Cuban Rebel Girls (1959) User Reviews

A fascinating home movie

[boris-26 · 2/10 · 28 May 2005]

During his quarter century career, Errol Flynn worked with great directors like Michael Curtiz, Raoul Walsh, and John Huston. Flynn would end his career with this film made by his no-talent agent, Barry Mahon (Mahon later created many nudie-cutie movies and possibly the scariest children's film of all time- SANTA AND THE ICE CREAM BUNNY.)

Adorned with under-lit, very bad photography, Flynn plays an aging war reporter following the exploits of teen-aged rebel girls fighting in the name of Fidel Castro. The main chick here is Beverly, a bored New Yorker who joins the rebel girls mainly to be near her boyfriend whose fighting for Castro. Beverly is played by Beverly Aadland, who was Flynn's girlfriend at the time. She comes across as an Eisenhower era Paris Hilton, an on screen zombie. The film is bit boring for any real camp value. It is fascinating how the love bug bit Errol Flynn, who wrote and stars in this weird film, bit him, and would not let go!

Better Than Average Exploitation Film: Cuban Rebel Girls

[arthur_tafero · 3/10 · 22 July 2019]

The production company of the film should give you a clue about the motive of the filmmakers here. Exploit Productions? Well, at least they were honest about what they were doing. The acting is abysmal; especially Beverly Aadland, who has to play a ditzy blonde following her boyfriend into the revolution. (by the way, he gets shot in the left shoulder and has a cast on his right shoulder later in the film; I'm pretty sure that this is not the medical solution for that). Despite Aadland, a drunken and overweight Flynn, and some unintentionally funny scenes (like having a company marching and singing loudly in the jungle on the way to a skirmish; thereby letting your opposition know exactly where you are), the film is still entertaining and instructive. Woody Allen would make a satire of this film about a decade later. But these people really believed that there would be a new Cuba; it just didnt turn out to be the Cuba they wanted it to be. This is not the worst film ever made; not even close. Of course, it is far from a good film, and should be viewed more as a semi-documentary rather than anything resembling a dramatic film. As far as exploitation films are concerned, there may be debate as to whom exploited whom here. Did Flynn exploit Castro, or did Castro exploit Flynn? You decide. I found the film interesting to view from a historical perspective.

they didn't know what they were getting into

[lee_eisenberg · 2/10 · 1 February 2007]

Errol Flynn, beloved as Robin Hood, Capt. Blood, etc, ended his career with this hilariously pathetic excuse for a movie. "Cuban Rebel Girls" portrays an American girl (Beverly Aadland, who's got nothing except her looks) going to Cuba to help her boyfriend fight for Fidel Castro's army in their revolution against Fulgencio Batista. It warps the mind not that they went to Cuba and made a pro-Castro movie - although I find that neat - but that Flynn dropped down to this. I wouldn't be surprised if knowing that he was part of it is what caused Flynn's death soon after. Worth seeing as an example of film-making gone terribly wrong.

I wonder whether or not Castro remembers that he participated with Errol Flynn in making this movie. If he does, he probably tries to hide it.

Not As Bad As They Say

[go_titans · 13 July 2011]

Being a completest and a major fan of Errol Flynn's I bought this movie on DVD about 5 years ago, but allowed myself to be swayed by public opinion (describing it as the worst movie ever made) and promptly sat it on the shelf unwatched.

The other night however I finally decided to dust it down and pop the disc in the player for the very first time, and my end verdict? I have seen far worse films than this.

Firstly, the film is well narrated by Flynn and the story is easy to follow. I have seen many movies where the editing and story-telling is so badly handled that you haven't got a clue what's going on. Cuban Rebel Girls is very easy to follow, so there's no problem there.

And about Flynn's narration: It is my understanding that more than anything else Flynn wanted to be taken seriously as a war correspondent. He didn't care about acting, but he did want to be a writer. Well this side of him shines through with this film. Right from the start it feels less like a movie and more like a typical documentary of the period. Some recognition of this from other reviewers would have been nice.

Another aspect of the film that gets savaged by reviewers is the picture quality. I have a brand new Panasonic 50 inch TV that shows up bad picture immediately, and the picture quality in this movie is just fine!

People also maintain that all the acting is abysmal. Well, once again I feel that this is unfair. I've seen far worse acting on a hundred occasions, and in particular the guy playing Aadland's boyfriend happens to say his lines very well!

