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The Story of William Tell

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Director
  
Jack Cardiff

Language
  
English

6.2/10
IMDb

Country
  
Italy United States

The Story of William Tell httpsiytimgcomvinp0LmPtNZAmaxresdefaultjpg

Writer
  
John Dighton, Errol Flynn (outline), Friedrich Schiller

The Story of William Tell is an unfinished film about William Tell. It starred and was produced by Errol Flynn. It commenced filming in Italy in 1953 and was meant to be the directorial debut of Jack Cardiff. It was filmed in Cinemascope. A £10,000 model town set was built near Mont Blanc.

Contents

Development

Flynn decided to produce the film himself with Barry Mahon. He put up approximately $430,000 of his own money towards the $860,000 budgeted production which started in June 1953.

Had the film been completed on time it would have been the first independent movie filmed in CinemaScope.

Production

  • Actress Vira Silenti was cast as "Mary" but later replaced by Waltraut Haas.
  • Production ceased in September when the project ran out of funds and creditors seized sets and camera equipment. They also took possession of Errol Flynn's car and furniture.
  • Flynn desperately sought finance to re-activate the production, estimated at around £150,000, but was unable to. In 1956 he claimed he had $340,000 of his own money in the film and still hoped to make it in autumn of that year. This did not eventuate.
  • The event of the film's collapse ruined Flynn financially. He estimated it cost him $400,000 in all.

    • Impact of the film

  • A little more than a minute of footage was shown on Turner Classic Movies in the early 1990s as part of a feature on Flynn, but that short clip itself is now lost as well. Flynn's estate have chosen to remain silent about it.
  • The model ski resort was turned into a real ski resort that uses the film's production to lure tourists in every year, and is still active today.

    • References

    The Story of William Tell Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA

    The Story of William Tell IMDb