The Adventures of Robin Hood (with link to review)

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

When I was growing up in the 1970s and early ‘80s, the Miami-area television station which is now CBS4 (WFOR) was located on another place on the VHF dial: Channel Six. Back then, its call letters were WCIX and it was an independent station unattached to any of the Big Three national networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC).

Before the advent of the Fox TV network and 1989’s “Big Switch,” WCIX used to air a mixed bag of local programming, blocs of syndicated reruns of older TV series (“I Dream of Jeannie,” “Bewitched,” and “Star Trek”), and movies from various decades and of variable quality.

Until the VCR Revolution of the mid-1980s, the only way in which most Americans who did not belong to the One Percent could watch movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood was to catch them on indie stations.  WCIX aired them on weekday nights as the 8 PM Movie and on weekends at 1, 3, and 5 in the afternoon.

One of the really good movies I saw back then was Warner Bros. 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood, one of the best pictures of the swashbuckler genre ever made.

Starring Errol Flynn as the titular Saxon nobleman-turned-outlaw and his frequent co-star Olivia De Havilland as Maid Marian, The Adventures of Robin Hood  is still considered to be the best screen adaptation of the English legends which pitted Robin of Locksley and his Merry Men against the power-hungry Prince John (Claude Rains) and Sir Guy of Guisborne (Basil Rathbone).

Originally devised as a straightforward remake of 1922’s Robin Hood (which starred Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.) and slated to star James Cagney, The Adventures of Robin Hood had a plethora of production problems. Warner Bros. had intended to make the movie in 1935, but Cagney quit the studio and the project was put on hold until Hal B. Wallis decided to cast Errol Flynn as Robin Hood.  Once the film began shooting, director William Keighley was replaced by Michael Curtiz because Wallis and co-producers Jack Warner and Henry Blanke believed the action scenes lacked energy.

Flynn, who had worked with Curtiz on Captain Blood and The Charge of the Light Brigade, was unhappy with the switch; he resented the Hungarian-born director’s heavy handed ways and the two men had clashed during the filming of Light Brigade.  Nevertheless, the producers stuck to their decision and production continued despite the enmity between their star and director.

[first title cards]
Title card: In the year of Our Lord 1191 when Richard, the Lion-Heart, set forth to drive the infidels from the Holy Land, he gave the Regency of his Kingdom to his trusted friend, Longchamps, instead of to his treacherous brother, Prince John.
Title card: Bitterly resentful, John hoped for some disaster to befall Richard so that he, with the help of the Norman barons, might seize the throne for himself. And then on a luckless day for the Saxons... 

The screenplay by Norman Reilly Raine (The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex) and Seton I. Miller (Scarface) takes its cues from the various legends about Robin Hood.  It is the late 12^th  Century, and King Richard the Lion Heart has been taken prisoner by the greedy Leopold of Austria while returning to England from the Crusades in the Holy Land.  Against Richard’s wishes, his equally greedy brother John (Rains) has appointed himself as Regent and hopes to become king once his brother dies in captivity.

Aided and abetted by Norman noblemen like Sir Guy of Guisborne (Rathbone) and the High Sheriff of Nottingham (Melville Cooper), Prince John begins to rule England with an iron hand, oppressing the Saxon population and raising taxes.  John justifies this by claiming the monies are needed to pay the ransom Leopold is demanding to free Richard from prison, but the regent really seeks to enrich himself and his corrupt accomplices.

One Saxon nobleman, Robin of Locksley, dares to oppose Prince John and his Norman-dominated court.  Fiercely loyal to King Richard and objecting to the abuses inflicted on his countrymen, he speaks out against Prince John’s illegal moves to become king. Furious, the regent strips Robin of his lands and title, forcing the outspoken “outlaw” to hide in Sherwood Forest.

Along with his friend Will Scarlett (Patrick Knowles), Robin begins to recruit a band of like-minded fellows who don’t hate all the Normans but want to end Prince John’s oppressive rule and restore King Richard to the throne – if he returns.  Robin’s guerrilla group is called “the Merry Men” and includes stalwarts such as Little John (Alan Hale) and Friar Tuck (Eugene Pallette). 

Striking from the fastness of Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood and his Merry Men use their skills as archers and swordsmen to fight Prince John and his minions.  Often outnumbered by John’s military, Robin and his freedom fighters nevertheless win the hearts and minds of the people, especially when the Merry Men “rob from the rich and give to the poor.”

Along the way, Robin finds time for romance when he falls for the lovely yet feisty Marian (De Havilland). Marian is a noblewoman who appears to be a Prince John loyalist and doesn’t think much of the roguish “prince of the outlaws” when they first meet.  Once she realizes that Robin has the interests of England’s people  and true king at heart, her feelings for him begin to change.

Want to see my take on The Adventures of Robin Hood?  Please see my review here at Epinions.