But there is no doubt that this film is an amateurish effort. Flynn's role is almost pointless - apart from the well handled narration, and he does indeed appear to be inebriated for at least the last scene he's in. To be fair again though; Flynn was drunk through most of The Sun Also Rises, and horrible in The Roots Of Heaven. He was noticeably drunk all the way through that movie, whereas in Cuban Rebel Girls his narration is sober, and so are his first few scenes. Considering this was made in the year he died, and of how much pain I was in watching him in Roots Of Heaven, I was pleasantly surprised by his efforts in this film.

The aspect of this film that I find the hardest to handle is Flynn's seeming obsession with young girls! Of all the things to criticize I would have thought someone would mention this, since it makes him sound every bit like a one-track-minded dirty old man.

One last point to make: before having watched this film I knew nothing about the Cuban Revolution. After having watched it I had at least a small appreciation for the type of things that went on, and the effort the people went through to support it. To say this film is a waste of time and not worth watching is both ignorant and unfair...in my opinion.

Uplifting Finale from a Superstar

[EdgarST · 5/10 · 17 July 2015]

Much better than what I expected after reading so much misinformation and moralistic rubbish about it, there are several elements that save "Cuban Rebel Girls" from oblivion. First, of course, it is somehow moving to see it as a product of love (or lust, take your pick), a vehicle conceived by Errol Flynn for his last woman, the 17-year old starlet Beverly Aadland. As it is, it is not bad: he even steps aside to let her be the center of the story that he conceived for her. To reflect on the plot, one has to consider first the second high point of the motion picture: it is a direct and fresh view of the first days of Cuban revolution, shot in Cuba and with the support of the Rebel Army. Those who make fun of the film apparently have no sense of the historic value of moving images, and in this case "Cuban Rebel Girls" contains valuable footage of the year the Cuban revolution triumphed, 1959 images of La Habana, the country side, the rebels, the sugar factories and even a brief moment of country music. In the movie, Flynn plays himself taking a trip to Cuba as a reporter covering the last days of the struggle to overthrow dictator Fulgencio Batista. Simultaneously an American girl (Aadland), whose lover is fighting with the rebels in the island, helps a Cuban girlfriend to take guns to the army. It is a very simple story line, but quite effective, combined with the images of the real "barbudos" (the bearded men, as the rebels were called when they could not shave after spending long time hidden in the mountains). For the project I guess Flynn could not afford top professionals, so he had to make do with his pilot-manager Barry Mahom as director (who in latter days would produce, write or direct sexploitation movies), cinematographer Merrill S. Brody, whose camera set-ups were not always inspired and a cast of non-professionals who at least handled their few lines with enthusiasm. A third factor of interest for me is that this was Errol Flynn's last film: whatever you may think of it, as you compare it with his glory days, Flynn really touched my heart and made me smile with his last lines, wishing the best to all the rebels of the world who fight for a better life.

A pitiful swan song for a screen legend.

[bux · 1/10 · 8 November 1998]

Sadly this was to be Fynn's last picture. It is the muddled story of a gang of teenage girls out to support Fidel Castro in his attempt to overthrow Batista. The movie was obviously conceived when the U.S. was still in support of the rebel leader. Star Aadland was Flynn's 16 year-old girlfriend at the time. During his career Flynn was arguably as much of a 'Come-back Kid' as President Clinton: Flynn was able to overcome lawsuits, sexual peccadilloes, alcoholism and just about anything else you can name, and still rebound with one more decent appearance on screen. Still, it is doubtful that he would have survived the embarrassment of this picture.

Valley Girl Fights For Fidel

[bkoganbing · 1/10 · 20 December 2010]

It's sad that Errol Flynn did not get as a screen farewell with one of his three previous pictures before Cuban Rebel Girls. The Sun Also Rises, Too Much Too Soon, or The Roots Of Heaven were decent films of varying quality, but all showed Flynn as the actor he longed to be acclaimed for. This film which looks like it was shot with a Kodak home movie camera was both a tax write-off for Flynn and a lame attempt at propaganda for Fidel Castro.

Ironically enough in 1957 Flynn had done another Cuban based film, The Big Boodle shot in Havana with the cooperation of the government that Flynn was now saying was corrupt. It was nothing that the Motion Picture Academy would have paid any attention to, but next to Cuban Rebel Girls, The Big Boodle looks like Citizen Kane.

