{"id":26693,"date":"2023-04-28T16:43:58","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T20:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redphoenixnews.com\/?p=26693"},"modified":"2026-04-23T23:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T04:51:14","slug":"hollywood-blacklist-objective-burma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2023\/04\/hollywood-blacklist-objective-burma\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood Blacklist: “Objective, Burma!”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Still from the film \u201cObjective, Burma!\u201d starring Errol Flynn. Courtesy of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Ed Rampell, Red Phoenix guest contributor, California.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Note: This is the unedited text for the introduction to the April 23 screening of Objective, Burma!<\/em> at the Academy Museum for this series commemorating the 75el<\/sup> anniversary of the Hollywood Blacklist.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who attended our screening of 1944\u2019s None Shall Escape<\/em>? Like today\u2019s movie, Objective, Burma!<\/em>, it\u2019s a WWII morale booster co-written by Lester Cole, one of the Hollywood Ten. In his autobiography Hollywood Red<\/em>, Cole writes that in the original story for None Shall Escape<\/em> the Polish Jews were portrayed as too passive. But Cole, who was of Polish and Jewish descent, decided to depict them more militantly, resisting the Nazis. Cole admits that for the Rabbi\u2019s rabblerousing speech he \u201cplagiarized\u201d a \u201cline made famous by\u2026 La Passionara,\u201d the Spanish Civil War\u2019s fiery anti-fascist orator. That dialogue which Cole \u201cstole\u201d was: \u201cFight, fight, for freedom, for justice. It is far better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During WWII Communist Party screenwriters and other independent leftists were drafted to write Hollywood\u2019s anti-fascist films because they had the consciousness and conscience necessary for inspiring wartime audiences to support the war effort. Objective, Burma! <\/em>doesn\u2019t have much politically aware dialogue, although it does have something in common with Cole\u2019s plot for None Shall Escape<\/em>, which is framed through the prism of a Nuremberg-like tribunal condemning fascist crimes against humanity. As you\u2019ll see, Objective, Burma! <\/em>is also concerned with the issue of war crimes committed by the Axis powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Objective, Burma\u2019s!<\/em> original story was written by Alvah Bessie, who like Cole, became one of the Hollywood Ten. Bessie received one of the movie\u2019s three Oscar nominations, for Best Writing, Original Story. He had volunteered to fight fascism in Spain as a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and wrote a highly regarded account of the Spanish Civil War, Men in Battle<\/em>. Cut short by the Blacklist, Alvah\u2019s screenwriting career lasted only about five years. But Bessie put his so-called \u201cpremature anti-fascism\u201d to good use in Tinseltown. In addition to Objective, Burma!<\/em>, he also co-wrote 1945\u2019s Hotel Berlin<\/em> and 1943\u2019s Northern Pursuit<\/em>, which like today\u2019s movie starred Errol Flynn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As moviedom\u2019s greatest swashbuckler, from portraying mutineer Fletcher Christian in 1933\u2019s In the Wake of the Bounty <\/em>to playing rebel pirates in 1935\u2019s Captain Blood <\/em>and 1940\u2019s The Sea Hawk<\/em>, and but of course depicting the title character in the 1938 classic The Adventures of Robin Hood<\/em>, Errol Flynn epitomized the democratic hero fighting screen tyrants. But little is known about Flynn\u2019s role regarding the Left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A book alleges Flynn was secretly a Nazi spy, but according to his autobiography, Errol\u2019s sympathies were with the Left. Was Captain Blood a Red? I don\u2019t know how true this is, because in all of my research on the Hollywood Left, the Australian actor was never mentioned as being a member of any particular left-wing organization or supporter of leftist causes. I think Flynn was more interested in partying with John Barrymore and W.C. Fields than in the Party. But according to My Wicked, Wicked Ways<\/em>, the Tasmania-born Flynn claims that when he was a white overseer at a plantation for forced labor in what is now Papua New Guinea, Flynn passed his time reading books about Marxism, even as he was part of the system exploiting the toil of Melanesians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1937 Flynn went to Europe to cover the Spanish Civil War for the Hearst Press. Here\u2019s a brief account: In Paris, \u201cOn March 21 Flynn attended a memorial service for the Clichy victims, who had died during a March 16 demonstration when the police fired into the crowd, killing six and wounding 200.\u201d Flynn continued on to Spain via train and wrote that at \u201cBarcelona \u2026 I have to give short speech and am cheered when I finished with clenched fist communist salute and the word \u2018Salute\u2019 \u2026 Great reception!\u201d The movie star also autographed publicity pictures provided by Warner Brothers and visited the International Brigades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a lunch with high-ranking military officers, one talked about \u201cthe heartfelt emotions and happiness the Spanish people felt that their hero of the screen and upholder of justice, Errol Flynn, was with them. The Spanish people would never forget this\u2026 I sat there in amazement, trying not to show surprise to be cast in such a role,\u201d the self-deprecating Flynn wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At night Flynn went to Madrid\u2019s University City where heavy fighting was reported. He found himself suddenly caught in the middle of it<\/a> and had to take shelter. An artillery round fell nearby, causing the bombed-out building to shake and a large chunk of plaster fell on Flynn\u2019s head, knocking him out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I recall, in My Wicked, Wicked Ways <\/em>Flynn wrote he visited the front lines where, cheering him on, Loyalist soldiers gave him a rifle \u2013 but the star of Captain Blood didn\u2019t have the stomach to shoot real life fascists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards the end of his life, Flynn made two left-wing films, directing the documentary The Truth About Fidel Castro Revolution<\/em>. In 1959\u2019s pro-Castro Cuban Rebel Girls <\/em>Flynn played an American correspondent. Interestingly, Henry Hull plays an over-the-hill correspondent in Objective, Burma! <\/em>Unfortunately, the movie uses objectionable racist slurs for the Japanese. To be fair to Lester Cole, his 1945 Blood on the Sun<\/em>, which stars Jimmy Cagney, depicts anti-fascist Japanese characters. And in Objective, Burma! <\/em>there are some sympathetic Chinese and Burmese minor characters, plus Asit Koomar as the Gurkha soldier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, making the world safe for democracy in the deepest darkest jungles of the L.A. Arboretum and Botanic Garden is director Raoul Walsh\u2019s action-packed Objective, Burma!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This article is one installment of our Hollywood Blacklist series by film historian and critic Ed Rampell. The complete series can be found below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n