The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men
(1952) - 6.0
A fine very traditional PG rendering of the legend of Robin Hood presented
in glorious Technicolor from Walt Disney and actually partly shot in Sherwood
Forest. It hits all the usual touchstones of the myth that we all know so
well - King Richard leaves for the Crusades, his brother Prince John is left
running the country and he puts the evil Sheriff of Nottingham in charge
of collecting taxes, drives Robin into a life of crime and rebellion where
he meets Little John in a joust on a bridge. Friar Tuck eating under a tree
and of course the lovely Maid Marion. It is as familiar as an old sock and
just as comforting. It is a story I love and has been done in film many times.
Robin Hood is of course a fictional legend (as far as we know) beginning
in ballads in the 14th century and growing over the years to come until his
tales were collected into a book around 1500. But the history around Robin
Hood is based mainly on the truth. King Richard went off to lead the Third
Crusade. It is a fascinating story worthy of its own movie. He conquered
Sicily and Cyprus on the way to the Holy Land and was married, fought the
great Saladin to a stalemate but was unable to achieve his goals and on his
way back was captured and held for ransom. In most film depictions I have
seen he is a brave man which was very true but he was a cruel man -
executing thousands of prisoners, allowing rioting against the Jews in London
and almost always being at war with someone. He was killed in fact during
a war while strolling the battlements by an arrow. His mother who shows up
in this film is the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine who at one time was married
to the King of France and then later to the King of England. Aim high I say.
Another person worthy of her own mini-series who was played by Katherine
Hepburn in The Lion in Winter. Now ironically after Richard died the throne
was passed to his brother John, who by all telling was a lousy King and forced
to sign the Magna Carta.
Robin Hood is played by Richard Todd with a bit of spirit but not with the
charisma or physical ability that Errol Flynn brought to the role. The only
other name of note to me is Peter Finch as the Sheriff of Nottingham. It
is directed by Ken Annakin, who went on to make some fine films - The Battle
of the Bulge, Swiss Family Robinson and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying
Machines.
Men of Sherwood
Forest (1954) - 5.5
I was expecting this Robin Hood tale to be pretty much a carbon copy of the
one I had just seen - Robin Hood and his Merrie Men - but it took an interesting
side road. It skips all the Robin Hood origin story and jumps forward to
when King Richard is returning. There is skullduggery afoot with minions
of King John attempting to intercept the King upon his return and kill him.
Thank goodness for Robin Hood and his Men from Sherwood Forest - the usual
crew of Friar Tuck, Little John and Will Scarlett - but Maid Marion must
be off elsewhere as she never makes an appearance.
This isn't exactly a high powered production with a cast of unknowns to me
for the most part. Hammer is behind this and the budget is middling at best
but it is quite enjoyable and at 76 minutes it goes by quickly in particular
the ending that felt rushed as if they had reached the limits of their budget.
It is directed by Val Guest who would go on to direct some Hammer classics
- The Quatermass Xperiment, Quatermass 2 and The Abominable Snowman. Robin
Hood is played by American Don Taylor, who had a long career in film both
as an actor and then director. Most of his directing was a plethora of TV
shows but he squeezed in Damien: Omen 2 and The Final Countdown into his
resume. Taylor is excellent as Robin Hood - a slight resemblance to Errol
Flynn and very athletic. And a nod to the actor who plays Friar Tuck with
such gusto and a twinkle in his eye - Reginald Beckwith - who has been in
some fine films like Thunderball, Burn, Witch, Burn, Curse of the Demon
but I think in very small roles as I don't recall him. A slight but enjoyable
addition to the Robin Hood films.
The Bandit of
Sherwood Forest (1946) - 6.0
My third Robin Hood tale in as many days and coincidentally they played out
chronologically. In The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952) we
get a version of the origin story; in The Men of Sherwood Forest (1954) it
depicts only the period when Richard returns to England and in this one it
jumps many years into the future and Robin Hood is a middle aged man. I suppose
I should watch Robin and Marian next but the thought just makes me sad for
some reason. This was produced by Columbia who borrowed Cornel Wilde from
Fox for the role. Wilde had just had an enormous hit playing Chopin in A
Song to Remember. Going from Chopin to Robin Hood was quite a change - but
Fox hoped that Wilde might replace Errol Flynn as the next swashbuckling
hero since Flynn was getting older and more difficult to deal with at Warner
Brothers (and in fact his series of classic films was over). Flynn is of
course still the best Robin Hood of them all. Wilde never reached the status
of Flynn - but then who did - but he had his share of adventure films. My
favorite is one he directed, Naked Prey.