Done in a semi-documentary style, Cuban Rebel Girls has Errol playing himself as a war correspondent covering the revolution against Fulgencio Batista led by Fidel Castro. A little more than 20 years earlier Flynn in his salad days did something similar covering the Spanish Civil War from the Loyalist point of view. But Warner Brothers did no documentary about his adventures there, in fact Jack Warner was mighty bent out of shape.

The story of one girl from the USA intrigues Flynn. His teenage mistress at the time, Beverly Aadland played a young woman who goes down to Cuba with a girl friend who is a Cuban national who is bringing laundered cash for the revolution. Her boyfriend John MacKay is a mercenary who is fighting for Castro and Flynn assures us there were many Americans in those ranks.

Poor Aadland, even if Errol had lived I doubt she would have had much of a career. She was one of the worst actresses I've ever seen, reading her lines with no conviction whatever. She came off as a super dumb Valley Girl. But in fairness to her, the only professional in the cast was Errol Flynn, the others were equally as bad. And Flynn hardly summoned any conviction to even playing Errol Flynn.

This is such a sad ending for a screen legend that Flynn's legion of fans should do like Sam Goldwyn said and stay away in droves.

Barry Mahon starts when Errol Flynn ends

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 21 March 2021]

The last filmed appearance of Errol Flynn was not a major Hollywood movie, but instead a strange piece of B-movie propaganda directed by Barry Mahon and starring Flynn's lover at the time, Beverly Aadland, who was seventeen at the time that this movie was made. A year after this, her boyfriend William Stanciu died after a struggle between the two of them over a gun and she was made a ward of the state. This would also be her last film, although she did appear in some documentaries made about Flynn.

Errol Flynn plays Errol Flynn, who has arrived in Cuba on behalf of the Hearst Press to write about Castro and the Cuban rebel girls. He then also meets Beverly (Aadland) and Jacqueline, who have raised $50,000 to give to the rebels to purchase weapons.

After the making of this movie, Aadland got into a brawl with Flynn's second wife, Nora Edington, at her birthday party. Nora claimed that she took exception to Aadland calling the actor elderly. For what it's worth, he looks exhausted in this movie and would die of a heart attack two months before its release.

So yeah. A pro-pre-Communist Castro Cuban movie with a major star who narrowly beat statutory charges having an underage relationship with one of his co-stars, as directed by the man who would bring us Confessions of a Bad Girl and Run Swinger Run. This is why I have a web site.

Flynn's last...and, sadly, among his worst.

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 31 May 2019]

Errol Flynn has an interesting distinction for a major movie star....his very first film ("In the Wake of the Bounty") and last ("Cuban Rebel Girls") are both among his very worst pictures....godawful messes to put it bluntly. While a few major stars ended with a terrible film or two (Joan Crawford comes to mind), Flynn is unusual because both ends of his career were terrible.

In his final years, when he wasn't drinking and carousing, Flynn became fascinated with Fidel Castro and the Cuban revolution. He wrote articles about it as well as made and financed the ultra-low budge films "The Big Boodle" and "Cuban Rebel Girls"...two terrible films set in Cuba.

The story is narrated by Flynn. He plays himself and his journey to find and meet Castro for the film. Then, the film switches to some staged scenes where, supposedly, women are fighting the revolution through obtaining financing for the revolution or police are arresting these patriots. Sadly, these scenes don't work at all due to the bad acting and completely missing Cuban accents....they just look cheap and fake. Oddly, however, instead of just making a narrative story, Flynn heavily narrates much of this...and the result is awful...like a film made by a local community theater in quality (at best). Much of the rest of the film consists of stock footage. It's just an obviously cheap and poorly made concoction that is really boring. It was also obsolete almost as soon as it debuted, as Castro had won the revolution by 1959 and had shown he wasn't exactly the hero Flynn imagined him to be...which is probably why the movie disappeared so quickly and is today still hard to find. I found the movie on a channel called 'Film Detective' using my Amazon Fire device.

Overall, a terrible movie and a sad ending to Flynn's brilliant career. Perhaps not as bad as "In the Wake of the Bounty"....perhaps worse. Either way, I can't see viewers enjoying either. The only ones who might enjoy it are the curious or folks who actually enjoy seeing bad movies.

Out goes Flynn.

