Cinemaventure

Today, 20 June, 2009, is the 100th birthday of the greatest of all screen Swashbucklers, Errol Flynn. Born in Hobart, Tasmania Flynn's early life was filled with all sorts of adventures. He was chosen to play Fletcher Christian in the 1933 Australian film In The Wake of the Bounty . The film was dreadful but Flynn showed charisma as Christian (an ancestor) and he got bitten by the acting bug. He made his way to England and eventually to Hollywood. A few small parts gained him notice and he wound up replacing Robert Donat in the Warner Bros production of Captain Blood (1935). This was his first teaming with the lovely Olivia de Havilland and the chemistry was perfect. More roles followed and in 1938 Flynn and de Havilland starred in the best (in my not-so-humble opinion) Swashbuckler to ever reach the theater screens. Seventy-one years later it still has not been topped, nor equalled. The Technicolor film captured Medieval England (transplanted to California) and Eri