errol Flynn stars as idealistic young doctor who takes the blame for a botched operation that costs a woman her life. Why he does this is supposed to be noble but seems stupid to me. After he's dismissed by the hospital, he joins a friend (Walter Abel) researching a cure for spotted fever. Abel has lots to say about ticks and spotted fever, so have a pencil and paper handy.

An odd movie, especially for Flynn. What makes it odd isn't the medical melodrama I summarized above. Those types of movies were a dime a dozen back then. No, what makes it odd and also fascinating is the inclusion of spiritual themes. In particular Cedric Hardwicke's character. Hardwicke plays a perspicacious reverend, equal parts Mr. Miyagi and Gandalf. His scenes are some of the movie's most interesting. Errol's love interest choices are Anita Louise and Margaret Lindsay. I won't spoil which he picks but it wasn't the one I was rooting for. The cinematography and score are excellent, as is Frank Borzage's direction. It's a very good-looking movie. Not always successful but intriguing in many ways. Definitely worth recommending.

If I should choose one American director for the twenties/thirties,I would take Frank Borzage any day.

This is a film of a believer ,but a believer who never falls into the trap of bigotry:the "green light" of the title is the light that comes from the sky,the light of hope which should enlighten everyone.His early silent movies (particularly "Humoresque" ) displays a strong faith in a divine intervention provided that you are worthy of it."Seventh Heaven" ,"Little man what now" ,to name but two,featured characters who had nothing,nothing but their love for each other and their faith in providence.It would culminate in 1940 with Borzage's masterpieces,"the mortal storm" and "Strange cargo",particularly the latter where Cambreau becomes some kind of messiah.

Eroll Flynn,cast against type ,-but portraying a physician who predates his role in Walsh's "Uncertain Glory" where he finally sacrifices everything- ,gave all:first he took the blame for an operation which cost a patient her life;then he acted as his own guinea pig for his vaccine.It often recalls "magnificent obsession" (the first version by J.Stahl was released two years before):both works feature a man of God : the man who tells the hero of "obsession" a man died on the cross for man's salvation,the priest in "green light".The choir in the church which we heard at the beginning returns for a canticle which climaxes the movie .Be prepared to sacrifice anything and do not ask anything in return,there will be a reward anyway.

Though not a 'period piece' "Green Light" dates much more than its Errol Flynn-starring predecessors "Captain Blood" and "Charge of the Light Brigade". And that's not necessarily a bad thing. The film was made when the Art Deco-1930s were in full flower. Frank Borzage's direction and the cinematography are beautifully impressionistic and occasionally artsy in a then-modern way as well. Flynn's smiles a bit too broadly and too often in early scenes, in a seeming bid to bring across a likable character. When he shifts attention to others he is much more natural and believable in the film.

Sir Cedric Hardwicke is well cast as the venerable Anglican reverend Dean Harcourt. His booming baritone voice put across his character's appeals for faith and other Christian virtues which are immediately believable (though his pipe-smoking is a bit incongruous with such a character).

One drawback of the film is that its script literally contorts to AVOID the direct mention of Jesus Christ, or the quotation of any recognizable Scriptures (until the finale), substituting semi-mystical pieties and somewhat vague aphorisms of encouragement. It is strongly implied that Flynn's character has undergone a conversion by the time the picture concludes, but it is never expressly stated.

Anita Louise, a lovely blonde, plays one of the women vying for Flynn's affections. Playing the role of her mother is Spring Byington, a delightful busybody in "Charge of the Light Brigade", but here a radiant Christian woman, full of faith, hope, and love which Flynn's initially-sceptical character comments upon long after her scenes are over.

The screenplay and film editing are not as sharp as those of Flynn's most beloved films, and Max Steiner's music is beautifully romantic but oddly unmemorable---which is hard to believe considering his catalog of work (the rousing "Charge of the Light Brigade", for instance, or the classics "The Wizard of Oz" or "Casablanca"). The choristers (boys) of St. Luke's Episcopal Church effectively lend their voices to a few scenes, and would do so in Flynn's follow-up film, "The Prince and the Pauper".

"Green Light" is a diamond in the rough, a neglected gem, and somewhat of a spiritual cousin to Hollywood's "One Foot in Heaven" which starred Fredric March as a minister some four or five years later. It is aired on occasion on TCM (Turner Classic Movies), but has yet to be officially released on videocassette or DVD.

In retrospect it is a bit of surprise choice for an Errol Flynn role, as the film is not nearly so high-budgeted as his preceding pictures. But he desired to prove himself as an actor, not just an action hero in the Douglas Fairbanks Sr. mode, and this was his first non-swashbuckler in which to essay the sort of role Ronald Colman took on in "Arrowsmith" six years earlier.

Because Green Light was done under the banner of Cosmopolitan Pictures for Warner Brothers, I've got a feeling that William Randolph Hearst might have originally intended Anita Louise's part for his amour Marion Davies. The thought of Marion Davies and Errol Flynn together in a film boggles the mind, but I'll bet Hearst would not have wanted Flynn opposite Davies for personal reasons as Errol was just starting to acquire his reputation as a rake.

W.R. provided Flynn with a change of pace that he requested. After doing adventure films Captain Blood and Charge Of The Light Brigade, Flynn wanted something different. Green Light is based on a Lloyd C. Douglas novel of spiritual values and Universal had just had a smash hit in Magnificent Obsession that made Robert Taylor a major star. No doubt Hearst persuaded Jack Warner to get the film rights for Davies, but then Marion couldn't go through with it. The story does center on the man however and that was never something you would see in a Davies film.

Errol Flynn plays an idealistic young surgeon who takes the rap for a botched operation that his mentor Henry O'Neill performed. Resigning the hospital he goes to work for research scientist Walter Abel who is looking for a cure for spotted fever in the west which is deadly to humans and livestock. Along the way he meets and falls for Anita Louise who is the daughter of the woman who died on the operating table, Spring Byington.

Presiding over all of this is an Episcopal bishop played by Cedric Hardwicke. In her last hours Byington is heard listening to a broadcast by radio of one of Cedric Hardwicke's inspirational sermons. Hardwicke functions as the author's voice, he shares with the other characters and the audience the philosophy of self sacrifice and good works that Lloyd C. Douglas had. With all these people being so noble and self sacrificing, you know it has to turn out all right.

Flynn never quite nails down the character which would have been ideal for Tyrone Power over at 20th Century Fox. Still he gives it a good try and the audience did respond. But it would be a long time before Jack Warner would cast him in a modern drama.

For me the character I remember best is that of Margaret Lindsay who plays a nurse who really has it bad for Errol, but who loyally steps aside and even helps Louise get together with Flynn. Now THAT'S a sacrifice.