BEFORE: I could have gone is several different directions after the pirate chain - to the Musketeers, for example, or followed up the appearance of Queen Elizabeth as a character with a couple of notable films about her - but let's finish the Errol Flynn appearances. Yes, I know it's St. Patrick's Day, and that Flynn wasn't Irish (though the movie studios tried to make people think that), he was Australian. But that's OK, since Robin Hood wasn't Irish either, right?
THE PLOT: When Prince John and the Norman Lords begin oppressing the Saxon masses in King Richard's absence, a Saxon lord fights back as the outlaw leader of a rebel guerrilla army.
AFTER: The Robin Hood story is a little strange, since it doesn't come from one particular author but instead from a number of medieval ballads and poems. So any attempt to cobble together pieces of the various stories into a narrative could result in a patchwork of elements that may or may not work. The King Arthur stories are the same way, you're really judging how well the various pieces fit.
This was sort of the definitive collection of Robin Hood tales for many years, the Disney animated version seems to have riffed off of this one, with the archery contest, the rivalry with the Sheriff of Nottingham, etc.
This one was pretty upbeat, and the action was good, and Flynn's affinity for using chairs and tables in his swordfighting almost seemed reminiscent of some Jackie Chan-type stunts.
NITPICK POINT: Robin competes in the archery contest here, wearing a disguise - but it's not much of one, it's really just a different color hat. Believable? Not at all. "Hey, that looks like Robin Hood, but it can't be, since he always wears a GREEN hat." Yeah, must be a different guy...
NITPICK POINT #2: The famous shot where Robin's shot splits the other arrow - but how is that counted as a win? That seems to me like it should count as a tie, right?
Also starring Claude Rains (carrying over from "The Sea Hawk"), Alan Hale (ditto), Olivia De Havilland (last seen in "Captain Blood"), Basil Rathbone (ditto), Ian Hunter, Patric Knowles.
RATING: 5 out of 10 mutton legs
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