Non mi sfuggirai

Escape Me Never is a remake of the 1935 version that earned Elisabeth Bergner both an Oscar and Rag nomination for Best Actress. The movies are so similar, I can't really figure out why Hollywood decided to remake it at all. And even though Errol Flynn is gorgeous and has an additive screen presence, he's not particularly likable in this one.

Ida Lupino starts the movie off being a real pill, and she barely gets any better. She pretends to be a schoolgirl, sneaks into a guided tour of a wealthy family's estate, snoops around in rooms she shouldn't, and when she gets caught, she throws a temper tantrum and insists on telling her entire life story to the wealthy family all while getting a free meal, which was her main objective anyway. She creates a huge misunderstanding and breaks up Gig Young's relationship with the wealthy, classy Eleanor Parker, because Eleanor's parents think Gig has fathered Ida's baby. In truth, Gigs brother Errol Flynn is living with Ida, even though he's not the father and has no real feelings for her. Then, when the trio goes on a quest to win Eleanor back, Errol wins her heart instead. Talk about a complicated love triangle!

This isn't the worst movie, and it has a classically dramatic storyline that's usually only found in old films. If you like needlessly dramatic plot points and unlikable, implausible romances, you can give this one a shot.

'Escape Me Never' is a tired remake of an Elizabeth Bergner film from the '30s and they should have thought twice before filming it. As the N. Y. Times so aptly observed: "Harsh and unbelievable...the script is a frightful thing." Ida Lupino only made it because she was eager to co-star with Errol Flynn (they had a brief romantic relationship) but despite competent performances by all concerned, none of them have a chance against the poor script. Basically, it's the story of two musician brothers (Errol Flynn, Gig Young) and their involvement with two women (Ida Lupino, Eleanor Parker), a romantic tearjerker with occasional flashes of humor. Ida is the poverty-stricken Gemma in love with Flynn who is unfaithful to her until his reformation at the end. One of his musical compositions is brilliantly performed by a full orchestra and here Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score soars. He was unfortunate in that some of the films he scored were considerably less worthy of his talent than they should have been. His music is the only redeeming value of this disjointed, uneven mess of a film, a short original ballet, Primavera, and a popular song that was well received, Love for Love. Production-wise, the film suffers from an obvious use of process shots and sound-stage simulations of the Alps.

My career article on Ida Lupino is due to appear in the Fall issue of FILMS OF THE GOLDEN AGE.

I saw this on TCM and had read in several review books that this was a bomb remake of an earlier picture with Elizabeth Bergner,but I was charmed by this film and like Ida Lupino and Errol Flynn's chemistry a lot. The other actors(especially Eleanor Parker) are also quite good and the film is quite a change of pace from the swashbucklers,war filmsand Westerns Flynn was in a lot. I enjoyed it a lot,and wished Lupino and Flynn had had another outing in a better film. This is a good instance of Flynn's natural ease on screen,and his sex appeal even when playing a cad in rags! Not many actors could do as well with this selfish playboy role as Errol did-so underrated an actor.Ida is always watchable,too.

In turn of the century Venice, composer brothers Sebastian (Errol Flynn) and Caryl (Gig Young) both fall for two women: low-born Gemma (Ida Lupino), a widowed single mother with a baby, and wealthy socialite Fenella (Eleanor Parker). Their various romantic entanglements lead them to the Dolemite mountains and to the United Kingdom.

This was based on a play, and had been previously filmed in England, with that film earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for Elisabeth Bergner. This version didn't seem to have much inspiration to it, or perhaps the wrong the director was at the helm, as everything seemed flat and perfunctory. That is, in between scenes of Lupino chewing up the scenery. I've liked her in many things, but not this. And her hair is just awful. Eleanor Parker, who I often don't like, came across better here and fit the setting and the role. I watched this for Flynn, and much like this same year's Cry Wolf, he seems to be trying to stretch his screen range. He still gets to be a bit of a charming rogue, but his romantic scenes feel empty and unbelievable, as did his moments with the ballet company near the end. He seemed most at home during his concertina performances in a beer garden. I didn't detest this movie as many critics seem to, but I wouldn't want to watch it again.

After 1945 in which Errol Flynn appeared in typical roles for him in Operation Burma and San Antonio, he obviously must have talked to Jack Warner about getting parts that would broaden his range. He did three films over the next two year designed to do that, Never Say Goodbye, Cry Wolf, and Escape Me Never. The last is probably closest to Flynn, but all three didn't either get great critical notice or did outstanding box office. After Escape Me Never, Flynn was back in traditional action roles like Silver River and The Adventures of Don Juan, the kind of parts his fans like to see him in.

Escape Me Never is a four sided triangle story set in the years of the turn of the last century. Errol's a misunderstood genius of a composer who is living with a young widow, Ida Lupino and her baby. Ida's another Bohemian sort who broke into the villa in Venice of an English couple and their daughter. When she's confronted she mentions she's living with Errol. That sends a ripple through the house because daughter Eleanor Parker is engaged to Gig Young who is Errol's brother and they think Errol's a two timer. When she leaves Venice in a huff, Flynn, Lupino, and Young chase after her.

The problem is that the daughter may have been wrong on the particulars, but in fact Errol is a two timing cad, though a charming one.

Charm Flynn had in abundance, but I could never quite accept him as a musical genius. The best thing about the film is the music of Erich Wolfgang Korngold who wrote a ballet for the film that is the highlight. Korngold scored a lot of Flynn's early swashbucklers, most notably The Adventures Of Robin Hood.

This is the second version of this story, the British cinema did one in 1935 with Elisabeth Bergner and Hugh Sinclair. I'm guessing that was a better film.