The Adventures of Robin Hood

Errol Flynn was a lot of things in a legendary career early in Hollywood's history. He was a swashbuckler, a boxer, a gunfighter, a rabble-rouser in his personal life, someone who lived life to the fullest. But what is that one role, that one part that is instantly recognized as his best? Well, that one's easy, 1938's The Adventures of Robin Hood.

It's 1191 A.D. and the English king, Richard the Lionheart, has been captured by the enemy while returning from the Crusades. In steps his greedy, manipulative brother, Prince John (Claude Rains), who takes over the crown and instantly starts to take advantage of his power. In a growing battle between the Normans and the Saxons, the put-upon people need help, someone to fight back. That man? A Saxon nobleman, Robin Hood (Flynn), who takes to Sherwood Forest with a gang of bandits to be a constant thorn in the side of Prince John and his enforcer, Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone). They're not any bandits though. They aren't in for personal gain. Robin and his men become heroes as they give their spoils to the people from the money to the food they take. What's their end goal though? Can they somehow take down Prince John?

So everyone has heard of Robin Hood right? His historical reality has long been debated because...well, people just aren't sure he existed. So real or not, the character has become an instantly recognizable individual in literature and storytelling. From directors Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, 'Adventures' was a profoundly important film in Hollywood history. It's the big, splashy, colorful adventure film that helped set the stage for action and adventure films for years to come. The action-packed story with romance and intrigue and all sorts of craziness picked up four Oscar nominations, winning three, and is a perennial entry on all sorts of 'Best' lists, including several AFI lists. Can't go wrong, right?

Start with Errol Flynn. He's one of my favorite movie stars ever, the type of star/actor I'll check out a movie solely because he's in it. There aren't a lot of those stars around then or now. But in a career of memorable parts, this is THE part. He was meant to play Robin Hood. Flynn brings the perfect energy to this folklore character. That infectious smile, that loving-life laugh, that physicality as he swings across the scene (quite literally), fights his way through one sword fight after another, and unleashes arrow after arrow at his pursuers. You can't help but like the character, Flynn bringing him to life and influencing every other Robin Hood portrayal to follow for years whether it be on film, on television and even literature. That Errol Flynn guy. He knew what he was doing.

'Adventures' boasts a solid all-around cast in support of Flynn. The villains are perfectly dastardly, doing all sorts of malicious evil. Rains is the smooth, suave Prince John (slightly effeminate) while Rathbone gets to play the far more sinister Sir Guy, progressively becoming more obsessed with capturing and hanging Robin. Frequent Flynn co-star Olivia De Havilland (they would work together in 8 films) is memorable as Maid Marian, promised to Sir Guy while falling for Robin when she's taken prisoner. Their chemistry is evident throughout just like it was in all their pairings together. As for Robin's Merry men, look for Patrick Knowles as Will Scarlett, Eugene Pallette as Friar Tuck, Alan Hale as Little John, and Herbert Mundin as Much, a mousey squirrel. There's also Melville Cooper as the semi-bumbling but amusing Sheriff of Nottingham and Ian Hunter as King Richard.

Here's my spot here. I appreciate what this movie meant in terms of Hollywood and historical significance, but I didn't love the movie. I liked it a lot, but a slower last 45 minutes left me disappointed. Still....it's a really good movie. It's that perfect popcorn escapism, great good guys and black and white bad guys. The color scheme is a gem, one of the first Hollywood films to really embrace shooting in color. Robin and his Merry men in their Lincoln green uniforms, Prince John and Sir Guy in their bright red, the colors are rich and vivid throughout. As well, the Oscar-winning score from composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold is a gem, several instantly recognizable themes keeping the action flowing throughout (listen HERE). The action is fun and full of some great stunts, several large-scale battles and scuffles dotting the story. An easy movie to recommend.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938): ***/****

The Sea Hawk

A couple weeks ago I reviewed 1936's Charge of the Light Brigade and as I thought about it since realized I was probably more than a little harsh on star Errol Flynn. I wrote that "he probably didn't act a day in his life" because he seems to always play the ultra-suave, extremely cool hero that saves the day and gets the girl. It came off as more critical than I intended because one of my other favorites, John Wayne, made a career out of playing the same basic character repeatedly. Should we hold it against somebody because they found their niche and ran with it?

It's hard to be critical of Flynn as a movie star because for the most part his movies are so damn entertaining, straight popcorn flicks. But looking at the 1930s and 1940s, he is clearly one of Hollywood's biggest stars. Just look at the movies he made over a 10-year period. He made more classics or near-classics that many actors/actresses make in a career. And as I wrote, just about all those movies has him as a swash-buckling rogue of one sort or another (settings vary) who always ends up on top with a girl on his arm, like 1940's The Sea Hawk.

Flynn plays Geoffrey Thorpe, an English privateer in the late 1500s working for Queen Elizabeth as one of many 'sea hawks.' These English privateers -- or pirates to their enemies -- harass rival countries' ships and keep England flowing in money, gold and treasure. Thorpe's 'Albatross' one day attacks a Spanish galley brimming with treasure and two key passengers onboard, the new Spanish ambassador traveling to England, Don Jose Alvarez (Claude Rains) and his niece Dona Maria (Brenda Marshall). Thorpe delivers his prized catch to Queen Elizabeth (a great performance for Flora Robson) who promptly ignores Alvarez's demands he be put in chains.

Queen Elizabeth has bigger plans for Thorpe and the Albatross. Rumors are swirling that Spain's King Philip is assembling the powerful Spanish Armada with hopes of conquering England. Elizabeth does not have a navy to protect her country -- other than the Sea Hawks -- and no money with which to build a navy. She sends Thorpe on a dangerous mission to Central America; attack the gold convoy coming out of the Spanish mines at Vera Cruz and bring it back so she can assemble a navy in time. Off Thorpe goes, leaving Dona Maria behind. But the plan won't be so easy as Alvarez and the treacherous Wolfingham (Henry Daniell) are at work to make sure the plan fails.

