Leonard here. The following column is written by my colleague Mark Searby highlighting British cinema past and present. Please enjoy A Bit of Crumpet.
I’ve always been a sucker for films about Robin Hood. Maybe it’s because I was born & bred in Nottinghamshire, so the legend of Robin looms large in every corner of the county. Over the decades many Robin Hood films have tried, and most have failed, to capture the true spirit of the outlaw. The high watermark of Robin Hood films is still Disney’s animated adventure from 1973.
Almost two decades prior to Disney’s sing-a-long Robin Hood, Hammer Films released their own Robin Hood film. Men of Sherwood Forest came four years before the studio would cement itself as one of the great horror film studios of all time with Christopher Lee’s unnerving take on the Dracula legend. But Men of Sherwood Forest is a much more light-hearted take from the studio.
Set towards the end of the 12th Century, while Richard the Lionheart is imprisoned in Germany his wicked brother John plans to steal his throne. Robin Hood disguises himself as a troubadour in-order to make plans to rescue Richard. But Robin is captured and his Merry Men have to formulate a plan to save him while also saving the King.
If you’ve come for the swashbuckling, then you’ve come to the wrong place. This is not a film filled with sword play. There is a brief, and entertaining, sword fight within the castle that see’s Robin and Friar Tuck do battle against plenty of henchmen. There are a few swings of swords and lots of throwing of weaponry around. But that’s about your lot when it comes to real action. Instead, most of the film see’s Robin ducking n’ diving around the castle. He is basically playing a big game of Hide N’ Seek with John’s army. How anybody doesn’t see him is beyond me, especially in the tightest and reddest pair of tights you are ever likely to see. Neither is it the most ingenious of ideas to disguise oneself as a troubadour when they wear Garibaldi Red, you can see that bright colour from the coast in Lincolnshire, let along being in the same Nottinghamshire castle. Robin doesn’t even change his hair style or voice. He looks exactly the same except he is wearing red, and yet nobody in John’s army notices it is the outlaw they are meant to be capturing. It’s the Clark Kent glasses syndrome.
However, there is some entertainment to be had in this jovial movie. And it belongs to Friar Tuck. A man so cunning when it comes to being with John’s army that you would say he was wicked were it not for him actually being on the good guy’s side. One such moment involves Tuck playing an early version of roulette, but with star signs, with the henchmen. Each time the ball spins in the cup it lands on a star sign that the henchmen haven’t bet on. So, Tuck rakes in the pieces of Gold. A sly, old wily character that is making up the rules as he goes along. Giving a little wink to Robin… sorry, the troubadour… and the delightfully upbeat Maid Marrion as to his ruse. Friar Tuck wins the game, and steals the film.
These days we would call this film a “campy affair,” yet back in 1954 it would have been seen as a state-of-the-art action/adventure flick. This was Hammer’s first foray into colour films. Using the little-known Eastmancolour film stock to shoot. This is a vivid film that has plenty of pop to the colours. Sherwood Forest is very green, and Robin’s red tights are very, Very, VERY red. Hammer really pushed the boat out when it came to financing their first colour film, and while the actual movie is an inoffensive, daytime TV romp that will lightly entertain, it is the colour in the film that really brings it all to life.
So, while Men of Sherwood Forest doesn’t quite have the legend of Robin Hood doing the running & jumping that we would hope for (also, the less said about the so-called “Nottingham” accents, the better), this release is pretty stacked with new bonus features. One such extra feature that is well worth pointing out is a chance to see a long-thought-lost TV pilot that was eventually turned into a film.
Wolfshead is a very different attempt at the Robin Hood story compared to Men of Sherwood Forest. This is a grittier take on Robin of Loxley, and it’s all the better for it. Opening on a wide, expansive shot of a man running across hills with jagged mountains in the background, this earthier beginning is indicative of the rest of the film as it very much uses the locations – hills, forests, streams, wooden shacks, crumbling castles – to the story’s advantage as it shows the barebones that the peasants were living under, even Robert (not Robin in this version) himself struggling to find a place he can call home. It doesn’t help that Roger of Doncaster is hunting Robert after he protected a man & his two children from the wicked Geoffrey of Doncaster (Roger’s more athletic brother). So sets off a chain of events that sees short, sharp bursts of violence coupled with long scenes of dialogue that feature some of the best Nottinghamshire/Yorkshire accents of any Robin Hood film ever made. The scheming Doncaster brothers are the film’s winning hand as they plot a way to kill Robert and continue their ascent to the throne in the absence of King Richard. Nasty, conniving and devious, it’s a treat to see the villains of a Robin Hood story be played without camp or tongue-in-cheek. It adds an air of fear to it all. However, to keep Robert upbeat the fresh-faced, and rather delightful Lady Marian Fitzwalter does keep trying to sneak off into the woods with him. A slight tinge of romance flickers from the off between those two without it getting sentimental or mushy.
There is much more realism in this film than most of the other Robin Hood outings. Its tone is downbeat (although Friar Tuck’s laugh is one to lighten the mood), yet that adds to the film having a much better overall feel to being a grittier take on the legendary outlaw. It’s a shame Wolfshead didn’t lead to it being commissioned for a TV series, as it was devised to do, because based on this film, the TV show could have been a real stand-out.
Men of Sherwood Forest (including Wolfshead) is available in 4k UHD or Blu-Ray from Hammer Films.
