Cuban Rebel Girls

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.

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.

Sadly this was to be Fynn's last picture. It is the muddled story of a gang of teenage girls out to support Fidel Castro in his attempt to overthrow Batista. The movie was obviously conceived when the U.S. was still in support of the rebel leader. Star Aadland was Flynn's 16 year-old girlfriend at the time. During his career Flynn was arguably as much of a 'Come-back Kid' as President Clinton: Flynn was able to overcome lawsuits, sexual peccadilloes, alcoholism and just about anything else you can name, and still rebound with one more decent appearance on screen. Still, it is doubtful that he would have survived the embarrassment of this picture.

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.

CUBAN REBEL GIRLS, the wretched last film of legendary star Errol Flynn, is a tragic epitaph. It's only 'value' is the morbid opportunity to see the actor's physical deterioration in the last few months of his life, coupled with his inability to give an even cursory performance.

While the rationale behind the production was the obvious tax write-off that a failed film could provide, there are mysteries and legends surrounding it, as with many of the significant events in Flynn's life.

One legend involves the financial backing of the film. Flynn was nearly broke, despite maintaining an outwardly affluent appearance ("I believe you should always dress in your best suit, and present your best 'front', when you're borrowing money," he would tell his biographer, Earl Conrad). The actor had already taken (and spent) an advance from Putnam to write his autobiography (which would be published posthumously as 'My Wicked, Wicked Ways'), and the publishing firm, fearing the actor would not fulfill his obligation, assigned veteran journalist Conrad (with two court stenographers) to follow the actor, and interview him daily. Legend has it that Flynn also went to a variety of sources, some less 'savory' than others, to borrow 'front' money for a film he said he was making. As time passed, and the film hadn't appeared, Flynn found himself in an awkward and potentially dangerous situation with his backers...so he took what little he had left of the borrowed cash to assemble a crew, write a script, and shoot a 'quickie' in Cuba.

The other legend involved his girlfriend, sixteen-year old Beverly Aadland. Flynn had been the defendant in a number of statutory rape trials, dating back to 1943, and had been acquitted, usually because the teens in question could 'pass' as older, and, in some cases, even had faked IDs. With his well-publicized sexual appetites, Flynn was an easy 'target' for publicity-hungry young women of easy virtue. Aadland, who had already been involved with the actor for several years, seemed to vindicate his critics' charges that Flynn was not the 'innocent' that his lawyers claimed him to be, but truly had a 'thing' for young girls (making him the Roman Polanski of his time). But the voluptuous teen was, according to friends of Flynn, genuinely in love with the aging star, nursing him through his bouts of malaria, keeping him supplied with vodka, and tenaciously guarding what little privacy he could maintain. Her one dream was to become an actress, and Flynn, according to legend, wrote CUBAN REBEL GIRLS to give her the opportunity no studio ever would, with her notoriety.

Sadly, whether CUBAN REBEL GIRLS was created as a tax write-off, a product of a last-minute attempt to appease backers, or as a 'Valentine' to a controversial love, Errol Flynn's swansong was simply awful.