BY FRED BLOSSER
“The
Adventures of Robin Hood,†which aired on CBS from 1955 to 1959, was an early
example of a television series produced in the U.K. and imported by an American
network into U.S. living rooms with great success -- a forerunner of numerous
hit shows to follow from across the Atlantic, including “The Avengers,†“Secret
Agent/ Danger Manâ€, too many “PBS Masterpiece Theater†favorites to list, and
more recently “Downton Abbey.†It was
also an early example, replicated as well by “Downton Abbey,†of a popular TV
series leveraged into a big-screen theatrical movie. The year after “The Adventures of Robin Hoodâ€
ended its U.S. network run, its producer Sidney Cole and star Richard Greene
created a feature-film version, “Sword of Sherwood Forest,†in partnership with
Hammer Studios, for release here through Columbia Pictures. Although supporting roles were recast, Greene
returned as Robin, and some principals from the series’ production crew were
reunited as well. Director of
Photography Ken Hodges returned, the screenplay was provided by Alan Hackney,
who had scripted many of the episodes of the series, and the director was
Terence Fisher, already a Hammer veteran, who had directed several series
episodes. Media historians tend to
characterize the TV and theatrical movie industries in the 1950s and early ‘60s
as bitter rivals for viewership, but the two industries in fact often enjoyed a
friendlier synergy of mutual convenience. In the case of “Sword of Sherwood Forest,†the popularity of the earlier
series provided theaters with a built-in audience for the movie. In turn, the film reminded fans to watch for
the syndicated reruns of the TV show, which continued to be broadcast on local
stations well into the 1970s.
In
the movie, which has been released on Blu-ray from Twilight Time in a limited
edition of 3,000 units, a well-dressed, badly wounded man flees into Sherwood
Forest, escaping from a posse led by the Sheriff of Nottingham (Peter
Cushing). Through Maid Marian (Sarah
Branch), the sheriff approaches Robin Hood with the offer of a pardon if he’ll
turn over the wounded fugitive, but Robin refuses. He knows, even if Marian has yet to learn,
although she quickly does, that the offer of clemency from his old enemy the
sheriff “isn’t worth the breath he uses to make the promise.†The fugitive eventually dies from his wound,
but not before passing along a brooch stamped with a mysterious emblem, and
mentioning the name of a town, Bawtry. Leaving Little John (Nigel Green) to lead the Merry Men in his absence,
Robin investigates with the help of Marian and Friar Tuck (Niall McGinnis). Gradually,
they uncover a plot involving the charming but secretive Earl of Newark
(Richard Pasco), his henchman the sheriff, an attempted land grab, a visit by
the Archbishop of Canterbury, and plans to carry out a high-level assassination
if the land grab fails.
We
who watched “The Adventures of Robin Hood†as kids in its original run weren’t
much inconvenienced by the show’s half-hour format and black-and-white
photography. We were used to half-hour
American series geared to younger audiences, like “The Roy Rogers Show†and
“Sky King,†and we could add the Technicolor in our imaginations. But Greene and Cole clearly realized the
advantages of a larger budget for affording Eastmancolor and “Megascopeâ€
widescreen photography, beautiful outdoor locations in County Wicklow, Ireland,
and a longer running time to enrich the story line and give a talented cast
more leisure to establish and inhabit their characters. Alan Hackney’s tidy, literate screenplay
incorporates elements from the old Robin Hood ballads and previous movie
versions that fans would expect to see -- for example, Robin venturing out of
Sherwood in disguise to put one over on the bad guys -- but he also plays with
the formula in fresh and clever ways. Notably,
the Sheriff of Nottingham’s fate isn’t quite the one that you expect at the
outset, and Cushing’s wonderfully sharp, emotionally shaded performance gives
it a surprisingly tragic dimension. Who’d have thought you’d reach the end of a Robin Hood story feeling
vaguely sorry for Robin’s archenemy?
Twilight Time
presents “Sword of Sherwood Forest,†an often overlooked swashbuckler, in a
good, 2.35:1 widescreen image. Special
features include the original trailer, an isolated music and effects track, SDH
subtitles for those of us who have put on a few more years since we watched the
original series in the ‘50s, and an informative, illustrated booklet by Julie
Kirgo that reproduces the original poster art for the movie. Kirgo’s critical appreciation of the movie is
on the mark, and she raises an interesting question in passing: In his small,
uncredited role as one of Newark’s hangers-on, was the young Oliver Reed dubbed
by somebody else? His voice is
noticeably higher-pitched than normal. On the other hand, his rhythm of speech is clearly the same rhythm we
recognize from other performances. I
suspect that he was trying for an odd sort of accent, but fans of the late,
great actor will enjoy weighing in with their own analyses.
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