Live Life Team
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: Michael Curtiz & William Keighley
Starring Cast: Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Basil Rathbone
Saxon Sir Robin of Locksley (Flynn) falls foul of the Norman authorities and turns fugitive when Prince John (Rains) overthrows his brother’s succession to the throne. Escaping to Sherwood Forest, Sir Robin assumes the persona of Robin Hood, gathering around him a gang of Merry Men. Robin courts and wins Lady Marian (de Havilland) who passes him reports of Prince John’s plots. When Marian is captured, Robin and his men raid Nottingham Castle to save her.
This is the film that lay down the all action benchmarks by which other screen swashbucklers would come to be judged; Curtiz’s take on the Sherwood Forest tale of “robbing from the rich to give to the poor” is notable because of Flynn’s dynamic personality and performance as the film’s lead character.
Flynn plays Sir Robin of Locksley the rebel who, with his merry band of forest living looters, confront the crooked ruling class of the day. Ending with an intensely coordinated, climatic sword bearing clash between Flynn and Basil Rathbone as the wicked Sir Guy of Gisbourne, through which the action cuts between the men and their shadows, Gisbourne is ultimately cut down, and Robin rescues Marian from her cell.
The Adventures of Robin Hood is graced with an Oscar winning score and shining colour filmmaking, a real innovation for the 1930’s, which helps show off a fabulous old movie.
