Adventures of Robin Hood, The (1938)

Lists

Ratings & comments

full starfull starhalf starempty starempty star

Ah, the blockbusters of yesteryear. Swashbuckling in technicolour! There's not even a hint at depth: it's the Mission Impossible 3 of 1938.

The colour, actually, is the best part of the film -- Nottingham is bursting with heraldic trappings; Sherwood is practically fluorescent in its green. It's brighter than life and full of cheery optimism.

It's the worst part of the film too, in a way, because there's too much optimism. In an era where even children's television offers moral equivocation, this is so innocent as to be jarring.

Claude Rains' Prince John is a highlight, but can't compensate for Errol Flynn's grating cockiness (Robin Hood) or the never-more-out-of-place Eugene Pallette (Friar Tuck), who sounds like he stumbled out into the film from a tavern in the wild West.

Still, it's quite charming, and there's at least one good reason to see it: more than any other, this is the film spoofed by Men in Tights.

- Sam - 2006-11-17 12:49:19