Into the West: Errol and Cuddles Tame a Town "full of men who look as if they'd step on baby chickens"

Errol Flynn was on the downside of his movie career when Warner Bros. put him back in the saddle again for 1945’s San Antonio. There was a time when scriptwriters tried to explain Flynn’s accent when he was cast in a Western. In Dodge City, he played an Irish soldier of fortune who journeyed to the American West. By 1945, though, he had already starred in four previous Westerns, so no explanation was required. It’s really a nod to Flynn’s versatility and charisma that he could attract audiences in swashbucklers, war films, Westerns, comedies, and even the occasional serious fare (e.g., That Forsyte Woman).

San Antonio is a mid-tier Warner Bros. effort that benefits from a solid cast, sturdy production values, and a splash of Technicolor. Still, it’s obvious that it was never intended to be a blockbuster Western in the mold of the studio’s earlier Dodge City and They Died With Their Boots On. In fact, the main theme is the same one composed by Max Steiner for Dodge. The screenplay, penned by Alan LeMay and W.R. Burnett, lacks originality and can’t supporting the film’s running time of 111 minutes.

Set in 1877, San Antonio opens with Charley Bates (John Litel) tracking his good friend, Clay Hardin (Flynn) to Mexico. Hardin left Texas after a gang of baddies burned his ranch, stole his cattle, shot him, and left him for dead. Rather than wallow in his misfortune, Hardin has sought out a tally book that links wealthy Roy Stuart (Paul Kelly) to the large-scale cattle rustling scheme. He returns to San Antonio to expose Stuart. Along the way, he meets a singer (Alexis Smith) and her entourage (Florence Bates and S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall).

Admittedly, there are some bright spots in San Antonio. Alexis gets to warble the Oscar-nominated “Some Sunday Morning” in a saloon musical number. Part of the climatic gunfight takes place at night, in the shadows of the Alamo (the film was shot at Warners’ Calabasas Ranch near Burbank). Indeed, the interior sets, which also earned an Oscar nomination, pop out in vibrant color. It’s interesting, too, to have two villains (Kelly and Victor Francen) who try to get the goods on each other while keeping an eye on Flynn.

However, the film’s overall entertainment value hinges on its cast and they prove most capable. Errol and Alexis don’t generate a lot of sparks, but they exhibit a natural rapport which probably accounts for why they were paired so often (their best film being Gentleman Jim). Cuddles Sakall and Florence Bates are in top form in supporting roles played mostly for laughs. In a stagecoach scene with Alex and Errol, they have the following exchange when Florence—anxious to get Alexis married—inquires about the marital status of Errol’s character.

Cuddles (to Florence): “You were very rude. He wouldn’t marry you anyway.”

Florence: “I wasn’t asking for myself.”

Cuddles: “Don’t ask him for me either.”

It’s the kind of silly exchange that only Cuddles Sakall could make genuinely funny with his unique way of delivering dialogue. He and Errol teamed again for the following year’s entertaining comedy Never Say Goodbye with Eleanor Parker.

After San Antonio, Errol Flynn made three more Westerns. Montana reteamed him with Alexis Smith and Cuddles Sakall, but was a low-key affair. His leading lady in Rocky Mountain, Patrice Wymore, became his third and final wife. The most interesting of the trio was Silver River, which provided Errol with a juicy role as an unlikable silver mine owner in an offbeat variation of David and Bathsheba.

(Both Cuddles and Florence Bates have been profiled as Underrated Performers of the Week at the Cafe. Click on their underlined names to read the tributes to them.)

Underrated Performer of the Week: Florence Bates

Florence Bates, probably best known as Mrs. Van Hopper in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, played overbearing grande dames and obtuse social-climbers to perfection. She delivered withering looks and dismissive jibes with a delicious panache.

Bates began her film career in her later years...but she'd already led quite a life before she found success in Hollywood.

Born Florence Rabe in San Antonio, Texas, in 1888, she graduated from the University of Texas and pursued teaching and social work prior to marriage. As most women did in those days, she stopped working to raise a family. But her marriage failed and following her divorce she took up legal studies under the auspices of a friend who was also a judge. She passed the state bar within six months and became one of the first women attorneys in Texas. When her parents died she switched gears again and left the law to help her sister run the family antiques business. Antiques dealing provided her the opportunity to travel the world and make use of her proficiency in foreign languages. During this period she also hosted a biglingual radio program meant to foster relations between the U.S. and Mexico. In 1929, following the stock market crash and the death of her sister, she sold the antiques business. That same year she married Texas oil tycoon, William F. Jacoby. The pair initially lived in Mexico and El Paso, but when Jacoby lost his fortune they moved to Los Angeles and opened a bakery. The bakery was a success and remained so until the couple sold it in the 1940's.

