...may be the most exciting retelling of any vintage legend ever filmed, an almost perfect blend of adventure, romance, and high good humor.
Video:
The movie was among the earliest to use the three-strip Technicolor process, and thanks to Warner Brothers' immaculate restoration the image looks almost as good today as it probably did when it was new. After watching the trailer for it, I was a little afraid the colors were going to be too gaudy, but, in fact, while they are bright, they are quite natural and realistic. Definition is a tad on the soft side, though. Of more importance, there are zero age marks, scratches, lines, spots, or flecks whatever, I assume their having been eliminated in the refurbishment. One notices grain in darker scenes and against wide, flat backdrops; and haloes and moiré effects practically never. A fairly high bit rate ensures the transfer is clean and free from digital artifacts.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital single-channel monaural sound is slightly hard and edgy, with a bit of background noise in quieter sections at higher volume. Korngold's dazzling musical score could use more mid and lower bass to fill it out, as well as a bit more range. Still, the sound has the advantage of being clear, making dialogue easy to understand. While dynamics and frequency response are understandably limited, it's not as much as one might expect. Remember, this was 1938, little more than a decade after the introduction of sound to pictures. Given the circumstances, the audio comes off pretty well.
Extras:
As usual, this Warner Brothers' Special Edition two-disc set contains more bonus materials than one can appreciate at a single sitting. Indeed, the bonus items last over twice as long as the main feature. On disc one we find the movie itself, newly restored and remastered, with English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles. Also on the first disc are an audio commentary with film historian Rudy Behlmer; a music-only track showcasing Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Oscar-winning score; and a "Warner Night at the Movies 1938" introduced by Leonard Maltin that includes a vintage newsreel, a musical short subject from Freddie Rich and His Orchestra, a Merrie Melodies cartoon, "Katnip Kollege," and a theatrical trailer for another Warner hit of the day, "Angels With Dirty Faces." The first disc is rounded off with a cast and crew listing, twenty-nine scene selections, and an Errol Flynn trailer gallery with trailers from eleven of the actor's most-famous films. Whew! And that's just for starters.
Disc two contains the longer stuff. First and most important is a new, sixty-fifth anniversary documentary on the making of the classic, "Welcome to Sherwood: The Story of the Adventures of Robin Hood," with historians, writers, and film buffs Rudy Behlmer, Leonard Maltin, Robert Osborne, Paula Sigman, and Bob Thomas, Korngold expert John Mauceri, and art director Gene Allen. It's fifty-five minutes long and takes the viewer through every stage of the film's production from casting to final screenings. Probably the second most-important bonus element is a sixty-minute documentary on the coming of color to the movies, "Glorious Technicolor," the story of the evolution of the Technicolor process, hosted by Angela Lansbury. It, too, is divided into chapters for easy access. Next is an eight-minute series of outtakes narrated by film historian Rudy Behlmer, plus a segment called "Breakdowns of 1938" that provides fourteen minutes worth of flubs and bloopers from various films of the period. "Robin Hood Through the Ages" is a seven-minute look at Robin Hood's earlier screen adaptations, most particularly the 1922 Douglas Fairbanks silent classic. Then there's "A Journey to Sherwood Forest," thirteen minutes worth of on-location, behind-the-scenes home movies made during the film's shooting. Two classic Looney Tunes cartoons that parody Robin Hood follow, "Rabbit Hood" with Bugs Bunny and "Robin Hood Daffy" with Daffy Duck. Lastly, there are some vintage short subjects, "Cavalcade of Archery" and "The Cruise of the Zaca," followed by a segment called "Splitting the Arrow" that includes historical art, costume designs, scene concepts, cast and crew pictures, and the like.
Parting Thoughts:
"The Adventures of Robin Hood" has been called "A splendid adventure story, rousingly operatic in treatment" (Leslie Halliwell, "Halliwell's Film Guide"), "Cinematic pageantry at its best" ("Variety"), "One of the most splendid entertainments ever devised" (David Shipman, "The Story of Cinema"), "The quintessential swashbuckler" (Steven H. Scheuer, "Movies on TV"), "The definitive swashbuckler" ("Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide"), "To most film buffs...the Robin Hood" (John Eastman, "Retakes"), "Among the very best adventure films" (Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, "Video and DVD Guide"), "The stuff of which Saturday afternoon dreams were made" (Scott Meek, "Time Out Film Guide"), and "the greatest costume adventure of all time" (Danny Peary, "Guide for the Film Fanatic").
