La tornade

This is not the sort of movie you'd think it would be, as the film is set abroad and is about a British outpost. Considering this AND that the film stars Errol Flynn, you would expect that it would be an adventure film like LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER or CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE--and if so, you'd be wrong. The film is purely a romantic melodrama about a woman (Kay Francis) who marries a man he likes and respects (Ian Hunter) but eventually falls in love with suave and romantic Errol Flynn (and, in 1937, who WOULDN'T have fallen for Errol?!). The problem is exacerbated because Francis genuinely loves Hunter as a friend and Errol is loyal to Hunter because he's his commanding officer, but their glands won't be satisfied until they break the awful news to nice-guy Hunter. This is, overall, a very sappy and sticky movie. Some will no doubt like it, but the ardent and more "wussified" Flynn isn't as satisfying a character as he played in most of his other films. And, the plot itself seems very old fashioned and...well...silly. Not a bad film, but certainly a lesser film and one that is mostly of interest to those who want to see every film Flynn made--even the weaker ones.

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.

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.

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.

Fine movie for what it is but 'what it is' won't be to everyone's tastes. Leonard Maltin's Film Guide calls it an adventure story but that's not really accurate. There's very little action in this film. This is a melodrama, a soaper even, as evidenced by the fact it stars Kay Francis. She was one of the queens of the melodrama in the '30s, often torn between two men as she is here. The plot is trite. Francis plays a woman who lost her pilot fiancé in an accident. She meets honorable and all-around-swell-guy Ian Hunter, who quickly falls in love with her and proposes. She marries him despite not being in love with him. Later she meets hotshot pilot Errol Flynn and, well, you can figure the rest. For his part, Flynn is as charming as ever and has good chemistry with Francis. The highlight of the film is the Erich Korngold score, which makes things seem more exciting than they ever really are. A nice production, great actors, and a beautiful score are nothing to dismiss. Still, how much you enjoy this will depend on how much you enjoy romantic melodramas from the 1930s, where everyone stares off at some point and recites a soliloquy like they're in a stage play.