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 2 January 2016]

More ridiculously boring than downright awful, this is an unbelievable account of rebellion going on in early Castro Cuba. Flynn, allegedly playing himself as a war correspondent, narrates the structure of this which is downright unwatchable. Actual footage of him is minimal, and while there is remnants of the superstar he once was, it's a sad exit to his life and career. What would be considered wretched even on television is downright lame on the big screen of 1959 and this ranks as one of the worst of the year along with the much higher budgeted "On the Beach".

The whole political set-up seems forced and one-sided which is not surprising considering that it seems to have been rushed together and not properly thought out. Flynn's presence in it is the only interesting element as the other actors are really bad. The blonde rebel girls are obviously out of their element and look like Barbies in G.I. Joe uniforms. Particularly bad is Beverly Aadland, Flynn's real-life girlfriend who couldn't act her way out of a cardboard backpack.

A Sad End To A Once Brilliant Career

[boblipton · 2/10 · 21 January 2024]

The legendary last film with Errol Flynn -- he died a couple of months before its release -- is as poor as its reputation claims. Mostly it's about some American girls who came down to fight in the forces of Fidel Castro, usually because their boys friends were doing so. Occasionally they run into Errol Flynn, who has grown considerably in girth since he starred in Captain Blood.

The main problem is not so much with the story -- credited to Flynn -- or the dialogue. Both are rambling and dull, even if the performances seem almost adequate. The problem is the visuals. The characters who are the center of the story disappear into the background. At first I thought it might be due to a poor, low-contrast print. However, when I started to look at the film with that in mind, I soon noticed that they were placed in the frame in front of objects just as dark or light as they, and several sequences, like one set in a mill, has equipment operating; in these, the motion of the equipment distracted from those of the unmoving performers. My conclusions were confirmed when the moving concluded as it had begun, with Flynn offering a voice-over commentary with stock images on the screen. What was going on in those sequences was clear.

There's little doubt that setting a story in a revolution is an exciting idea, even if most of a century has dimmed the allure of Castro's revolution and government. However, there's little of visual excitement on the screen, unless you count sewing a rip in Flynn's trousers. It's a sad note for a once-vibrant action star to go out on.

Before the CIA killed him, ROBIN HOOD freed Cuba . . .

[oscaralbert · 6/10 · 20 July 2015]

. . . from the tyrant Bautista, CUBAN REBEL GIRLS (titled on-screen ASSAULT OF THE REBEL GIRLS) documents. After famously being ROBIN HOOD on the Big Screen in 1938, Errol Flynn jumped into Real Life in 1959 to collaborate with Fidel Castro on this movie and a new People's Government for Cuba (not unlike the "Merry Men" of ROBIN HOOD's Sherwood Forest). Flynn plays himself here, obviously fit as a fiddle, flitting about here and there at a trot (which is faster than about half of the Detroit Tigers players ran, during their 9-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles Sunday). Within weeks of REBEL GIRLS, Flynn was mysteriously deceased, and the "party line" autopsy results made out as if this spry 50-year-old jogging around the REBEL GIRLS had passed away in a 90-year-old's body! Millions of Americans believe that Marilyn Monroe was rubbed out by CIA operatives because she'd been too intimate with BOTH President John and Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. CIA plans to assassinate Castro with poisoned toothpaste, exploding cigars, etc., etc. have leaked out over the years ad infinitum. Flynn's assassination spooked Castro to the extent that he was transformed from America's buddy into a Russian pawn in the so-called Big Game the CIA's always playing. Fewer than 1% of Americans alive today have seen REBEL GIRL's 65 minutes, or even know that ROBIN HOOD died for their sins.

Errol's Last, the Flynn Horror Picture Show...

[cariart · 1 November 2003]

CUBAN REBEL GIRLS, the wretched last film of legendary star Errol Flynn, is a tragic epitaph. It's only 'value' is the morbid opportunity to see the actor's physical deterioration in the last few months of his life, coupled with his inability to give an even cursory performance.

While the rationale behind the production was the obvious tax write-off that a failed film could provide, there are mysteries and legends surrounding it, as with many of the significant events in Flynn's life.

