Wednesday, February 3, 2016

The Film & Water Podcast Episode 28: The Adventures of Robin Hood

sgTHE FILM AND WATER PODCAST

Episode 28: THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD

Rob Kelly welcomes new guest Gene Hendricks (THE HAMMER PODCASTS) to discuss one of the greatest adventure films ever made, 1938's tHE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD starring Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Claude Rains, and Basil Rathbone! We speak treason fluently!

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1 comment:

  1. Stellar episode Rob & Gene!!! Like both of you, my introduction to this film was likewise, Rabbit Hood. (ARISE!!!) And ever since I first saw that cartoon when I was probably 4 or 5 years old, I had always been intrigued by the film that the live action portion came from. I was finally able to sit down and watch it for the first time a couple of years ago & instantly fell in love with it. Gorgeous, gorgeous film. They just don't make them like they used to. Growing up, the Kevin Costner Robin Hood film was a mainstay in our household, but this 1938 classic easily eclipses it in spades.

    Rob, in the episode you mentioned how you consider Robin Hood, among other action heroes, to be pseudo Comic Book characters, and I whole heartedly agree, and really love the Robin Hood stories that DC churned out in the 1950's in the early days of Brave & the Bold. My exposure to DC's Robin Hood first came via the story "The Three Arrows Against Doom" that was reprinted in DC Special #12,a 64 page giant that also features the Viking Prince. Man do I love that 25 cent comic. And the best part, those 1950's Robin Hood stories were written by BOB HANEY!!!! That story is also reprinted in DC Special #23 (along with another Haney penned Robin Hood story from 1957) and reprinted in Best of DC (Blue Ribbon Digest) #26. In addition to the Robin Hood stories in Brave & the Bold #5-15, there was also the 14 issue Robin Hood Tales comic series, which was started in 1956 and originally published by Quality Comics (#1-6), before they closed their doors and DC continued publishing the series for issues #7-14 in 1957 & 1958. I really wish DC would get around to putting out a hardcover collection of these Robin Hood stories, like they did with the Kanigher & Kubert Viking Prince Hardcover a few years ago, or at the very least give us a Showcase presents volume that collects the Robin Hood stories along with the Silent Knight and Golden Guardian stories that were also featured in those early Brave & the Bold issues.

    Anyway, back to the film, I'm surprised you guys never mentioned the Nazi spy/sympathizer allegations that were levied against Errol Flynn for decades! In fact the rumors were so prominent, and so widely believed, that in the 1991 movie The Rocketeer (one of my personal favorites) that the villain of the piece, the movie-star secret Nazi, Neville Sinclair, played by Timothy Dalton, is supposed to be an Errol Flynn analog. When the script was being drafted (the Rocketeer had been in product Hell since the mid-1980's) the rumors of Flynn's Nazi ties were still running rampant and widely believed, it wasn't until the late 80's or early 90's, after the script was already approved and the movie moved into production, that Flynn's heirs succeeded in fully clearing Flynn's name. A great moment in the Rocketeer film is on set, in the middle of a swashbuckling sword fight, that Neville Sinclair stabs the actor he's sparring with, after hearing the anecdote about the sharped sword tips that Rob shared, I can't help but get an even deeper appreciation of that scene in Rocketeer, they really went all out to invoke the parallels to Flynn.

    Great episode, I've really enjoyed all 28 of these fantastic Film & Water episodes. Can't wait to hear what you cover next, and hey, if you want to cover the Rocketeer film, obviously I'm interested!

    -Kyle Benning

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