Temple dha's??? Were those Shirley's
? Just kidding.
In the many times Errol Flynn was paired with Basil Rathbone in swashbuckling movies, he was often miffed at having to 'lose' in sword battles with the far lesser swordsman Flynn.
You are so much on the same page as I am with these movies.....these I blame totally for a lifetime obsession with sword history.
I remember "Last of the Mohicans" with Daniel Day-Lewis, and Russell Means, the 'gunstock' war club (painted blue). I became curious about these and eventually reached Americana sage Norm Flayderman, who informed me that these were NOT used by woodland tribes and despite the lore, the Plains tribes who did use them did NOT used old gun stocks. They were simply similar and had knife blades inserted.
I then reached the Tennessee maker who fashioned these for the movie, who said he made five, and of course, these simply were license oriented.
Thinking of the famed illustrations of pirates in pirate stories, which are fantastic despite the fact that the brass hilt cutlasses depicted were actually Civil War navy cutlasses.
In the 70s I will never forget one guy who got a Bengal Cavalry saber inscribed, I forget which unit but rare to see these. He got it from a movie studio warehouse sale near Los Angeles.