Review: The Men of Sherwood Forest (1954)

King Richard (Patrick Holt) is held prisoner in Germany, Sir Nigel of Saltire (Douglas Wilmer, in an excellent film debut) enlists the help of Robin Hood (Don Taylor) to uncover plans regarding the King’s return. After all, if the plans fall into the wrong hands the King’s life could be in danger. The trail eventually leads to the rotten Sir Guy Belton (David King-Wood), but there is another conspiratorial figure who is tied to Prince John. Eileen Moore plays the lovely Lady Alys, who along with Friar Tuck (Reginald Beckwith), and Robin’s Merry Men fill out the support players. Giant Bernard Bresslaw can briefly be seen as a dopey guard, and Leonard Sachs plays The Sheriff of Nottingham, far less important to the tale here than usual.


Moderately enjoyable 1954 Val Guest (“Yesterday’s Enemy”, “The Full Treatment”, “Hell is a City”) adventure film was Hammer’s first of several Robin Hood films, but not the best of them (that would be 1967’s underrated “A Challenge for Robin Hood”). The chief problem is miscast American actor Don Taylor in the lead. He does this cornball, forced, hands-on-hips ‘See, I’m a merry man! Ha Ha!’ laughter thing that is truly eye-rolling. He also looks like Shaggy from “Scooby-Doo” with his hair and green tunic, which absolutely does not help. Let’s be honest, the only reason he was cast was because of his slight facial similarity to Errol Flynn, and he was much more prolific as a director anyway (including “Damien: The Omen II”).


Much better than our lead actor are the perfectly cast Douglas Wilmer and Reginald Beckwith, the former as the black-clad villain Sir Nigel Saltire and the latter stealing the show as Friar Tuck. In fact, Beckwith is my favourite Friar Tuck by a mile, he seems born for the role. As great as Wilmer is, his character ends up not terribly well integrated into the narrative, so that’s a shame. Also terrific is an actor named David King-Wood as Sir Guy Belton, reminding me of a cross between Frank Thring and Stanley Baker. Strangely, he seemed to stop acting a few years later, apparently moving to teaching in New York and theatre directing before passing away in 2003. Eileen Moore doesn’t really have a role of any great substance here but she’s stunningly beautiful nonetheless.


At under 80 minutes there’s not enough time for this one to get boring, but also not enough time for it to be terribly substantial. Scant screen time and lots of characters will rarely satisfy wholeheartedly. There’s enough here to just narrowly make it worth recommending, but the central miscasting of Don Taylor as Robin Hood sees this as not quite one of the better Robin Hood films. He just won’t do, though the support cast is pretty terrific. Scripted by Allan MacKinnon (“House of Blackmail”), it’s a pleasant way to waste an hour or so but that’s it.


Rating: B-

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