I’ve seen clips from The Adventures of Robin Hood over the years, mostly some of the fight sequences (and there are several that are just spectacular), but I never had the chance to watch the entire movie until this project. What a great couple of hours of entertainment it is! It’s an action-filled film, with at least a dozen interesting characters and true suspense, honestly earned even though most of us are very familiar with the legends of Robin Hood. I think almost anyone, regardless of their age or gender, would find something about this movie to enjoy. I doubt that I’d want to rely on it too heavily for historical accuracy, perhaps, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less fun to watch. We don’t have to learn a history lesson from a movie that isn’t a documentary.
There is, actually, historical context for the film. It’s set in 1191, and King Richard the Lion-Hearted has been off on another crusade and has just been captured by the Duke of Austria on his way home to England. His brother, Prince John, has taken control of the country in his absence, and he’s been using his time to take as much money and goods as possible from the Saxons in the country. He and his Norman minions even enslave some of the Saxons, and it’s this horrible behavior that prompts Robin Hood (a Saxon himself, but still supportive of the king) to begin his campaign of revenge and retribution.
There are sword fights aplenty in the movie, and lots of archery. I was struck by how many people (men) get shot in the chest by arrows, which was quite unusual to depict directly at the time that the film was produced, but I suppose it takes on an almost cartoonish quality and perhaps the censors let it pass because of the famous context? The archery contest for the Golden Arrow is masterpiece of editing, no doubt one of the sequences that earned the film Oscar recognition for its editing. The great Hollywood archery consultant Howard Hill choreographed the sequence, and he even makes a cameo appearance as the Captain of Archers during the contest. At times, there are so many soldiers and swordsmen and archers on the screen that it seems like the whole of England is participating in a battle.
As the film progresses, we get some insight into how the band of Robin Hood’s followers got formed. Most of the time, he first has to defeat them in some sort of test of strength. That’s how we meet Much and Little John, for example. He doesn’t defeat Friar Tuck, but the good friar joins his band nonetheless because he believes in the cause. There’s a lot of respect among the various members of this group sworn to help the poor and fight against injustice, but they also tease each other mercilessly, and it’s a delight seeing them pull pranks and insult each other.
At the center of the movie is, of course, Errol Flynn as Robin Hood, or Sir Robin of Locksley. Flynn always seems to be enjoying himself in every movie he's in. He has a smile or grin on his face in almost every scene, and he certainly looks athletic (and good) in a pair of green tights. Flynn was a true movie star and a capable actor, but he seems to relish the role of star most, and the camera loves him from the moment of his first appearance on screen. It’s a bit surprising that he never was nominated for an Oscar, but perhaps his wild personal life was too much of an impediment to getting awards attention.
There's certainly clear chemistry between him and co-star Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marian (it was rumored that they were having an affair at the time), and you can understand why Warner Brothers kept putting the two of them in movies throughout the 1930s and 40s. She was never my favorite (in fact, I've always kind of resented her presence in Gone with the Wind), but she and Flynn work so well together here. Of course, I think most of the credit goes to Flynn. He makes the screen so much brighter with his presence that it can't help but affect those around him. By the way, I never realized that he was almost a foot taller in height than she was; it’s disconcerting at times to see him almost bend in half in order to kiss her.
The supporting cast is phenomenal, one of the consistent traits of the studio system that hired talented people and kept them under contract and put them in dozens of films. I was particularly entranced by the performance of Basil Rathbone as Sir Guy of Gisbourne. His face was so strikingly like a young Vincent Price's, but Rathbone has his own charms. He played a series of bad guys in the movies before taking on the role that would most define his career: Sherlock Holmes. Yet in The Adventures of Robin Hood, he's oddly attractive even though he's Prince John's primary henchman. You feel compelled to watch him; it's as if you're drawn to him despite his despicable ways. We always do love a bad boy, don’t we? I can only imagine what he might have been like as a romantic lead.
I have been very consistent in my love of Claude Rains’ acting. It's always a delight when he shows up in a film, and I’ve yet to see him give a bad performance. The part of Prince John gives him numerous opportunities to steal the movie. However, the hair and make-up people have given him a wig that makes him look like a red-haired Bettie Page. It's so distracting at times that you almost forget to enjoy his wickedly funny performance. Rains always seems to be in on the joke, whatever it is, or making the joke, usually at someone’s expense in the most withering fashion imaginable.
I want to point out a couple of other great performers. Una O’Connor as Bess is so funny, and her scenes with Herbert Mundin’s Much are hilarious. They’re the sort of comic relief secondary couple for the film. Patric Knowles isn’t given a lot to do here as Will Scarlett, but what a dashing figure he makes on the screen. At times, he almost distracts your attention from Flynn! And, of course, there’s Eugene Pallette with that bullfrog-like voice as Friar Tuck and Alan Hale Sr. (father of Alan Hale Jr., who played the skipper on Gilligan’s Island) as Little John. They’re having a blast, and they contribute a lot to the overall pleasure we derive from watching the movie.
The technical aspects of the film are also first-rate. Apparently, the filmmakers originally planned to make the film in black-and-white. While this is a somewhat early Technicolor film, it is so incredibly vibrant. Many of the costumes are in greens and browns, in keeping with the "hiding in Sherwood Forest" motif. Yet these colors really "pop" on the screen. Someone has done a painstaking job of keeping the colors bright in this film. Look at the gowns de Havilland gets to wear; she must have had quite the wardrobe budget for her character. The production design is also stunning, and it and the original score by the great Erich Wolfgang Korngold also received Oscars.
Oscar Wins: Best Art Direction, Best Film Editing,
Best Original Score
Other Oscar Nomination: Outstanding Production
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