The Errol Flynn Blog

I have finally realized that part of my enjoyment of watching Errol Flynn was the music in his films.  Now I'm off on a tangent looking for CD's.  My first stop was Amazon where I found numerous choices.  I also did a bit of research on Erich Wolfgang Korngold, the composer of  many Flynn movies:  Captain Blood, Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, Prince and the Pauper to name a few.  He was born on May 29, 1897 in Brunn, Moravia and grew up in Vienna.  While he was composing film scores in Hollywood under his contract with Warner Bros., he also was trying to maintain his concert and opera presence in Europe.  It was in 1946 that he attempted to return to the concert stage.  He had less than favorable results and found himself forgotten and essentially unappreciated in Austria and returned to America.  Korngold died on November 29, 1957 at the age of 60 in Hollywood believing himself virtually forgotten.  I find it interesting that EF thought his acting was not good enough, that he did not want to make swashbuckler movies; yet these, to me, are my very favorites.  Korngold also thought along those lines as he did not particularly want to be in America composing musical scores for movies, and here we are  enjoying them both 50+ years after their deaths and the next generation will do the same.  I wonder if they are amused and thinking “Who knew?”

— Kathleen