Dear fellow Flynn fans,
here`s another movie that narrowly escaped Errol. Playing Wild Bill Cody shwcould have been another feather in the cowboy hat of famous personalities donned by our Hollywood hero.
The main role instead went to Joel McCrea, who as an actor can be seen as some sort of antagonist to Flynn. A free spirit by heart this journeyman starred successfully in films for various studios, thrived on Westerns and got dusty rich in the process. All things that escaped Errol Flynn also.
Enjoy,
— shangheinz
Gentleman Tim
July 16, 2016 at 2:56 pm
Always so good to hear from my favorite Flynnian Foreign Correspondent, star of so many Colorful Travels.
Please stay in the Green Zone until things settle down over there!
BTW, Jack Warner could have pinched a few pennies (or buffalo head nickels) and recycled wardrobe from Boots for this one. Cody was a contemporary of Custer’s. In fact, no bull, he was once even a scout for Golden Hair, including on the buffalo hunt connected to the photo below with Grand Duke Alexis of Russia a couple of years before Custer’s big day at the Little Big Horn. Indeed, Buffalo Bill played a pivotal role in making Autie’s Last Stand so famous, featuring it very prominently in his Wild West Show. People on both sides of the pond paid top dollar (quid, franc, mark and lira) for tickets to that show! (I imagine scalpers did very well, too – just as they did at the first last stand.)
[img]https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3933/15443498362_d0cc155807_b.jpg[/img]
shangheinz
July 20, 2016 at 11:42 am
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/buff-1.jpg[/img]
Errol sure had the look, the guts and the locks for Wild Bill.
rswilltell
July 18, 2016 at 1:41 pm
Thank you Heinz! ‘Buffalo Bill’ was always one of my favorite childhood western movies. It has a great and spectacular U.S. Cavalry VS. Indians battle sequence (so good that Fox studios lifted it nearly intact as stock footage for the cheaply produced ‘Pony Soldier’ in 1952 starring Tyrone Power whose career was beginning to slip). Joel McCrea was a great Hollywood star who settled in the saddle for Western movies as he became too old for leading man roles. His performance as Buffalo Bill especially in his twilight years was Oscar-worthy, but was snubbed by the industry as usual. One of his last films was the under-rated but never the less magnificent Western ‘Ride The High Country’ (1962) which co-starred Randolph Scott. It was to be their ‘swan song’ in films. It was for Scott but McCrea returned to make two more minor films years later. Ralph Schiller
shangheinz
July 20, 2016 at 11:50 am
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/randy.jpg[/img]
Scott makes for a nice stand-in like Flynn. Randy I think was fond of Errol and if I am not mistaken they met again in the mid Fifties at the Mar del Plata Filmfestival.
Gentleman Tim
July 20, 2016 at 6:13 pm
Where’s that tall drink of water hiding, bienvenidosheinz? Or is this video Scott-free?
[img]http://www.theerrolflynnblog.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/Virginiacity44.sized_.jpg[/img]