Review of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) by Logan M — 27 Jul 2017

Wow, for star power, it's hard to beat Errol Flynn as Robin Hood and Olivia de Havilland as Maid Marion. Flynn had the perfect devil may care attitude for the part of Robin, and his impudence towards the pretender to the English throne is fantastic. de Havilland is absolutely stunning and plays her part well as the noble who is offended by Robin at first, but is then slowly won over to his humanity and righteousness. The movie features all of the standard sorts of things we've come to expect in productions of Robin Hood - camaraderie, swordplay, honor, and daring escapes, among other things. I loved the stunts, including Flynn cutting the rope to a gate, and then being pulled upwards by its pulley in order to get over it while leaving his pursuers trapped on the other side. The cast is strong throughout, from the main villains (Basil Rathbone and Claude Rains) to charming characters like Marion's old nurse, played by Una O'Connor, who has a little romance of her own.

The film is in color and quite a production for 1938, really showing how far movies came over the course of the 1930's. I loved the costumes from Milo Anderson, particularly those for the 22-year-old de Havilland, who directors Curtiz and Keighley wisely took every opportunity to shoot close up, allowing her beauty to shine, and her eyes to display fear, annoyance, anger, and love. Her scenes with Flynn are magical. The only thing I fault the film for is the soundtrack, which I found too jaunty and intrusive, even for scenes which had a lot of action in them, but that's a bit of a quibble. The only reason I don't rate it higher is because the story itself has been done so often that it's lost its shine for me personally, but if classic adventure stories with romance in them are your thing, I think you'll love this film.