Bates caught the acting bug in middle age. Not long after moving to California, she and a friend took part in an open audition at the Pasadena Playhouse. She won the role of Miss Bates in a production of Jane Austen's Emma and, because she felt the role had brought her luck, she took the character's name as her own stage name. She joined the Playhouse's acting troupe and continued with local theater work through the late 1930s.

In 1939, Bates' destiny changed once more; she met and made a screen test for Alfred Hitchcock. The director was surprised to learn that she hadn't trained on the London or New York stage and, impressed with her talent, cast her as the insufferable dowager Edythe Van Hopper in his American directorial debut, Rebecca. Her turn as Van Hopper was brief but memorable. In one scene, in a typically Hitchcockian bit of character-revealing business, she crushes out her cigarette in a near-full jar of cold cream. While the Van Hopper character was unsympathetic, it was also nuanced; she is as laughable as she is obnoxious. Rebecca was released just a few days after Bates' 52nd birthday.

Florence Bates now became a very busy character actress, playing a variety of supporting roles and making more than 60 films from 1940 - 1953. While she portrayed another patronizing snob in one of her signature roles, Mrs. Manleigh, in A Letter to Three Wives (1949), she was equally believable as the celebrated and kindly author, Florence Dana Moorhead, in I Remember Mama (1948). Over the span of her career Bates played socialites, landladies, maids, a murderer, a mother-in-law, a gypsy, a writer and more. Whether her part was villainous or comic, she brought color and distinction to each role. Some of her other notable films include Kitty Foyle, The Moon and Sixpence, Mr. Lucky, Kismet, Saratoga Trunk, Cluny Brown, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Portrait of Jennie and On the Town. Bates was featured on some of the top TV sitcoms of the early 1950s: Burns and Allen, Our Miss Brooks, My Little Margie and I Love Lucy. She also appeared on Four Star Playhouse, an anthology series.

Bates kept her ties with the Pasadena Playhouse, attending its productions and endowing scholarships. After her husband passed away in 1951, her health began to decline and she died of a heart attack in 1954 at the age of 65.

Bates' great-granddaughter, Rachel Hamilton, is an actress/comedienne who has appeared in films and on TV, most notably "30 Rock."

Dial H for Hitchcock: Rebecca

Welcome to Dial H for Hitchcock, a monthly online gathering where we discuss the work of "the Master" (of suspense and quite a bit more). Alfred Hitchcock's first American film, Rebecca (1940), is the featured film this month.

By the late 1930's, Hitchcock's reputation was riding high based on several suspense films he'd made in Britain. He came to Hollywood under contract to producer David O. Selznick. Selznick intended Rebecca to rival his previous film, the award-laden Gone With the Wind (1939). The two men had a contentious collaboration on Rebecca but ultimately produced a critical and commercial success that was nominated for 11 Academy Awards. It won two: Best Picture and Best B&W Cinematography.

Rebecca is a favorite of mine, and here are a few reasons why...

A strong sense of atmosphere that underscores the story's gothic quality and mood of vague but insistent foreboding. Manderley, where much of the action occurs, conveys a cavernous and chilly ambiance of inhospitable elegance.

Multi-layered characters, evocative performances. Joan Fontaine is palpably anxious and apprehensive as the second Mrs. de Winter. She doesn't miss a beat and, late in the film, smoothly portrays the young woman's transition as she gains poise and confidence. Laurence Olivier's Maxim de Winter is guilt-riddled, highly strung and volatile...with aristocratic charm. Judith Anderson creates one of Hitchcock's and the screen's great villains as the unbalanced and eventually dangerous Mrs. Danvers. George Sanders as Jack Favell and Florence Bates as Mrs. Van Hopper both play unsavory types, but with comic overtones. Favell is an oily bounder, but a witty one. Van Hopper is insufferably demanding and grandiose - and more than slightly ridiculous.

A final note...Hitchcock reportedly edited "in camera" to prevent Selznick from re-editing his work. Rebecca strikes me as classic Hitchcock with the Selznick treatment: top-notch cast, the finest writers and technicians - and a big budget that shows.

Those are some of my thoughts...but what do you think? What are your opinions, observations and comments...and, if you've read Daphne du Maurier's novel, how would you compare the film to the book?