[6]

Dorothy Malone and Errol Flynn play father and daughter John and Diana Barrymore, real-life members of Hollywood’s famous Barrymore family, both of whom suffered famously from alcoholism. Flynn is very good here in the final noteworthy role of his career. Malone, two years after her Oscar win for Written on the Wind, is hit and miss — less convincing as the younger Diana but better in her later, ‘circling the drain’ years. The first half of the movie is a tense and poignant look at John and Diana’s estranged relationship. At John’s spooky mansion — like something out of Citizen Kane or Sunset Boulevard — alcoholic fits of rage are balanced with genuine regrets and sincere pleas. The pathos is palpable, especially in Flynn’s performance. After John dies at the movie’s mid-point, the film shifts focus to Diana as she inherits her father’s demons and begins her own downward spiral.

Unfortunately, the film is a case of art imitating life… imitating art. Flynn, here playing his old drinking buddy John, would die at the age of 50 just one year after the film was released. Alcohol played a heavy hand in his body’s rapid deterioration. And even though the film hints at a potential happy ending for Diana, the troubled actress would soon take her own life in early 1960 at the age of 38.

With Efram Zimbalist Jr and Murray Hamilton.