The Archer of Fire: Robin Hood (1970)

Following the release of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood and the return of theme week here at Common Sense Movie Reviews, I thought it would be fitting to explore some of legend's past revivals.  Coincidentally three of the six themed days happened to have Robin Hood connections, and I'll be bringing you two of those this week, so Robin Hood enthusiasts rejoice!  You might be introduced to a few Robin Hood films you never knew existed.

As you'll quickly come to learn with most of the films I'll be reviewing on Helga Line Monday's, these have a basketful "aka's".  I'll not sure if this is simply an international method or solely limited to films produced and filmed in Spain but this particular occasion is no different.  The title screen refers to this film as The Archer of Fire (Robin Hood), it's known on IMDb.com under many titles, the most familiar being, L'arciere di Sherwood, Long Live Robin Hood, and the USA title (which is awful) The Scalawag Bunch.  The particular copy I managed to acquire was the Swedish release with English dubbing simply referred to as Robin Hood on IMDb.com, so for the purposes of this review that's the name I'll be using to refer to the film.  Now you might be asking yourself why does it matter what the film is called in different countries?  Now a days it's not a huge deal but back in the 80's and earlier, foreign produced and internationally distributed films became butchered once distributed to other countries.  It's something you'll see a lot of with the Hammer Films and most of the Helga Line spanish projects I'll be reviewing which usually became highly edited when they reached the states.

In this version of Robin Hood we witness the return of the young Sir Henry of Nottingham from the wars in Germany.  Henry comes bearing news of King Richard's imprisonment by the Emperor of Germany, only to discover his home of Nottingham in shambles, all at the hand of a Norman named Sir Robert.  Robert is in league with the King's brother, Prince John, to take over the ruler-ship of England, and Robert has named himself the new Sheriff of Nottingham.  Supposing his brother to be dead, John is rather disturbed to learn he still lives and that the Emperor of Germany requests one million gold coins for his release.  Keeping a straight face John agrees to the terms, but once Henry makes his leave a group of knights are sent out to slaughter him.  As far as the people of England know King Richard is dead, and John wants to keep it that way, so that he will inherit the throne.

Henry makes a quick escape and retreats into the forest where he joins forces with a group of fellows bent on causing trouble for Robert and his men.  Henry convinces them to let him join up and ordains himself with the identity of Robin Hood,  with a mission to bring back order to England.  Robin Hood convinces his men to help inform the people that King Richard still lives, and to help him obtain the money needed for his release so that he may return to England and stop his brother from destroying the rights of the people.  Maid Marion is used as a pawn in Robert's plot to take leadership over Nottingham, and she's unaware that Robin Hood is Henry of Nottingham (the boy she hadn't seen since she was nine, and whom she was promised to by King Richard, to marry).

In my experience of watching "rare" low budget, unheard of foreign made films I've learned the best approach is to expect the worse.  When you go in with that mindset you can't come out disappointed, and I can happily say I was quite pleased with Robin Hood.  This film offers exactly what you would expect from a Robin Hood storyline, silly antics, lots of swordplay and archery, and in this case the added bonus of the lady these reviews are dedicated to, Helga Line.  I was actually surprised to see that Helga Line had a substantial role in the film as the jealous ex-lover of Sir Robert, Matilde.  Matilde is jealous over Robert's infatuation with Maid Marion, whom he plans to marry, not solely for her beauty but also because a marriage between a Norman and Saxon would open many doors for Robert to begin taking over England.  Personally I'd take Matilde over Maid Marion, but then again I'm partially biased towards one party in that matter.

Aside from a few wonderful onscreen moments with Helga, Robin Hood is a solid film on it's own accord.  The fight scenes are a plenty, very well choreographed (with some acrobatics thrown in for a little flare), and the archery scenes are equally impressive.  The film has a pretty decent flow to it and the story isn't too shabby either.  Not having seen many Robin Hood films in the past I don't have much to compare it to, but from general knowledge this film seems to be on par with the average productions.  The characters are definitely a little corny, but as I understand that's always been the usual angle in the Robin Hood films.  Prince John himself is a real cornball with his Jim Carrey Dumb & Dumber haircut and his ramblings about his mother teaching him to be good at sewing!  Still while most of the characters, and him especially, are a little corny it all never manages to venture beyond entertaining to awful.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with Robin Hood.  It was a fun ride that offered lot of action, a fair amount of comedy and nice dose of Helga Line.  Fortunately for you all this is one of the few Helga Line films I'll be reviewing that any of you interested in purchasing might actually have a chance of finding.  While never released on DVD you can find a couple copies at around a $20 price tag on VHS under the title of The Scalawag Bunch (again a horrible title), it appears to have the same run-time as the version I watched and is available used at Amazon, Half.com and eBay.  So in the end, if your a hardcore Robin Hood fan and have never heard of this one I would say it's worth looking into, and would definitely make a nice addition to anyone's collection of rare titles.

7/10

Bonus pics: