Overrated

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

. . . for preserving Good Old Boys Networks, Institutional Sadomasochism, perpetuating the plague of callous murders-by-malpractice in America's hospitals, and upholding Religion based upon the precept that "The Richest Person Is Always Right." Mr. Douglas probably saw a movie in which one of Walter Reed's buddies lets himself be bitten by a Yellow Fever-infected mosquito, and rushed home thinking "Let's up the ante--a Tick's bite is Ickier than a 'Squeeter's any day of the week!" At this time, America thought that 14-year-old girls made Errol Flynn tick. In a brilliant piece of casting against type, Warner Bros. convinced Errol to make GREEN LIGHT to show that it was actually TICKS that made him tick! Though Oscar Wilde was clairvoyantly channeling Errol when he wrote A PORTRAIT OF DORIAN GRAY (autopsy results would show that Mr. Flynn died at 50 in a nonagenarian's body), Mr. Douglas laughed all the way to the bank thinking about such a hedonist being cast as his unlikely saint in GREEN LIGHT. Many may argue over whether this tale's "Dean Harcourt" is more Iago or Machiavelli, but most will enjoy seeing the lowly wood tick getting "in like Flynn."

Lloyd Douglas was a popular author whose books, Magnificent Obsession, Demetrius and the Gladiators, the Robe, and this film, Green Light, were all made into films. Since Douglas was a Lutheran minister, his stories often had a spiritual theme. In "Green Light," a surgeon (Errol Flynn) takes the rap for another surgeon (Henry O'Neill) when a patient dies during surgery. He is asked to resign his hospital position, which he does, and he joins a fellow doctor (Walter Abel) in his work to find a cure for spotted fever.Cedric Hardwicke plays an Episcopal minister who is the spiritual adviser of the dead woman's daughter (Anita Louise) and Flynn's nurse (Margaret Lindsay). He is the voice of author Douglas.The theme is self-sacrifice, that no person exists alone, and that we all are part of life's tapestry. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one.As others have pointed out, this is a different type of role for Errol Flynn. He doesn't quite nail it. Handsome and charming, Flynn was a sincere actor whose looks and athleticism made up for the fact that he very often didn't get under the skin of a role. This role called for a more solid, contemplative approach. Someone on this board mentioned Tyrone Power, and I agree, he would have been a better choice. Flynn was just too lightweight for this sort of part, though, like everything else he did, he gets away with it. He was a movie star first, and that covered a multitude of sins. Lindsay and Louise don't have much to do. Hardwicke imbues his role with a great deal of dignity.A definite for Flynn fans to see him do a role against type.

If I should choose one American director for the twenties/thirties,I would take Frank Borzage any day.This is a film of a believer ,but a believer who never falls into the trap of bigotry:the "green light" of the title is the light that comes from the sky,the light of hope which should enlighten everyone.His early silent movies (particularly "Humoresque" ) displays a strong faith in a divine intervention provided that you are worthy of it."Seventh Heaven" ,"Little man what now" ,to name but two,featured characters who had nothing,nothing but their love for each other and their faith in providence.It would culminate in 1940 with Borzage's masterpieces,"the mortal storm" and "Strange cargo",particularly the latter where Cambreau becomes some kind of messiah.Eroll Flynn,cast against type ,-but portraying a physician who predates his role in Walsh's "Uncertain Glory" where he finally sacrifices everything- ,gave all:first he took the blame for an operation which cost a patient her life;then he acted as his own guinea pig for his vaccine.It often recalls "magnificent obsession" (the first version by J.Stahl was released two years before):both works feature a man of God : the man who tells the hero of "obsession" a man died on the cross for man's salvation,the priest in "green light".The choir in the church which we heard at the beginning returns for a canticle which climaxes the movie .Be prepared to sacrifice anything and do not ask anything in return,there will be a reward anyway.

Warner Bros. occasionally gave ERROL FLYNN a break away from his usual swashbuckling roles but should have paid more attention to finding a better source material. The Lloyd C. Douglas novel is an uneven mixture of religion, psychiatry and sudsy melodramatics, never quite sure what the net results ought to be. Flynn is not the problem. He turns in a fine performance as a doctor who nobly sacrifices his own reputation when a medical mistake made by an older doctor could ruin the man's life. He looks as handsome and fit as ever.If this were made in the '50s or '60s, no doubt Ross Hunter would have persuaded Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson to have a go at it, as they did in Douglas' THE MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION, another story about a doctor who pays for his mistake, all done up in glossy technicolor.But it soon becomes clear that this is a weak tale, full of platitudes and moralizing by a preacher (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) who neatly sums up his philosophy of right and wrong with simplistic slogans. The message is poured on pretty thick before the story reaches the point where Flynn takes a medical risk in order to prove his theory about spotted fever.It's all very obvious, slick and artificial, but at least the performances are earnest. Anita Louise and Margaret Lindsay can't do too much with the pallid female leads but Walter Abel does nicely as a dedicated physician and Henry O'Neill is believable as the medical man who makes a serious error during a critical operation.Frank Borzage directs the proceedings with dignity but gets little help from a stagnant script. Max Steiner contributes one of his lesser scores, more subdued than usual in providing any melodic themes.Interesting only in the fact that it provides Flynn with an offbeat role as a physician.