They're absolutely correct.
The movie was among the earliest to use the three-strip Technicolor process, and thanks to Warner Brothers' immaculate restoration the image looks almost as good today as it probably did when it was new. After watching the trailer for it, I was a little afraid the colors were going to be too gaudy, but, in fact, while they are bright, they are quite natural and realistic. Definition is a tad on the soft side, though. Of more importance, there are zero age marks, scratches, lines, spots, or flecks whatever, I assume their having been eliminated in the refurbishment. One notices grain in darker scenes and against wide, flat backdrops; and haloes and moiré effects practically never. A fairly high bit rate ensures the transfer is clean and free from digital artifacts.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital single-channel monaural sound is slightly hard and edgy, with a bit of background noise in quieter sections at higher volume. Korngold's dazzling musical score could use more mid and lower bass to fill it out, as well as a bit more range. Still, the sound has the advantage of being clear, making dialogue easy to understand. While dynamics and frequency response are understandably limited, it's not as much as one might expect. Remember, this was 1938, little more than a decade after the introduction of sound to pictures. Given the circumstances, the audio comes off pretty well.
Extras:
As usual, this Warner Brothers' Special Edition two-disc set contains more bonus materials than one can appreciate at a single sitting. Indeed, the bonus items last over twice as long as the main feature. On disc one we find the movie itself, newly restored and remastered, with English, French, and Spanish spoken languages and subtitles. Also on the first disc are an audio commentary with film historian Rudy Behlmer; a music-only track showcasing Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Oscar-winning score; and a "Warner Night at the Movies 1938" introduced by Leonard Maltin that includes a vintage newsreel, a musical short subject from Freddie Rich and His Orchestra, a Merrie Melodies cartoon, "Katnip Kollege," and a theatrical trailer for another Warner hit of the day, "Angels With Dirty Faces." The first disc is rounded off with a cast and crew listing, twenty-nine scene selections, and an Errol Flynn trailer gallery with trailers from eleven of the actor's most-famous films. Whew! And that's just for starters.
Disc two contains the longer stuff. First and most important is a new, sixty-fifth anniversary documentary on the making of the classic, "Welcome to Sherwood: The Story of the Adventures of Robin Hood," with historians, writers, and film buffs Rudy Behlmer, Leonard Maltin, Robert Osborne, Paula Sigman, and Bob Thomas, Korngold expert John Mauceri, and art director Gene Allen. It's fifty-five minutes long and takes the viewer through every stage of the film's production from casting to final screenings. Probably the second most-important bonus element is a sixty-minute documentary on the coming of color to the movies, "Glorious Technicolor," the story of the evolution of the Technicolor process, hosted by Angela Lansbury. It, too, is divided into chapters for easy access. Next is an eight-minute series of outtakes narrated by film historian Rudy Behlmer, plus a segment called "Breakdowns of 1938" that provides fourteen minutes worth of flubs and bloopers from various films of the period. "Robin Hood Through the Ages" is a seven-minute look at Robin Hood's earlier screen adaptations, most particularly the 1922 Douglas Fairbanks silent classic. Then there's "A Journey to Sherwood Forest," thirteen minutes worth of on-location, behind-the-scenes home movies made during the film's shooting. Two classic Looney Tunes cartoons that parody Robin Hood follow, "Rabbit Hood" with Bugs Bunny and "Robin Hood Daffy" with Daffy Duck. Lastly, there are some vintage short subjects, "Cavalcade of Archery" and "The Cruise of the Zaca," followed by a segment called "Splitting the Arrow" that includes historical art, costume designs, scene concepts, cast and crew pictures, and the like.
Parting Thoughts:
"The Adventures of Robin Hood" has been called "A splendid adventure story, rousingly operatic in treatment" (Leslie Halliwell, "Halliwell's Film Guide"), "Cinematic pageantry at its best" ("Variety"), "One of the most splendid entertainments ever devised" (David Shipman, "The Story of Cinema"), "The quintessential swashbuckler" (Steven H. Scheuer, "Movies on TV"), "The definitive swashbuckler" ("Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide"), "To most film buffs...the Robin Hood" (John Eastman, "Retakes"), "Among the very best adventure films" (Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, "Video and DVD Guide"), "The stuff of which Saturday afternoon dreams were made" (Scott Meek, "Time Out Film Guide"), and "the greatest costume adventure of all time" (Danny Peary, "Guide for the Film Fanatic").
They're absolutely correct.
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