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Well, now that I find myself looking at the movies and books and tv shows in the queue for review, I find that I'm almost three months behind. Something tells me I'll need to do a big movie roundup again or post two reviews a day to catch up. We'll see which wins out! I'll start it off with a gem of a movie I should have seen long ago in my childhood: Errol Flynn's The Adventures of Robin Hood. As mindful readers may recall, I listened to Pyle's Adventures of Robin Hood last year and fell in love with it, so I kind of went on a Robin Hood streak by also watching the Disney cartoon movie as well as this one.

Here is old movie making in its best lively and colorful form! Some of the adventures look exactly like how I might have imagined them to be while others are nothing I found in the book but still in the great spirit of things. The movie follows Robin Hood as he leads his troop of merry men in fights and tournaments and war against corrupt men, such as the evil Prince John (who is played wonderfully by Claude Rains), who wants to usurp the throne from King Richard the Lion-Heart.

One awesome thing I noticed is that Sir Guy of Gisborne is played by Basil Rathbone, who starred as the villain in Danny Kaye's The Court Jester; his role in the later movie seems to poke fun at this earlier role, which makes both roles all the more fun to watch. Errol Flynn is a great Robin Hood, and from the commentaries, he was also a smart actor who took an active role behind the scenes as well. I think he embodies Robin well, with a light spirit but the ability to be very masculine and powerful when the time calls for it, such as when he storms a feast by carrying in a large piece of game and tossing it on the feast table. Olivia de Havilland stars as the maid Marian. I haven't actually read any stories involving this character yet, so I'm not sure how to comment on her except to say she played off of Flynn well.

One of the best things about watching this on DVD was the commentary. I rarely pay attention to that sort of thing, but I was in the mood for it and decided to give it a go. It was a scripted commentary that went through every possible aspect of behind the scenes I could think of! It talked about the historical background of the times of Robin Hood, the accuracies and inaccuracies of the movie script, the costuming, the staging, each individual actor's biography and personality, what movie studio contract acting was like in the day, the various directors of the movie (very interesting aspect), the musical score, and the filming locations. There was so much information piled in that the commentary really didn't ever give much time to just watching the movie itself, but it was so informative that I was really glad to have listened to it.

As an adventure movie, I'd say this one has plenty to entertain, from its charismatic actors to the humor, action, music, costumes, settings, and pretty much everything else in between. If there were things I didn't like about the movie, it's been so long since I watched it that I can't remember anything significant. It's a definite plus in my book - not perfect, but pretty awesome.