Typecast as a swashbuckler early in his career, it's only fitting that Flynn was in fact very good at fencing having been trained in the art. The training obviously shows because in several of his movies, including The Sea Hawk, Flynn engages in several exciting, intricate-looking sword fights. At one point, Thorpe even takes on four English guards at once in the shadowy court of Queen Elizabeth. It is something so little that as an audience we take for granted sometimes with CGI and stunt doubles, but Flynn handling his own stunts helps make the movie more realistic and for me, much more enjoyable. It's cool to see one of Hollywood's biggest stars at the time going toe to toe like that.

The film opens with a bang as Thorpe's Albatross overwhelms Alvarez's Spanish galley, watch it HERE, with a pretty cool introduction for Flynn as we've heard about his character for most of 10 or 15 minutes. The action sequence does continue into Part 3 for those wanting to continue on. The attack is a great scene in itself, both epically grand as two huge ships duke it out and then on a smaller scale as the two crews engage in hand-to-hand combat to save their ships. The resolution to the fight is particularly unique as how to stop a conflict like that.

Playing Captain Geoffrey Thorpe, Flynn is at his coolest, a driven, patriotic man fighting for queen and country, and of course, the girl. Marshall made 20 movies in a short time and then left show business, and as she shows here as Dona Maria, she's not the greatest actress around but she has some potential. Rains is a worthy villain as always, and Donald Crisp makes the most of a smaller part as Sir John, one of Elizabeth's loyal court members. Often pairing with Flynn as a sidekick, the loyal right hand man, Alan Hale plays Mr. Pitt, the burly, brawling sailor. Robson is actually playing Queen Elizabeth for a second time and almost steals the movie away from Flynn and her co-stars as the outspoken ruler of England.

A movie that's a lot of fun with plenty of action, over-the-top dialogue and some cheesy romance. It's not my favorite Errol Flynn movie, but the swashbuckling actor was never one to disappoint with his action and adventure movies.

The Sea Hawk <----trailer (1940): ***/****

Passage to Marseille

My favorite TV show is Lost which used flashbacks for most of four seasons in its storytelling. I like the reasoning because it gives background without devoting whole seasons to character back stories. The same goes for movies where a 2 or 3 minute flashback can accomplish what a prequel might have been able to do. Of course, with anything good you can take it too far like 1944's Passage to Marseille, an otherwise enjoyable movie set in WWII.

Working off a novel as his source, director Michael Curtiz delivers a movie that at any number of times is juggling 4 different storylines courtesy of a flashbacks; Free French squadron in England, French ship traveling from South America to France, pre-war character stories, and a desperate prison escape from Devil's Island. The plotlines are never confusing, but at certain points I wanted to groan as the screen went fuzzy for another flashback. Reading up about the novel, it seems Curtiz stayed pretty faithful to his subject matter, but could this have been better as four different movies, a huge series? Quite possibly, but that probably would have cost significantly more cash that's not mine.

'Marseille' opens with a great framing device in the middle of WWII as a war correspondent (John Loder) visits a Free French bomber squadron in England where he meets their liasion officer, Freznet (Claude Rains). The writer is curious about one of the machine gunners on one of the bombers, a man named Matrac (Humphrey Bogart). So starts Flashback 1 with Freznet recapping how he met Matrac years before. Sailing from South America to France aboard Capt. Marlowe's (Victor Francen) ship, a little canoe is found floating at sea with five people aboard (Bogart, Peter Lorre, George Tobias, Helmut Dantine, and Phillip Dorn). Freznet figures out these five are Devil's Island escapees trying to get back to fight for their native France. But not so fast, WWII has broken out and France has signed an armistice with Germany.

A French officer, Major Duval (Sydney Greenstreet), onboard wants to deliver the ship to Marseille with its shipment of nickel ore, while Capt. Marlowe intends to head for England and join the war effort. A mutiny looks to be impossible to avoid with the five Devil's Island convicts playing a deciding factor. Sounds like a pretty decent story, doesn't it? We're not done yet with flashbacks to the Devil's Island escape and then Bogie's background as to how he ended up in prison. So here's the basic, during WWII Rains is telling a story about Bogie, who's tellling a story about Devil's Island who's telling a story about Bogie being sent to prison. I'm tired just writing about it.

Besides the mangled story structure (I'm not sure how a linear story could have been done), this was a solid movie all around. The casting is impeccable even if Bogie is an odd choice as a patriotic Frenchman. Thankfully, he makes no attempt at a French accent. Still, Bogart is as an iconic figure as Hollywood ever produced, and he's as calmly cool as he ever was. His backstory with his wife Paula (Michele Morgan) is needed to balance out the changes his character makes as he goes from a newspaperman denouncing the French government to a convict to a patriotic Frenchman. The rest of the cast is pretty nuts with Rains very solid leading a strong ensemble. Vladimir Sokoloff makes quite an impression too as a free man let out of the French penal system who aids the escape effort.

Made two years after Casablanca, 'Marseille' features a boatload of connections, starting with Bogart starring and Rains, Greenstreet and Lorre in supporting roles with Curtiz directing. It definitely has the feel of Casablanca with the war setting serving as a backdrop to an exciting story. Overdone at times -- mostly due to the choppy story courtesy of the flashbacks -- but still a solid movie. Youtube has it available to watch, starting here with Part 1 of 11. See if you can keep up.

Passage to Marseille <----trailer (1944): ***/****