El temible Robin Hood

Since the beloved character of Robin Hood is (hopefully) soon to grace our silver screens once again, it is perhaps appropriate that I should venture now into Sherwood Forest to seek out his lesser-known son (also helpfully named Robin here and in love with a noble maiden named Marianne!) who finds himself at loggerheads with his father's old nemesis Prince (now King) John and is likewise aided by Robin Sr.'s band of merry men – Little John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlett and Alan-a-Dale. Traveling in the company of these characters always provides an enveloping feeling of nostalgia (illustrated books of his exploits were mandatory childhood reading chez nous) and is a guarantee of entertainment but, this being a modest second-class offering, the results are milder than other more fondly-remembered adventures of theirs. The action is there but performed with little panache and even a curious lethargy in spots but the film's handsome look goes a long way in compensating for this shortcoming, as does the cast: John Derek makes an attractive lead (even though Diane Lynn's bland heroine is another liability), George Macready a smarmy tyrant (eventually being forced by Robin's deeds to sign the all-important historical document of the Magna Carta), Paul Cavanaugh an oily henchman, Billy House a jovial friar but the film's major claim to fame is surely the fact that Alan Hale reprises (for the third and last time – sadly, this was his last film) his trademark role of Little John. This was Columbia's second of three similarly-titled Robin Hood-themed pictures – made in between THE BANDIT OF SHERWOOD FOREST (1946; which had Cornel Wilde playing Robin Jr.) and Hammer's disappointing SWORDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST (1960; with Richard Greene reprising his popular TV incarnation); there was even THE SON OF ROBIN HOOD (1958; starring David Hedison) but it was the product of a different studio.