Top 250 Challenge: 139

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Number 147 on IMDb's Top 250
Anonymously Nominated by Anonymous Ken

Umm...Robin Hood...Do I have to spell it out for you? Okay, King Richard the Lionheart is off at the crusades...crusading. Meanwhile, back at the castle, Prince John, some Guy from Gisbourne, and the Sheriff of Nottingham plot to overthrow Richard and gain the crown cause lets face it, chicks dig the crown, and that Guy guy likes the Lady Marian (Olivia de Havilland) and who wouldn't, she's a babe.

Robin of Locksley (Errol Flynn) is a nobleman who gets fed up with Prince John and Sir Guy of Gisbourne and runs away to stay in the forest with a band of merry men (not that there is anything wrong with that) and basically becomes a hood. Robin decides to fight John Little and his quarterstaff ("Actually, it's a buck-and-a-quarter quarterstaff. But I'm not tellin' HIM that.") and gets beat by him so they become friends (except Robin demands on calling him Little John, Hey Man! He beat you fair and square!). They then commence to robbing the rich to give to the poor and all that Robin Hood stuff. ("See yon rich, unwary traveler? I'll rob him of his gold, and give it to some poor unworthy slob! That'll PROVE I'm Robin Hood! Huh? Hm? Okay?")

Prince John and the guys come up with a plan to get Robin Hood by holding an archery tourney. Sure enough, Robin can't resist a good tourney and he wins! (It sure would have thrown a kink in the plan if he had lost there wouldn't it.) After a chase Robin is caught and sentenced to death, now there is a fine how-do-you-do. Maid Marian doesn't want to become an old maid with that Guy so she gets the merry men and they rescue him, Hurrah! Hilarity really ensues when King Richard shows up and we have a big sword fight. All is well and Marian gets her man.

Trivia: The Golden Palomino that Olivia de Havilland rides in this film is Trigger, shortly before he became the mount of Roy Rogers. The sound of Robin's arrow is the favorite sound of Skywalker Sound's Ben Burtt. He has used that sound in almost all the Star Wars films. The production used all 11 of the Technicolor cameras in existence in 1938 and they were all returned to Technicolor at the end of each day's filming.

This movie may be the origin of just about every Robin Hood cliche in existance. Robin Hood in green tights. The archery tournament. All the fancy colorful clothing. Robin sword fighting on the stairs. King Richard showing up in the end to save the day. They became cliches for a reason, everybody copied them in Robin Hood movies to come. There was a Robin Hood movie in 1922 with Douglas Fairbanks but most people remember this one more. An Anonymous Thanks To Anonymous Ken.

Quick Bonus Trivia Question: The two quotes in the summary above are not from this movie, what are they from?