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England, the 12th century: While King Richard (Ian Hunter) is over in
the Holy Land to fight the infidels, his brother John (Claude Rains) has
usurped the throne, and with the help of the Norman nobility, especially
Sir Guy of Gisbourne (Basil Rathbone) and the cowardly Sheriff of
Nottingham (Melville Cooper), he is taxing his Saxon subjects dry - and
there is only one man (and his gang of merry men) standing in his way, Sir
Robin of Locksley alias Robin Hood (Errol Flynn), who aides the needy and
avenges the poor by stealing from Norman nobility. During one of his
raids, Robin gets hold of Sir Guy, the Sheriff and Maid Marian (Olivia de
Havilland), the king's ward, and while he humiliates the two men by not
only robbing them but returning them to Prince John in beggars' cloths, he
positively falls in love with the lady, and after he proves to her he has
actually been outlawed for all the good he has done, she falls in love
with him as well. Still, Marian returns to Nottingham, and since the
fascination she has had on Robin hasn't escaped teh Sheriff and Sir Guy,
they make her the bait in a trap for Robin, a trap that is disguised as an
archery contest. Longing to see Maid Marian again, Robin participates in
and wins the contest of course, and is taken prisoner to be hanged the
next morning - but Maid Marian gets Robin's men into down to save him from
the gallows and humiliate Sir Guy and the Sheriff yet again. News is
brought to Nottingham that King Richard has returned to England, and
Prince John, Sir Guy and the Sheriff are of course quick to send an
assassin to kill him - but Maid Marian sends out a warning, asking Robin
to save the King. The King's assassin is intercepted for sure, but Marian
is caught by Sir Guy sending out the warning, which he considers an act of
treason of course, which is why he has her convicted to death - which is
of course another attempt to use her as bait to lure out Robin, and of
course again it works, but Robin brings with him King Richard, and this
time around, he and his men not only free Maid Marian, but they also
dethrone Prince John and free the country of Norman oppression. And in the
end, Robin gets the girl as well, but not before killing Sir Guy in a
fencing duel ... This version of the well-known story, shot in
glorious and then relatively new Technicolor, is of course cheesy as can
be - but cheesy in a good way, because somehow this is pretty much your
archetypical swashbuckler, an adventure flick spinning its yarn with
little respect for historical accuracies, realism or even plausability.
Instead it tells its story for the storytelling's sake, a story full of
easily recognizable good and bad guys, much action and a bit of romance,
based on grossly simplified politics and lacking any backstories to speak
of. Sure, all of this makes little more than a clichéed film - but
somehow I suspect this is exactly what you've come to expect to see when
reading the film's title alone, The Adventures of Robin Hood,
right?
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