One legend involves the financial backing of the film. Flynn was nearly broke, despite maintaining an outwardly affluent appearance ("I believe you should always dress in your best suit, and present your best 'front', when you're borrowing money," he would tell his biographer, Earl Conrad). The actor had already taken (and spent) an advance from Putnam to write his autobiography (which would be published posthumously as 'My Wicked, Wicked Ways'), and the publishing firm, fearing the actor would not fulfill his obligation, assigned veteran journalist Conrad (with two court stenographers) to follow the actor, and interview him daily. Legend has it that Flynn also went to a variety of sources, some less 'savory' than others, to borrow 'front' money for a film he said he was making. As time passed, and the film hadn't appeared, Flynn found himself in an awkward and potentially dangerous situation with his backers...so he took what little he had left of the borrowed cash to assemble a crew, write a script, and shoot a 'quickie' in Cuba.

The other legend involved his girlfriend, sixteen-year old Beverly Aadland. Flynn had been the defendant in a number of statutory rape trials, dating back to 1943, and had been acquitted, usually because the teens in question could 'pass' as older, and, in some cases, even had faked IDs. With his well-publicized sexual appetites, Flynn was an easy 'target' for publicity-hungry young women of easy virtue. Aadland, who had already been involved with the actor for several years, seemed to vindicate his critics' charges that Flynn was not the 'innocent' that his lawyers claimed him to be, but truly had a 'thing' for young girls (making him the Roman Polanski of his time). But the voluptuous teen was, according to friends of Flynn, genuinely in love with the aging star, nursing him through his bouts of malaria, keeping him supplied with vodka, and tenaciously guarding what little privacy he could maintain. Her one dream was to become an actress, and Flynn, according to legend, wrote CUBAN REBEL GIRLS to give her the opportunity no studio ever would, with her notoriety.

Sadly, whether CUBAN REBEL GIRLS was created as a tax write-off, a product of a last-minute attempt to appease backers, or as a 'Valentine' to a controversial love, Errol Flynn's swansong was simply awful.

Bad, Bad, Bad

[Alessa-3 · 9 November 2001]

This film is so bad that it is a nightmare. The question is not so much what's bad about it, but rather what's good about it. Except for a very small amount of curiosity value---nothing is good about it.

The production values are the worst I have ever seen in a "professional" production. The film stock is grainy and fuzzy. The acting is horrid. Flynn looks like he died the following day, and scenery, props, forget it!!

For the small number of people who might be tempted to buy this video--don't!! It's not just mediocre, it's horrible.

Everything You've Heard Is True: It's That Bad

[Michael_Elliott · 12 March 2011]

Cuban Rebel Girls (1959)

BOMB (out of 4)

The likes of Ed Wood, Al Adamson and Jerry Warren have taken credit for creating some of the worst movies ever made but special attention must also go to director Barry Mahon and star/producer/writer Errol Flynn. Flynn would die of a heart attack shortly after this film was completed so on one hand it's rather sad knowing this was his final film but that doesn't take away from the fact how horrid it actually is. The lack of being able to see this film is probably the main reason why it doesn't get on more worst of lists. Flynn plays himself, a war correspondent trying to help Fidel Castro overthrow Fulgencio Batista. The "story" involves an American girl (Beverly Aadland) who runs away from home to fight for the cause. The 50-year-old Flynn was dating the 16-year-old Aadland at the time this movie was being made and I can't help but think the former star was trying to kill two birds with one stone. One he was trying to show his support for Cuba. Secondly he was giving his lover a film part. No matter what he was trying to do this is a downright horrid film that doesn't have any redeeming quality except for Flynn fans to see how far the star had fallen. In some of the bad dialogue Flynn mentions all these Hollywood scripts coming to him but I think it's safe to say that wasn't the truth when you consider where his career was at this point. On a technical level this film contains horrid dialogue, awful acting and direction that you can never spot. Flynn plays himself so he basically just narrates and we see him being himself in a few scenes. We see him flying a plane as well as him being his hair done at a Cuban hotel but that's pretty much it. Aadland wasn't an actress outside of her beauty. The young teen clearly wasn't an "actress" and you certainly can't blame her bad performance since she only got the part because she was Flynn's lover. The supporting players are all just as bad and one has to wonder what they did to get their parts. This atrocity was pretty hard to see for several decades and it's easy to see why Flynn fans would want it to just disappear. The recent DVD release (under the title ASSAULT OF THE REBEL GIRLS) will get the film out to more viewers and I'm sure before long it will become a favorite to those who enjoy bad movies. I love watching bad movies when they're so bad that they're entertaining but that's not the case here. This is just a downright pathetic movie that sadly turned out to be a legends final one.