[7]

Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland reteam after their initial pairing in Captain Blood. This time, they’re in a love triangle that plays out during an Indian massacre of British women and children, later spurring into action the contents of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s vengeful Charge. For a film from the ’30s, Charge has balls. You see women and children die on screen during some pretty brutal battle sequences. The storytelling is a little more sophisticated than usual, too. Flynn’s character has a personal relationship with the man who later becomes his mortal enemy, and the love triangle is handled with a welcome degree of maturity. Best of all about this flick, though, is Flynn’s performance. Yes, he’s the dashing swashbuckler you’ve come to expect, but there are two or three moments in the film where he transcends his era, tapping into some more naturalistic Brando/Dean-style acting. (Watch him when David Niven asks him to return a family heirloom, and when Spring Byington tells him never to marry someone with an Indian stomach.) The film was Oscar nominated for sound and music (Max Steiner), and won a special award for assistant director Jack Sullivan, who oversaw the 9-minute long climactic showdown. Directed by Michael Curtiz.