|
"By my faith, you're a bold rascal!" The rise of fascism at home on the cusp of a world war, all worked out in a lustrous studio evocation of medieval England. Prince John (Claude Rains) takes over the throne while King Richard (Ian Hunter) is away on the Crusades, resistance means poaching deer in the royal fields, where Much (Herbert Mundin) rather resembles Carette in La Règle du jeu. Robin of Locksley is a noble scalawag, in his pointy hat and tights Errol Flynn exudes a Peter Pan sparkle—when he crashes the usurper's feast with mischief and defiance in his eye, even Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland) is alarmed. "Why, you speak treason!" "Fluently." The uprising needs the best, Little John (Alan Hale) and Friar Tuck (Eugene Pallette) are recruited in friendly matches that end with the guffawing hero drenched in the river. The Sheriff of Nottingham (Melville Cooper) is a cowardly lion, Sir Guy of Gisborne (Basil Rathbone) is a cruel blade most vexed with such blithe rebels. "Our men can't lay a hot iron in the eyes of a tax dodger without getting an arrow in the throat." An adjustment of Fairbanks heroics to storybook Technicolor, with great swaths of green and crimson and gold set to the throb of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score. (William Keighley started the production, Michael Curtiz took over as a rousing expansion of Captain Blood.) Robin and Marian like Romeo and Juliet on the balcony, cawing nurse (Una O'Connor) and all. Swinging vines and trampolines, thus the "bloomin' hornet's nest" that is Sherwood Forest, complete with banquet table and refugee camp. Disguises at the archery tournament, the storming of the villain's coronation, crossed swords and reunited lovers: Some of cinema's oldest and purest pleasures. "Granted with all my heart." Cinematography by Tony Gaudio and Sal Polito. With Patric Knowles, Montagu Love, Leonard Willey, Robert Warwick, Colin Kenny, Harry Cording, and Ivan F. Simpson.
--- Fernando F. Croce |