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Cuban Story A Revolutionary Motion Picture
Catalog ADED1712DVD, coming April 30, 2002 B&W, original aspect ratio 1.33:1, approx 60 mins
A never-before-seen unique documentary on the Cuban revolution, seen from ground zero as it happened, narrated and presented by Errol Flynn. Newly transferred from archival 35mm masters.
Suggested Retail Price $24.99
About Cuban Story (1959):
A full-length special film depicting the drama of the bloody struggle against Baptista.
Amazing, never-before-seen documentary footage of Fidel Castro's rise to power, interlaced with commentary and analysis by host Errol Flynn.
Errol Flynn and Victor Pahlen owned a movie theater in Havana together. They were there, gambling and partying, when the revolution broke out around them. Sensing the import of history in the making, these two veteran filmmakers grabbed their cameras to capture what they could for posterity. Pahlen convinced Flynn to take part in the film as host and narrator. The result was a unique documentation of Castro's violent overthrow of Baptista's regime. After the revolution, this film was screened at the Moscow Film Festival, where it was the first time the Russian people had ever seen the face of Fidel Castro.
That one screening was the sole presentation of Cuban Story, which almost vanished altogether in the ensuring decades.
For obvious political reasons, Cuban Story was not shown anywhere other than Russia at the time of its making. Producer Victor Pahlen passed away, leaving the original negatives to his daughter Kyra, who has valiantly publicized the film and generated significant interest in this unique film and its valuable footage. However, the negatives were in dilapidated condition and required restoration in order to enable Cuban Story to be made publicaly available.
And, well, gentle readers, you can probably guess the rest of this story. We here at All Day are once again proud to be working with Kyra Pahlen to reintroduce one of her father's important contributions to audiences on DVD. Look for this DVD restoration of Cuban Story in mid-2002.
Strange as it may seem, this is not the only film that co-starred Errol Flynn with Fidel Castro. At about the same time that Flynn and Pahlen filmed this serious, sincere non-fiction movie, Flynn also staged a second, pathetic, fiction film in which he and Fidel Castro appear as themselves(!). Known as Cuban Rebel Girls, this was to be Flynn's last motion picture.
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-- Yoshie
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