FIDEL CASTRO HAS BEEN known as a man of many of many faces–dictator, autocrat, tyrant, despot–but long forgotten is his brief position as artistic muse. And considering that Castro’s admirers consider him a modern-day Robin Hood, it’s quite appropriate that the artist he inspired was none other than Errol Flynn.
The politics of Errol Flynn have become a source of controversy over the years, thanks to the Charles Higham-penned biography portraying him as a Nazi sympathizer. Having vacationed in Cuba over the years, Flynn–so the story goes–hatched a scheme to assassinate Castro. At some point, however, the actor switched sides. (And this after years of enjoying Cuban saloons, gambling dens, and brothels with President Batista’s blessings. That’s gratitude for you.) After charming his way into a reporting gig for the Hearst newspaper chain, Flynn played up El Commandante and his hombres alegres as freedom-fighters worthy of America’s support. No doubt hanging out with charismatic firebrands like Castro and Che Guevara sparked Flynn to conceive what wound up being one of the most inane movies of the decade, Cuban Rebel Girls.
