Everyone knows the outline of the Robin Hood story.\u00a0 Robin is a Saxon nobleman who fights to avenge the oppression that the Saxons suffer at the hands of their Norman overlords.\u00a0 He steals from the rich and gives to the poor.\u00a0 He is a superb archer.\u00a0 The story goes that while King Richard is absent on the Crusade his brother John uses the circumstance to overtax and terrorize the Saxon population.\u00a0 The local tyrant for this story is the Sheriff of Nottingham who hunts relentlessly for Robin.\u00a0 The happy ending is Richard\u2019s return to England.<\/p>\n
In this Warner Brothers\u2019 version Sir Guy of Gisbourne, played by Basil Rathbone inherits the activities usually given to the Sheriff of Nottingham and is Robin Hood\u2019s primary enemy.\u00a0 Robin is iconically portrayed by Errol Flynn in his most famous and most successful part.\u00a0 And his love interest, the Maid Marian Fitzwalter is played by Olivia de Havilland.\u00a0 Rounding out the major parts are Claude Rains as Prince John, Eugene Pallette as Friar Tuck and Alan Hale as Little John.\u00a0 But many of the smaller parts are also ably performed by a crew of excellent character actors.<\/p>\n
Robin Hood\u2019s heroics and acrobatics are generously sprinkled throughout the film and swashbuckling is a word that might as well have been invented for this movie.\u00a0 Robin and his merry men swing on vines through Sherwood Forest, scale castle walls, and sword fight their way up and down stone staircases with the greatest of ease.\u00a0 Robin can shoot backward from a galloping horse and hit his foes with arrows as they gallop along in the dark.\u00a0 And of course, the feat of splitting an arrow with an arrow in the bulls\u2019 eye is called a \u201cRobin Hood.\u201d\u00a0 And so, it becomes the climax of yet another chapter in the film.\u00a0 Robin fearlessly confronts his enemies right in their strongholds and only once is captured.\u00a0 But on the brink of being hanged he is rescued by his men and returns to Sherwood in triumph.\u00a0 And finally, when King Richard returns to England in disguise, Robin saves both him and Marian from the murderous plots of Prince John.<\/p>\n
And in the spirit of the happy ending Robin kills Sir Guy in a sword fight, restores Richard to the throne and is betrothed to Marian with the king\u2019s blessings.\u00a0 Because this is 1938 a certain part of the reason for this movie is the pro-British sentiment that was being sponsored by the US government to counter the rise of Nazi Germany.\u00a0 But it really isn\u2019t necessary to justify the regard that this movie received at its release.\u00a0 It actually is a remarkably stirring film.\u00a0 Errol Flynn embodies the swashbuckling hero and Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains positively exude villainy and malice.\u00a0 As I mentioned earlier, all of the bit players are excellent and the script is crisp and the stunts wonderfully choreographed.\u00a0 It is an altogether lively and spirited romp.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve never seen this movie, I suggest that you remedy that deficiency as soon as you get the chance.\u00a0 Very highly recommended for old and young alike.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Everyone knows the outline of the Robin Hood story.\u00a0 Robin is a Saxon nobleman who fights to avenge the oppression that the Saxons suffer at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,238,237],"tags":[2726,2835,433,2834,2837,1238,43,2836,38,1355],"class_list":["post-13095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-reviews","tag-alan-hale","tag-basil-rathbone","tag-claude-rains","tag-errol-flynn","tag-eugene-pallette","tag-hollywood-golden-era","tag-movie-review","tag-olivia-de-havilland","tag-review","tag-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\n