Robin Hood
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Movie Reviews of Robin Hood
Movie Review: Douglas Fairbanks-Robin Hood DVD
Summary: 5 Stars
1922 (silent-version) The first version of Robin Hood, with Douglas Fairbanks is a great movie. My favorite scene is the jousting tournament at the beginning of the movie. The movie cost $1 million in 1922, a huge sum for a new art form at the time.
The movie is unintentionally funny at times, because the actor playing Richard the Lionhearted is Wallace Beery, who I know better as the gravelly voiced character actor from so many old westerns.
This story of Robin Hood, focuses more on the Crusades, Richard Lionheart and Robin Hood. Rather than the story of Robin Hood, Maid Marian, and Prince John. That most of us are more familiar with.
You can see where the 1938 movie, The Adventures of Robin Hood got its ideas for sets, as well as story points. Although, in 1938, they definitely had to have a better script writer.
So if you are a fan of silent movies, movie history, or the immortal Douglas Fairbanks. I'd definitely put this movie on my list as one to get.
This DVD may not work on all portable DVD players, it does however work on your PC, or any DVD player, attached to a TV set. I only add this, because the DVD, which I purchased from Amazon did not work correctly on my portable 7 inch Audiovox player. However, I had no trouble playing the disc, on any other player, I tested.
Movie Review: A real classic
Summary: 5 Stars
There have been several Robin Hood Movies but this one is the best. The entire cast entertains you. Errol Flynn is the consummate Robin. He plays the role with ease and grace. If you haven't seen it, rent it, buy it and enjoy a great film.Movie Review: "Damn their black hides! I'll lash them till they bleat!" Robin Hood
Summary: 4 Stars
We are watching a 1.4 million dollar early production of "Robin Hood" (1922).
The sets were the most expensive at the time.
King Richard the Lion-Hearted (Wallace Beery) oversees a tournament just before the great crusades. The winner of course is a night The Earl of Huntingdon (Douglas Fairbanks.) What does he win? The right to be Richards's right hand man in the Crusades. Richard knowing that the Earl is woman shy forces the winner to be surrounded by every female available.
While the king is away on the Crusades, his brother has a plan in process to usurp the thrown and practices his evil ways on the people of England.
Can no one save them? Is there no leader to champion their cause against oppression?
This is the KINO international film.
We are al familiar with the most popular version of Robin Hood and this film pretty much follows form. However (it just may be from watching it nearly a century later) Lady Marian Fitzwalter (Enid Bennett) looks like a sixties hippy. Who ever picked the music? The film is almost better off without it; this is some sort of electronic concoction.
Of course after the fact better versions of the story were filmed. However that can not distract that this one was a biggie in its day; the premiere was held at Grauman's brand new Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.
To get a better background on the story I suggest you read about the cinematic history of Robin.
Robin Hood: A Cinematic History of the English Outlaw and His Scottish Counterparts by Scott Allen Nollen (May 1999)
Robin Hood: A Cinematic History of the English Outlaw and His Scottish Counterparts
Movie Review: The Life and Times of Robin Hood
Summary: 4 Stars
$1.4 million (adjusted to todays USD, $18 million) in production costs set this movie apart at the time. It was a masterful epic of the silent era. It still holds up ok, though maybe not as well as Flynn's. The movie is packed with amazing sets, funny inter-titles, and tinting that sets mood. The liner notes say that some of the sets were 90 feet high!
The movie, which was the most popular movie of 1922 according to PhotoPlay Magazine, seems to drag a little, occasionally, but tells the rarely told story of Robin Hood's life prior to King Richard's departure on the crusades. The action helps keep the movie going through a lot of it -- but be prepared for a silent-era epic. The film, overall, was enjoyable.
The Kino DVD is great. The picture is generally very clear -- with some scratches. The tinting was superb. My only complaint is the score -- it does seem annoying at first but after a while I adjusted to it and was no longer bothered by it.
Movie Review: Time has not been kind to this one
Summary: 2 Stars
Douglas Fairbanks' Robin Hood may have been a sensation in 1922, but time has not been kind to either the film or Fairbanks' brand of dementedly over-emphatic ham. It's a lavish production with hundreds of extras and massive sets (the staircase, like Alan Hale's Little John, making a reappearance for Errol Flynn's superior 1938 version), but it only works in fits and starts. It's the first half of the film that fares best, focussing on knightly romance in the prelude to Wallace Beery's manically laughing King Richard departing for the Crusades, with some surprisingly effective scenes of wooing and parting. But once Robin and his absurdly mincing men start prancing through Sherwood like a bunch of prima ballerinas on coke, it becomes increasingly laughable and as camp as a very long row of tents to such a degree that even evil Prince John's surprisingly graphic reign of terror can't compensate. Nor is there much in the way of impressive stunt work, leaving a film which never really knows how to make the most of its incredible production values beyond the odd effective scene here and there (according to director Allan Dwan, Fairbanks was never fully convinced about making the film, and it shows). Still, it does have an inspired moment when the Merry Men use a pair of noblemen on ropes for a giant game of conkers that's bonkers enough to forgive at least some of the film's shortcomings.
It's not helped by some of the public domain DVD copies out there, but Kino's 2004 special edition Region 1 NTSC DVD offers a good transfer with some interesting outtakes and a Will Rogers parody from Big Moments from Little Pictures.