Review: Sword of Sherwood Forest

While King Richard the Lionheart is away The Archbishop of Canterbury (Jack Gwillim) acts as viceroy and speaks out against The Sheriff of Nottingham (Peter Cushing) who wants to confiscate the estate of a nobleman who has died in battle. Needless to say The Sheriff is outraged and plots to have the Archbishop killed, with the aid of the Earl of Newark (Richard Pasco) and his offsider Lord Melton (Oliver Reed). The man appointed the task of assassination? Robin Hood (Richard Greene). Needless to say, Robin quickly realises he’s on the wrong side of things and sets about making things right.

 

Although I think the later “A Challenge for Robin Hood” is the best of Hammer’s Robin Hood films, this 1960 outing from Terence Fisher (“Horror of Dracula”, “The Hound of the Baskervilles”, “The Devil Rides Out”) is a bit slight but perfectly acceptable entertainment. Essentially a big-screen version of TV’s “The Adventures of Robin Hood” it retains the show’s star Richard Greene (who also co-produced the film) as Robin. That’s one of the problems. Greene is a third-rate Richard Todd, and while that may be fine for TV in the 50s and 60s, for a motion picture he comes off as every bit the also ran. He looks wrong, sounds posh, and just won’t do. Outside of that and being too short too fit all of these characters in properly, I don’t really have any negatives here with this good-looking romp. So it’s a shame that Greene is a pretty significant negative, because I could’ve really enjoyed this instead of slightly enjoying it.

 

Although he’s not exactly hulking, Nigel Green is as solid as ever as the ironically monikered Little John. He and Sarah Branch as Marian pick up Greene’s slack, whilst Niall McGinnis’ perhaps predictable casting as Friar Tuck is nonetheless spot-on though he’s a bit underused. That’s a sizeable issue with the screenplay by Alan Hackney (who wrote three episodes of the TV series), Robin is the only character truly fleshed out here, no one else is given much consideration and the film only runs 80 minutes. Although he’s no Robert Shaw or Alan Rickman in the part, Peter Cushing is perfect for this film’s version of the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham. He also wears your nan’s sofa as a robe at one point. You’ll know exactly what I’m talking about when you see it, it’s the most ghastly thing in a film that already has Dennis Lotis sporting a godawful Prince Valiant haircut/wig as sorrowful balladeer Alan-a-Dale. IMDb suggests that Oliver Reed is dubbed as a foppish follower of the secondary villain played by Richard Pasco. I think the voice sounds every bit like Hammer-era Reed, so I think that’s a user’s mistake. His ridiculous, lisping performance doesn’t really mesh with anything else here, but it sure is amusing watching him mince about. Perhaps a little too much boot polish was applied to his face, however. Jack Gwillim is fine as the Archbishop of Canterbury, a role that perhaps Greene could’ve played. Look out for Bond’s gadget designer Q, actor Desmond Llewelyn dying arguably the longest death on screen as a man shot with an arrow very early on in the film.

 

Fisher gets the job done here in this version of the oft-told tale, but it’s a job decently done, if not inspiringly done. Hammer completists will want to see it, but it’s a soft recommendation for most anyone else.

 

Rating: B-