Today’s NY Times has this review of an interesting new Warner Bros. DVD release, a collection of westerns starring none other than Errol Flynn. Best known for swashbuckling roles in movies like The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), it’s surprising to realize that Flynn starred in 8 westerns — but not without some difficulty for the screenwriters:

But on another level, as Flynn is said to have observed, his accent and manner were too Continental to fit smoothly into the imaginary space of the American frontier. The screenplays for his westerns — many written by Robert Buckner — continually come up with ingenious explanations for the hero’s curious courtliness and exotic speech patterns: in “Dodge City” he’s an Irish soldier of fortune who finds himself herding cows in Kansas; “Montana” (1950) just throws in the towel and identifies Flynn as an Australian sheep farmer (among the many professions Flynn practiced) who dreams of bringing these white, woolly creatures to western cattle country.

A reminder that some times, a screenwriter has to do a nifty creative dance to maneuver a story set-up in order to fit a square peg into a round hole.

For more background on the legendary Errol Flynn, here’s a terrific fansite.