The most modern “swashbuckling” movie that we could think of was Johnnie Depp’s “Pirates of the Caribbean.”  It was a simply terrific film, but the whole “swashbuckling” thing didn’t start with Johnny Depp. It can be traced to one man:

Errol Flynn.

Sometimes we like to set the mood with music or a video clip for some of our posts here at National Purebred Dog Day, and sorry, young’ns, but some of them are old, and this includes a clip from one of Errol Flynn’s most popular movies, “Captain Blood.” Errol Flynn passed away in 1959, and “Robin Hood,” filmed in 1938, made our grandmothers swoon. See it here: .

Regular readers of NPDD will recall that this isn’t the first time we’ve mentioned Errol Flynn. The story of his heart dog, “Arno,” a Standard Schnauzer, touched many of you, but Schnauzers were not Flynn’s only breed.

Errol Flynn was a Rhodesian Ridgeback fancier, and not only were his dogs the first Ridgebacks exported by an English breeder to America, Flynn was the first breeder of Rhodesian Ridgebacks in the United States (source: AKC). He reared them on his Hollywood ranch in the 1930s, but sadly, that bloodline is now extinct. See a photo of Flynn with this Ridgies here. 

We think it’s important to know a breed’s history, but sometimes, it’s can be downright entertaining.

Image” Rhodesian Ridgeback in watercolor by Ruth Eales of RuthEalesArt/House of Fey is available as a print here.