An awkward silence falls across the set. Errol Flynn, portraying the titular character in The Adventures Of Robin Hood in front of several cameras and a studio packed to the rafters with cast, crew and film company executives, looks panicked.
It is 1937, and Errol Flynn has forgotten his words again. Seasoned director Michael Curtiz grinds his jaw and slowly clenches his fist until the knuckles turn white.
This film is to be one of the first great blockbusters. An hour and a forty-two minutes of full technicolour drama, adventure and romance, and Errol, though an incredible swordsman and physical actor, keeps forgetting his lines.
The actress gazing longingly into Errol’s eyes is the young Olivia De Havilland, and they are shooting one of the final scenes in which the dashing hero declares his love for her.
The director is so angered by yet another interruption that he forgets to yell ‘cut’. All eyes are still on Errol as he, to the surprise of everyone present and in a moment of stunning and ground-breaking improvisation, moves his lips closer to his co-star’s mouth.
Their lips touch, for a brief, spell-binding moment. He pulls away, their brief but intense connection almost tangible.
The first kiss in the history of mankind has occurred; captured on film for eternity.
“We had absolutely no idea what Errol was doing, no idea at all” stated Michael Cortiz in an interview with the Washington Post in 1958 on the twentieth anniversary of the movie’s release.
“We didn’t know if he had suffered sort of stroke and was going to bite her, or whether he had merely momentarily lost his balance. When their lips met, none of us knew whether she would be able to breathe or indeed what was going to happen next.
“But I’ll never forget that look on her face – a sort of confused delight that cannot adequately be put into words.
“I’m just so privileged to have been there; to have witnessed a moment that sparked a revolution.
“I can say with absolute certainty that without Errol and Olivia’s kiss, then Casablanca, the film I would go on to direct four years later, would have been a lesser film without it. And White Christmas would have been a total wash out.”
And so, one moment of poor memory from an Australian actor playing an English legend on a small studio in California changes human relationships forever.
Next week: How The French Took Kissing To New and Daring Heights
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