Review of The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) by Steve U — 12 Dec 2011

Like CAPTAIN BLOOD before it, Errol Flynn's ROBIN HOOD is a movie everyone seems to remember fondly, and I can't imagine why. Although it certainly contains more action than BLOOD does, it also has some of the gaudiest, most over-the-top acting ever to come out of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Errol Flynn swings around a Sherwood Forest that has more vines than Tarzan's Jungle, and while the script is thoroughly enamored of the Robin Hood legends, it makes them so hokey you'd be hard-pressed to notice how strong a freedom icon Robin Hood once was.

But I digress; all the set pieces are here: meeting Little John (Alan Hale) in a stick fight, making a fool out of Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone), winning the hand of Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland), and getting kidnapped by Prince John (Claude Rains) at the archery tournament.

No one can fault this production for trying to adapt the original legends, but it's not even REMOTELY serious. Sure, Robin Hood fights for the little guy, but his nobility disappears as soon as he laughs that flamboyant laugh of his.

You know the laugh, the one that is supposed to mean, "HAHA! Look at me, the roguish, handsome outlaw! Let's ham it up for the kids!" The rest of the cast seems to suffer from the same syndrome; when Robin's merry men pressgang Friar Tuck (an obnoxious, ebullient, and gruff Eugene Pallette) into joining them, they all howl like a pack of gassed hyenas.

Apparently, in 1938 the term "merry men" signified a group of gleaming idiots on speed. Then there's Will Scarlett--oh, dear, Will Scarlett--who aside from wearing skintight red, acts and talks like Tim Gunn, 30's edition.

It's all so thoroughly silly, almost camp, and while that is understandable (kids are the major audience here), it doesn't explain the poorly staged battle scenes that a child could do better with action figures.

When Robin Hood declares himself the enemy of Prince John, he just strolls right into the castle--during a feast, no less--and tells the prince straight up. Any self-respecting tyrant would shoot the sucker right then and there, but no, John gives Robin many boring chances to escape.

Hundreds of soldiers fire arrows at him but naturally cannot hit the broadside of a barn, and Robin escapes by fighting his way through them all singlehandedly. Apparently, Robin works out with Superman, or at the very least, Cyrano de Bergerac.

Add gaudy leotard costumes that look awful (the Dark Ages were not Project Runway, folks) and an Erich Wolfgang Korngold score that, like the film, is fondly revered but buoyantly silly, and you basically have a living cartoon that, unlike CAPTAIN BLOOD, has loads of action but, like CAPTAIN BLOOD, does nothing to really deliver a fully engaging story.

It would not be until 1940's pirate film THE SEA HAWK that Errol Flynn would finally perfect his roguish hero persona with just the right amount of nobility, a daredevil insouciance, and a decent swashbuckling plot that leaves ROBIN HOOD a distant if curious memory.