In the New Guineas, Flynn learned the creed of being a white colonial man and all the powers and privileges, especially sexual privileges in a violent setting, this afforded. He was so often armed with swords he earned the sobriquet of “swashbuckler”.Įrrol Flynn pictured in 1940. His was a mix of physical beauty, devilish charm, gallantry and a raw colonial masculinity enacted in fighting scenes.
Flynn quickly became an iconic action hero. Seven years earlier, Flynn had transformed from an Australian nobody – “a Warner Brothers stock player like a million others” – to a Hollywood idol thanks to his casting in the title role of the 1935 film Captain Blood. And this test of the statutory rape laws involved arguably the biggest film star of the day. In this privileged realm, sacrifice and suffering were nowhere to be found. So began a salacious, high-stakes, Hollywood saga, opening a window onto a very different world of men than those fighting the war. Flynn’s woes multiplied four days later when two more charges were brought against him for twice raping a 15-year-old girl aboard his yacht a year earlier. It was the first report of a stunning and dark LA story that would consume public attention.Īctor Errol Flynn was accused of raping a 17-year-old girl at a party in Bel-Air. On October 17, as Japan launched a vicious attack on American forces on the island of Guadalcanal, news of an Australian-born man much beloved by Americans hit the papers. Across the Pacific, Americans and Australians were locked in titanic battles against the Japanese on air, land and sea, especially in the Solomon Islands. In October 1942, America was still reeling from the attacks ten months before on Pearl Harbor. Warning: this article contains descriptions of sexual and colonial violence.Įighty years ago, the Pacific War felt close to Los Angeles.
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