From the S&S archives:
Sean Flynn follows Errol's footsteps

The hero grabs the burly pirate at the doorway and knocks him out of the picture. Just in time, too, to save the curvaceous blonde from what is euphemistically known as the fate worse than death.

Down the stairs on cue comes another meanie with a cardboard dagger. A quick flip over the hero's shoulder sends the pirate crashing onto a mattress just outside camera range.

But wait! Still another pirate has slipped in behind the hero. He grabs the back of the hero's silk shirt with a powerful jerk. The shirt is supposed to tear and bare a beautiful bicep.

It doesn't work quite that way — the shirt doesn't tear and the hero lands on his dignity, hard-like.

"Cut!" cries the director in dismay.

So it went one day at the CEA studios in Madrid where Sean Flynn was making his first movie, a buckle of swash titled "The Son of Captain Blood."

The title and name may have a certain familiar ring to the dedicated readers of movie magazines. It was just 26 years ago that a dashing unknown actor named Errol Flynn became a star by his performance in "Captain Blood."

Flynn the elder went on to become one of Hollywood's most colorful — and most controversial — stars before his death in 1959. It's a little early to predict the artistic future of his only son, but there are certain signs ...

Certainly Sean (pronounced Shawn) is handsome enough to carry on his father's tradition. Only 20 years old, he stands about six feet or so and has the build of a four-letter man. A friendly neighborhood druggist provided some blond streaks in his wavy hair, and his teeth are indeed whiter than white.

Also, he shows signs of being a restless soul like his father. Despite being elected president of the freshman class at Duke University, he pulled out before completing the year.

"I just couldn't go that bit," he explained. "I was going to make a jeep trip to South America, but this deal came along."

By "this deal," Sean means a bald-headed little gnome named Harry Joe Brown, whose celluloid career spans some 40 years and more than 200 pictures. Betty Grable was just one of the stars created by his pictures.

Brown, who looks and dresses more like the doorman on he set than the traditional Hollywood producer, also made the original "Captain Blood."

How does he compare father and son? "Sean will be a greater star than his father. The rushes are terrific. I plan to make two more pictures with him next year."

Sean's entry into the movie world came somewhat unexpectedly. He lived with his mother, Lili Damita, Errol's first wife, in Palm Beach, Fla., until entering Duke.

'I was taking a liberal arts course — no dramatics or anything like that," he explained.

Shortly after bugging out at the university, Sean was contacted by Brown and asked if he would be interested in having a go at the movie business.

"I told him sure — how much will you pay?"

Apparently, the price was right ("I've got a lot tied up in this boy," Brown admits) and Sean signed a contract. Brown tried to get his newcomer to spend some time in Hollywood at a dramatic school, but Sean balked.

"I felt like the best way to learn was by making a picture. I've made some mistakes, but it's coming along now."

Now that he is in the business, Sean intends to stay with it. He's understandably sensitive about everything he does compared to his father, and strangers who come up with "I knew your dad" stories are the worst. After all, Errol knew quite a few people.

Otherwise, Sean reflects much of his father's charm. He doesn't take himself too seriously most of the time ("See that door over there? Fifty men couldn't knock it down, but I do in the picture.").

He enjoys chatting with everyone from his curvaceous blonde co-star, Italian Allessandra Panaro, to the multitude of extras in the film. The language barrier is more or less hurdled by his polyglot French-Spanish-English.

The film has been in production for several weeks now, first down on the Costa del Sol for the shots involving the ships, and later in the Madrid studios.

("We had a flood while we were down on the coast and got some great footage for the film, but everyone will say it's faked," Brown commented sadly.)

The interiors shot in Madrid included a church built inside a water tank. In the picture, the island city of Port Royal is hit by an earthquake and a crowd of people is trapped and threatened with drowning inside the church.

So Sean and the mob of extras spent Thanksgiving Day sloshing around in the cold water up to their drumsticks as the director insisted on shooting the scene from first one angle, then another.

Even the bottles of cognac passed around between takes did little to ward off the chill.

Actually the film presented the possibility of a historic first — the greatest electrocution in history. If one of the many power lines dangling from above the set had dropped into the water, the movie would have required a new cast.

Fortunately this didn't happen, and chances are the name of Flynn will continue to appear on the marquee of your friendly neighborhood movie for many years to come.