Nottingham Castle in Robin Hood Movies, 01.

 These pictures show how Nottingham Castle was depicted in Robin Hood movies across the decades. Not all of them were specifically about Nottingham, but the castle was always where the “bad guys” lived.

Above: “Robin Hood”, 1922. Below: “Adventures of Robin Hood”, 1938.

Above: “Bandit of Sherwood Forest”, 1946. Below: “Prince of Thieves”, 1948.

Above: “Rogues of Sherwood Forest”, 1950. Below: “Tales of Sherwood Forest”, 1951.

Above: "The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men", 1952. Below: "The Men of Sherwood Forest", 1954.

Robin Hood at the Movies: 05 Prince of Thieves, 1948.

 

Sir Allan Claire and his sister Lady Marian are riding through Sherwood Forest. An assassin tries to kill Sir Alan. Robin Hood saves them, but still robs them of their money, until he learns they are friends of King Richard. Sir Allan Claire has come to Nottingham to marry Lady Christable, though she is already betrothed against her will to Baron Tristram, nephew of Prince John.

The assassin has survived and informs Tristram of their whereabouts. The obligatory sword fight follows, in which Robin throws the assassin out of an upstairs window. They then leave to support Allan in his attempt to save his Lady Christable, but the assassin has (of course) survived again and hears their plan, soon disclosing it to Tristram. Robin is then captured, until Lady Christable’s maid, Maude, sets him free.

Lady Marian and Maude go swimming. (Not the first time Marian’s done this in the movies). Marian herself is then captured, and Robin must surrender himself in exchange for her release. This he does and ends up on the scaffold. But the executioners are not what they seem, and the swordfights commence (any staircase will do), before no less than a triple wedding herald’s the finale.

The underlying storyline here is akin to the ancient legend of Robin Hood helping Alan A Dale save his sweetheart from an arranged marriage to an old nobleman.

Robin Hood at the Movies: 04 “The Bandit of Sherwood Forest”, (1946).

 

Robin Hood is now an older man, and has become the Earl of Huntingdon. Therefore it is his son Robert of Nottingham who will take up his father’s cause when Regent William of Pembroke, temporary guardian of the throne, threatens to revoke the Magna Carta. But first, Robin Hood must gather together his original merry men, who rally to his call in their hundreds, racing to his side on horseback, looking more like the 7th Cavalry than Sherwood Forest outlaws. Little John, Friar Tuck, Alan A Dale, and Will Scarlet are all present. (Maid Marian is not mentioned throughout the movie.) As a consequence, Robin, Earl of Huntingdon, is banished from his lands.

Pembroke takes the boy destined to be King, away from his mother the Queen, who in turn goes looking for Robin Hood to help her, with Lady Catherine Maitland at her side. They encounter Robert by a river, after catching him spying on Katherine in a state of undress, although she seems not to object too much to an almost instant kiss and cuddle from this complete stranger.

Their attempt to rescue the boy results in their capture. Robert, it seem, is not half the man his father Robin was. However, rather than hang him, Pembroke offers a duel to the death, the scenes for which deliberately echo those of Flynn and Rathbone, complete with shadows on the staircase, but not half as good.

This movie has not stood the test of time, although it was really successful at the box-office. Cornel Wilde’s hairpiece is so huge I was expecting it to be listed in the credits. On the other hand, Anita Louise is very good as Lady Catherine Maitland, possibly the first heroine in a Robin Hood movie to actively engage with the proceedings, fighting alongside the outlaws.

Robin Hood at the movies: 01 “Robin Hood", aka "Robin Hood Outlawed", (1912).

 

Above: Guy of Gisbourne and the Sheriff of Nottingham. 

Not the first Robin Hood movie, but the only one which seems to have survived from the 1910s. Its importance is not so much in the merits of the movie, but in the opportunity it gives to see a simple enactment of the legend as it would probably have appeared in countless live performances over centuries previous: The characters are in readily identifiable costumes, much like a pantomime. Gisbourne wants Marian; a “stranger” turns up which of course turns out to be the King; Robin and Marian get married.

Above: The stranger turns out to be the King. Tuck presides over the marriage of Robin and Marian in Sherwood Forest.