Robin Hood (1922)

Originally posted to Facebook on 7/4/2017

Robin Hood is our fifth film from 1922. It is the fourth film we’ve seen starring Douglas Fairbanks, but the first swashbuckling costume drama -- which is the type of film for which he is probably most famous. It is also the first that is not explicitly a comedy, though it is certainly light-hearted. It also stars Wallace Beery (whom we last saw in the 1917 short Teddy at the Throttle) as King Richard -- and Alan Hale as Little John. Alan Hale, in addition to being the father of Alan Hale Jr. from Gilligan’s Island, reprised his role as Little John sixteen years later in Errol Flynn’s 1938 version of Robin Hood.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about this film is how long it takes Fairbanks as the Earl of Huntingdon to become Robin Hood. The first half of the film depicts his adventures in the service of King Richard, including jousting tournaments, wooing Marian (played by Enid Bennett), and accompanying Richard as he leaves for the crusades. Fairbanks is his normal athletic, exuberant self -- which is perhaps appropriate to our received image of Robin Hood, but a little odd when you consider that by the time he becomes Robin Hood he has lost everything from his former life -- or has every reason to think he has, in any case. This is the kind of movie where there are an awful lot of people throwing back their heads and laughing flamboyantly -- which as I think about it is something I don’t recall ever actually having seen happen in real life. Overall I probably would have preferred the movie to either be more dramatic, or more genuinely funny, and perhaps done a little bit less coasting on Fairbanks’ charisma -- but it had a professional sheen, and was intermittently enjoyable in a broad crowd-pleasing way.

Next week I’d planned to see our sixth and final movie from 1922, but I haven’t received it yet, so until it arrives we are going to move on to our first film from 1923: Scaramouche. I’ve also added our planned films from 1924 to the list, which can be seen here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT