The Big Boodle (1957)

The prospect of tropical nights in Havana and some income that he wouldn't have to pay entirely to all Uncle Sam in back taxes must have persuaded Errol Flynn to do The Big Boodle. Shot entirely in Havana, I'm sure Errol enjoyed the night life if nothing else.Flynn plays a croupier in a Havana casino, another of those American expatriates. One night a woman passes some counterfeit pesos to him at the blackjack table. He confronts her, but she blows him off. Then after leaving work, he gets assaulted by two thugs and when the police find the phony money on him.The police aren't any help, the police inspector Pedro Armendariz treats Flynn like a criminal and to be fair he does have the phony currency on him. Still he's left to his own devices to pursue the investigation and it leads to a pair of high living sisters in Gia Scala and Rosanna Rory and a number of their acquaintances.The best thing about The Big Boodle is the location photography. Of course color would have been nice, but it is in fact a noir type film, Errol's only venture into that genre. The final scene is a running gun battle in Havana's famous Morro Castle with Flynn and villain Jacques Aubuchon.Errol looks at least 15 to 20 years older than his actual age of 48 when The Big Boodle was made. He wanders rather listlessly through the role, maybe he'd have liked to have done some noir features back in his prime. He's clearly too old to be believably buckling any swashes.Beyond the final scene, The Big Boodle moves at a snail's pace, a really sad project for Errol Flynn to be involved with.

I'm a huge Errol Flynn fan even buying and reading his out of print autobiography "My Wicked, Wicked Ways". I can definitely say that this movie is one of his worse. I think it has to do with it being the end of his career, not much money put toward his projects, and the lack of patience movie companies would have with him. Sorry to say but all that shines thru in this movie, which is a shame. He went from Robin Hood and Captain Blood to a B-rated movie like this. He still has his moments on screen but they are too far and few between. W/ his diminishing good looks and his "off screen" antics, Errol Flynn no longer got his pick of screen plays to read. He had to keep working just to pay the bills w/ his ever growing amount of debt he was in. I think some of his last movies were more for the paycheck than his love of acting.

I recorded "The Big Boodle" when it played on TCM and expected to see a "train wreck" of a movie based on articles and books I have read. I was most pleasantly surprised to see a very entertaining film. I thought that Errol Flynn and the supporting cast were uniformly good. Errol again showed what a great star and actor he really was. The plot was plausible and the pace of the movie moved right along. I am surprised by the negative reviews. "The Big Boodle" is a more substantial film than many more critically acclaimed films... and,by that,I mean mainstream movies that are supposedly "A" quality. Errol brings a worldly weariness appropriate to his role. I was surprised to see how fit he appeared and how involved he was in his portrayal. I believe that he would have been magnificent as Rhett Butler in "Gone With The Wind" which he lost reportedly, due to Betty Davis' refusal to make that movie with him in the leading role. "The Big Boodle" shows what a serious and outstanding actor he was in even a modestly budgeted film

For fans of Errol Flynn, this is a rather tough film to watch. That's because after a lifetime of wild living and booze, the once handsome actor looks pretty lousy for a 48 year-old. He's puffy, flat and lacks the spark and charm that made him a matinée favorite in previous decades. Here, he's just "phoning it in" in a low-budget and rather dull film and it's only of much interest to fans with morbid curiosity or who want to see every film this star made.The story has Flynn playing a lowly blackjack dealer in a Cuban casino--quite a comedown compared to other characters he'd played in the past. While it is interesting to see street scenes of pre-Castro Cuba, the rest of the film is a dull affair concerning Errol being tossed, quite innocently, into a bunch of murderous counterfeiters. Because he was no longer the glamorous hero, he spends most of the film being beaten up and hassled. The best fight for him is at the end when he barely manages to beat up a doughboy-like villain. Not exactly CAPTAIN BLOOD or ROBIN HOOD--it's really a shame Flynn's final films are generally of this low quality.