Lilacs in the Spring (1954)

Anna Neagle is so overpoweringly good in Lilacs in the Spring (aka Let's Make Up!) that a times it's easy to forget that her co-star is Errol Flynn! Based on Glorious Days, a play by Robert Nesbitt, the film offers Neagle in four different characterizations. Suffering a concussion while serving in WW II, service performer Catherine Beaumont (Neagle) imagines herself to be Nell Gwynn, and still later fancies herself to be Queen Victoria (both of these historical personages had been played by Neagle in previous films). Finally, Catherine conjures up memories of her own mother Lillian Grey (also Neagle), who married song-and-dance man John Beaumont (Errol Flynn) during WW I, then nearly lost him when he "went Hollywood." Though he'd been having an overabundance of personal problems, Errol Flynn conducted himself with utmost professionalism throughout Lilacs in the Spring, delighting co-workers and movie audiences alike. The film was a hit, prompting a second, less-successful Anna Neagle-Errol Flynn pairing, King's Rhapsody. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi