Another Dawn: Errol Flynn and the Desert of Regret

Is it worth your time?

Honestly? Only if you have a very specific craving for black-and-white melodrama or you’re working your way through every Errol Flynn flick ever made. If you want a tight, punchy war movie, look elsewhere. If you want people staring longingly at each other across dinner tables while holding wine glasses, you’re in luck.

This movie feels like it was filmed in a sandbox that someone forgot to sweep. Everything looks a bit too clean and stage-managed, even when the local tribes are supposedly closing in on the fort.

The dynamic is… awkward.

You’ve got Ian Hunter playing the Colonel who thinks he can just 'reason' his way into a happy marriage. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton, let’s see if it pays off. Spoiler: it does not. The whole middle section drags because we’re just waiting for him to notice that his wife, played by Kay Francis, is staring at Errol Flynn like he’s the last slice of cake at a birthday party.

Errol Flynn, as Captain Roark, is doing that thing he does where he leans against doorframes and looks vaguely heroic while doing absolutely nothing. It works, sure. But there’s a scene near the midway point where they’re all sitting around having tea, and the tension is so thick you could cut it with a dull butter knife. Then it just… stays that way for ten minutes.

• The uniforms are way too pristine for a desert outpost.
• The dialogue is so polite it’s actually painful.
• I’m pretty sure one of the extras in the background of the market scene is just reading a newspaper.

It’s not quite as weird as something like Mysteries of India, Part I: Truth, but it shares that same sense of 'let’s put these people in an exotic location and hope for the best.' It lacks the sharp, witty edge you’d expect from a Maugham adaptation. Instead, it feels like a dress rehearsal that got turned into a final cut.

The ending tries to force this big, tragic realization, but by that point, I was mostly just checking my watch. The movie doesn't really earn the drama. It just sort of lands on it because the runtime hit the ninety-minute mark and they figured, 'Okay, let's wrap this up.'

Watch it for the costumes if you must. Otherwise, maybe just watch a travel documentary about the desert. It’ll probably have more actual stakes.