Adventures of Robin Hood (7pc) [VHS]

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Category: VHS Video
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VHS Movie Reviews of Adventures of Robin Hood (7pc) [VHS]

Movie Review: Only the intro keeps it from 5 stars
Summary: 4 Stars

Instead of the standard credits for the show at the begining the company has a general intro with the closing song over the opening credits. Each episode has an introduction by the makers of the set. I would have prefered the actual intro but its a small price to pay since I haven't seen this complete a set offered by anyone else.

Of special note are two particular episodes:

FRIAR TUCK introduces The portly cleric into the scene as he attempt to get Robin's help to aid a girl running away from a forced marriage by the lord of the estate. Alexander Gauge played the role for the duration of the series and died the year it was cancelled.

GOODBYE LITTLE JOHN is one of two episodes included in the series from the later years of the series that contained John Arnatt as the Deputy Sheriff of Nottingham he is a more cerebral villain then Alan Wheatley and frankly more sinister. Little John has a dispute with Will Scarlett as he feels his role as Robin's 2nd in command is threatened. The wiley Sheriff decides to expand the rift by offering a no-frills pardon claiming that John was unjustly made an outlaw. This is a great tense episode as John struggles with both his position and his desire for freedom.

In addition to the high quality of the series it is a great bit of history. We see the origin of the term "Hue & Cry", We learn about serfdom. For people very young some of the behavor will seem very strange but the assumptions and ways of the time are presented without modern bounce: A lord stopped from his actions due to fear of Excommunicaton, A woman joking about the beating she would get from her man if getting home late, the arbatary nature of taxes, the life of people living truely hand to mouth, the Crusades (rightly) protrayed as a just war, the absolute nature of law and rule of the time, I could go on and on but you get the idea.

Buy it.

Movie Review: Full marks for the shows - minmal marks for the presentation
Summary: 4 Stars

Before I talk about the programmes themselves, I should draw your attention to the bizarre way these shows have been presented in this NTSC (American TV standard) offering. The good news is that the boxed set of videos looks great. A box itself has a beautiful colour poster of Robin Hood printed all around it. The slipcases for each videotape is similarly decorated and when put together in order, the spines of the cases (each of which has printed the episode titles the tape contains) form a Robin Hood logo. There are useful synopses of each episode contained on the back face of each slipcase. However, the overall box is made of very flimsy card, which won't last long in normal use and will tear easily.

Moving on to the contents of the tapes. The technical quality of the programmes themselves is poor. There are various disclaimers on the tape about the age of the material not allowing full quality etc - however I have seen a single episode on BBC TV a few Christmases ago which was in very good condition - far better than the video quality on offer here - so I don't think the master copy quality is the real culprit. My technical background tells me that this material has been re-encoded to digital formats a couple of times - losing much quality on the way I fear (some of the water sequences look very blocky for example). It's a tribute to the actual programme content that the sympathetic viewer will almost certainly stop noticing this ten minutes into the 2nd episode (to be honest the first episode is a bit of clunker!) None of the episodes have the opening title sequence intact (but they do run an incomplete segment of the opening title sequence at the start of each tape), Then we have a mostly unnecessary introduction to each episode by a unnamed presenter (who of course, being American, insists on calling the hero "RobinHood" - guys, it's two words actually!!!) Then, we dissolve into the start of the episode. Probably most galling of all about the strange bitsy presentation format used is that the end titles are missing. There are tens of players glimpsed in these shows whose faces you can almost put a name to. Surely the producers of this tape must know that in nostalgia programming the titles are very important to the viewer? Perhaps trimming off the credits meant they didn't have to pay royalties to the extant actors and writers? Anyway, suffice to say that the on-screen re-packaging of these shows is bizarre and annoying in the extreme.

Now, we move on to the good part - the shows themselves. Some very strong story lines (wouldn't it have been great to know what writing talent was used?) The show changes gear a lot from episode to episode too - another reason to like it. Most episodes have threads that are played for laughs, but there is always a mix of things going on - drama, tragedy, love story, and the proportions vary a lot from episode to episode. From our great modern sophistication it's hard to say that the show constantly surprises, it doesn't: What it does do is keep you interested. A very few episodes are truly dark and a few others are almost pantomime - but most tread the middle line between the two without falling off.

Some very strong performances. Richard Greene's Robin Hood still jumps out of the screen with his twinkling eyes and his (seldom lost) good humour. For me, Alexander Gauge will always be the definitive Friar Tuck. Alan Rickman's 1991 Sheriff, in the Costner movie, I think owes something to Alan Wheatley's magnificently tetchy Sheriff of Nottingham here. Archie Duncan's Little John is often a delight and - in one gloriously over the top performance - Donald Pleasance as Prince John is madly, eye bulgingly excellent.

Of course because of when these were made - the early days of British commercial TV - there are future TV stars by the boatload. Even without the aid of cast lists I spotted: Barbara Mullen, Paul Eddington, Lionel Jefferies, Richard Briers (I think), Leonard Rossiter (I think), Donald Pleasance, Jane Asher (as a child), Peter Asher (young), Hubert Gregg, Ronald Pickup (I think), Richard O' Sullivan and there are many others whose faces I would not quite put a name to. Beware the fact that the actors playing some parts seem to change in some episodes (Little John for example, and even the Sheriff are occasionally played by different actors!). I guess this was cover for sick leave or maybe these tapes present the shows in a random order - I don't know.

The acting quality is of course variable - especially to the modern eye - the settings are sometimes a little bit stagy (for example some of the castle walls sound rather hollow when struck!) but overall the illusions work ok.

So, should you buy this? If you are going to watch it sympathetically yes, you definitely should. If you have no historical affection for these shows you should consider carefully - the packaging and the poor quality of these copies may spoil them for you. .

I enjoyed them very much. Five stars for the content 3 stars for the box artwork, zero stars for the on-screen presentation.

Movie Review: Terrific British television series from the 1950s
Summary: 4 Stars

As much as I enjoy this series, these tapes are not without their problems, hence my rating of four stars rather than five. Several of the tapes had muddled audio which, I suspect, were NOT due to the condition of the source material as the introductions to each episode (read by Marathon's host) are muddled as well. The introductions are really unnecessary as they are the same descriptions found on each of the individual video boxes. Also, there is only one opening title segment for each tape and not each episode (3 episodes per tape), and there are absolutely no closing credits. It would have been nice to learn who the various actors were, though Donald Pleasence can easily be spotted as the evil Prince John.

After viewing these tapes once (I will be viewing them again), my hope is that Marathon Music & Video (or some other enterprising Public Domain video company) does two things:

1. Release more episodes (with full opening and closing credits), and

2. Release existing and/or previously unreleased episodes on DVD.

Movie Review: Another reason to be interested in this show
Summary: 4 Stars

Movie Review: Good Fun
Summary: 5 Stars

Classics Video

• Genres > Action & Adventure
• Series & Sequels > Robin Hood
• Television > Classic TV
• Television