DVD Review: “The Errol Flynn Signature Collection, Volume 2”

Flynn was Warners’ top male star during Hollywood’s Golden Age (at least until Bogart took over after Casablanca) and fans of action from this period should enjoy this set as well as Volume One. I sampled the earliest movie here, The Charge of the Light Brigade, made right after Flynn’s breakout role in Captain Blood. Jack Warner knew right away to have his new star continue to play the dashing hero, with a sword in one hand and a fair maiden in the other (here it’s Olivia deHavilland, Flynn’s most frequent co-star). He leads a band of British Lancers into an impossible challenge against an army of 25,000 Russians…and makes the ultimate sacrifice. The stirring charge sequence runs nine minutes. Charge marks the first score Max Steiner composed at Warners, though of course Erich Wolfgang Korngold would be Flynn’s most famous musical supporter (Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, etc.). Extras include Warner Night at the Movies, 1936 with a vintage newsreel, a comedy short (Bob Hope, badly in need of his future gag writers), cartoon (early Porky Pig), and trailer for Anthony Adverse.