One thread that runs through all of these is that Robin Hood wasn't a bandit
per se - but rather a freedom fighter who fought against tyranny for liberty
and in this one for democracy. King John has died and left behind a nine
year old son to rule and the Regent (the always dastardly Henry Daniell)
plans to kill the boy, declare himself King and do away with the Magna Carta.
In reality, King John did in fact leave behind a young son with a Protector
but that Protector kept the boy safe, defeated the rebels and reinstated
the Magna Carta. The boy would become Henry III who was to rule from 1216
to 1272.
But in this film version - it is up to Robin Hood, now an Earl, to save the
day. He gathers his old cronies - Little John, Friar Monk, Will Scarlett
and the minstrel Allan-A-Dale out of the old folks home. No Marian but Robin
has a son Robert (Wilde) who takes over the action parts. A fair amount of
action, some good swordplay in a duel near the end and of course romance
as Robert falls for a fair maiden (Anita Louise). It is interesting to see
how some older films have moments that make you cringe - when Robert meets
this fair maiden who he mistakes for a serving girl, he grabs her and kisses
her and when she resists sort of pushes her back till something interrupts.
Twenty years ago I might have thought that was romantic and passionate -
now all I could think was what a creep he was. And that impression stuck
with me through the film. It is in beautiful Technicolor with apple cheeks
on full display but the setting they use for Sherwood Forest is scraggly
brush and sparse trees in California and that really detracts from the visuals
- Central Park has more wooded areas. Look for Edgar Buchanan as Friar Tuck,
a very odd choice.
Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960) - 5.5
A final film in the Robin Hood anthology for me. I think I have it out of
my system! After Errol Flynn, Richard Greene is probably the best known Robin
Hood. That is primarily due to his five year stint in a TV series playing
Robin Hood. I remember watching them as a child. It ran from 1955 to 1960
with 144 episodes (some are up on Youtube). Hammer Studios took up the mantle
after the final year of the series and produced this film. It really feels
like an extra long TV episode though with an upgrade in the actors and perhaps
more violence than the TV show. It has a flaccid pace and just feels very
ordinary. None of the usual Robin and his men saving the crown or disrupting
a plot to take away the liberties of the people - not that they really had
many liberties in 12th century England.
The Sheriff of Nottingham is up to his usual nogoodnik plans - along with
the Earl of Newark - who are conspiring to kill the Archbishop of Canterbury
for reasons I was never really sure of. A wounded man is brought into the
camp by Robin and before he dies he utters only a location and the word danger.
Robin is curious enough to look into it. He also comes across the lovely
maid Marian who just wanders around Sherwood Forest looking for trouble.
None of this is particularly exciting but there are a few decent enough swordfights
and other action scenes.
It is lifted up a bit by the cast. Playing the dastardly Sheriff is the wonderful
Peter Cushing who already had so many great Hammer roles behind him - Frankenstein,
Sherlock Holmes and Van Helsing in two Dracula films. This feels like a step
down after those roles. Also on hand is a very rotten Oliver Reed, Nigel
Greene as a good guy for a change as Little John and finally the actor who
plays Allan-A-Dale who sings a lovely song at the beginning of the film.
The name will likely mean nothing but back in the 1950's Dennis Lotis was
a very popular singer in England in the Easy Listening style. Oh, and the
wounded man who only has two lines of dialogue - none other than Q - Desmond
Llewelyn. Directing is another Hammer stalwart - Terence Fisher - The Curse
of Frankenstein, The Mummy, Horror of Dracula, The Hound of the Baskervilles,
The Brides of Dracula, The Gorgon and many others - one of the best genre
directors in the 1950s and 60s. He could have done better here though!
