Escape Me Never

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.

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.

I think the casting of the actors is exceptionally good and Errol Flynn's nonchalant manner fits perfectly in this story. I felt it demonstrated the lesson that we don't appreciate what we have until it is too late and is taken from us. We mustn't take love for granted.

I was particularly interested to see Albert Bassermann appearing in this film and recognized his voice immediately because of his next and last acting performance which was in the famous 1948 film "The Red Shoes" in which he had a fairly significant role - not bad for an actor nearing 80 years of age!

Ida Lupino as 'Gemma' is cast adrift after a short union in marriage which produced a son, but she must fend for herself when tragedy ends the union. She links up the Sebastian (Flynn), a musician, who also happens to have a brother that is in music too.

I like the moderate display in this production of the film, nothing overblown or showy, but just plain and simple, almost like a stage production in a way and more true to the story.

It's an excellent movie and well worth seeing.

For big fans of Errol and big fans of period romance musical comedy/drama combo,this movie will deliver the goods.The story hits the spot for the genre.Very good music,very good cast and acting as well.What kpt this movie from becoming a classic though was the low budget and average directing.The cinematography was also below average.But still,Errol Flynn is so charming here as usual and for the right audience,it's still a winner.This film was unfairly under rated due to the dreaded anti-Flynn syndrome bandwagon......

When the macLean family catches gemma (Ida Lupino) wandering around the closed rooms of their venice mansion, they learn what a scoundrel dubrok is. But there are two dubroks! Caryl (Gig Young) is the prim and proper one, while sebastian (Flynn) is the troublesome, artistic, bohmian one that gemma knows. So the macLeans rush out of town to keep their daughter from getting mixed up with any dubroks. So the brothers take gemma and her baby to go find fenella (Parker) and straighten the mess out. When they find her, sebastian and fenella talk alone. Fenella can't make up her mind which brother she likes. Life is confusing. And when people "talk" in the moonlight, sometimes it means more happened, during the film code... it's ok. Takes a long time to get where its going. And the ballet scene goes on way too long. Will fenella steal gemma's man? She flutters her eye lashes, and floats back and forth between them. This warner brothers version, and the 1935 UA film are both based on the novel and play by Margaret Kennedy.