Hollywood has a long standing history of turning our beloved childhood heroes into movie stars. The famous thief of Nottingham woods is no exception, as his adventures have been brought to life on the big screen, and even the little one. Take a look at some of the famed movies that have taken Robin, his band of merry men, and recurved bow and arrow and made them a memory that has delighted kids and adults for decades.
The very first Robin Hood film, Robin Hood and His Merry Men, was released in 1908. This first adaptation had Robin robbing the rich in complete silence. Another silent movie, Robin Hood, was released in 1912, staring Robert Frazer as the bandit.
There were two more Robin Hood movies released before the 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood. To this day this is one of the most successful films chronicling the adventures of the thief and starred Errol Flynn in the lead role. Most people consider this to by Flynn’s best performance in his career.
During the 1940’s two more movies were released that told of the fun and frolics of the bandit and his merry men. Bandit of Sherwood Forest in 1946 and The Prince of Thieves in 1948. In less than 50 years, Hollywood had released 7 full length pictures that brought the fairy tale character of Robin Hood to life. That’s a lot of recurve bows and arrows(though they’d probably use something like this from FFA in a modern day remake).
The ‘50’s and Forward
There were 5 movies released in the early 1950’s revolving around the shenenigans taking place in Sherwood Forest. First was Rogues of Sherwood Forest, in 1950 followed by Tales of Robin Hood in 1951. Walt Disney got on board with the theme in 1952 and made The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men. That same year the Brits got on board with Miss Robin Hood, a modern day lady version of the thief while Hollywood released Ivanhoe.
It was also during the ‘50’s that Robin began to make TV appearances with his infamous recurve bow and arrow. The first was a British production in 1953, followed by The Adventures of Robin Hood, which ran on BBC television for four years. Roger Moore, of James Bond fame, also got is chance at playing Robin in the TV series Ivanhoe which ran from 1958 to 1959.
By the 1960’s, the Hollywood studios started getting creative with the theme and released movies that had Robin as a 1930’s gangster, out in space and as a singing bandit. This all led up to the 1969 Wolfshead: The Legend of Robin Head.
Since then there have been dozens of adaptations of the classic tale of good fighting evil made for both the movies and for television. Hollywood loves a good legend. The most recent being Ridley Scott’s 2010 Robin Hood with Russell Crowe in the lead role. The story is a classic and leads to hundreds of different versions of how a brave soul can gather together some not so brave friends and together fight for a good cause. If you’re looking for a fun movie night with the kids, this is a good theme to introduce them to.