The Adventures Of Robin Hood
HD DVD
Studio: Warner Brothers
Format: HD DVD / VC-1
Year: 1938
Rated: PG
Film Length: 103 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Standard
Audio: DD+ Monaural
Color/B&W: Color
Languages: English, French & Spanish
Subtitles: English, French & Spanish
MSRP: $28.99
Package: Single disc/Red HD DVD Keepcase
The Feature:
The Adventures Of Robin Hood was originally released in SD as part of the Warner Legends Set. Three years later, it remains one of the most talked about discs in terms of it’s presentation as well as the special features that complement the classic film. It’s hard to say what might have happened if Jack Warner hadn’t been feuding with James Cagney at the time, since he was originally chosen to play the part of Robin Hood. Flynn was his second choice after seeing him in 1935’s Captain Blood. Ultimately, he was the right pick. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Although it didn’t win Best Picture, it did win for Best Art Direction (Carl Jules Weyl), Best Film Editing (Ralph Dawson) and Best Music, Original Score (Erich Wolfgang Korngold). Columbia’s You Can’t Take It With You took the Best Picture award.
Even though Jack Warner approved the initial budget of 1.6M, the film wound up costing 2.0M – the most expensive WB picture up to that point. Although the film was a great success, the studio still ended with a yearly deficit of more than 1.9M.
Even the slightest glimpse of Flynn (at least for me) associates the legend with the role of the witty - almost cheeky - Robin Hood. After watching several Flynn films recently including The Adventures Of Robin Hood, I couldn’t help but think there was no other actor who’d have had as much fun dressing for work… Another footnote worthy of mention was the star’s athletic ability. It was that obvious quality which eventually led to this role (among others) and he insisted on doing his own stunts.
Directed by Michael Curtiz, The Adventures Of Robin Hood is the classic story of Robin Hood (played by Errol Flynn) and his group of oppressed Saxons who eventually fight back against their oppressor, Prince John (played by Claude Rains) and his henchman Sir Guy of Gisbourne (played by Basil Rathbone).
Turned outlaw, Robin Hood steals from the rich to give to the poor. After they are taxed heavily by the Sheriff of Nottingham, the group finally rebels. He assembles the demoralized group of Saxons and forms an adept group known as the Merry Men. During the struggle, he falls in love with Maid Marion (played by Olivia de Havilland) who is the love interest of his adversary Sir Guy of Gisbourne.
Not only must Robin Hood fight to win the love of Maid Marion, he and his group of Merry Men must fight to keep Prince John from taking over the throne of England held by his brother King Richard the Lion Heart (played by Ian Hunter).
The Feature: 5/5
Video:
The Adventures Of Robin Hood was shot in glorious Technicolor. If you thought the video presentation of this film is spectacular in SD – wait till you see it in HD. The colors are absolutely breathtaking. In fact at times, the colors reminded me of an oil painting where you could almost imagine they were textured. Like many of the Technicolor offerings, colors are slightly over saturated. However, and to be honest I prefer many of the Technicolor offerings to be slightly oversaturated. The contrast was also exceptional.
A common compliment to the format is depth and dimension and no surprise here. There are many scenes where the Saxons are hiding up in the trees which really seem to show off the film-like 3D quality of this picture. Very impressive. Black levels were equally impressive. The level of grain was minimal. The level of detail was also exceptional although there are scenes where the image appears to be slightly soft.
Remember, this film is almost 70 years old, and there are a few items worth mentioning, most notably, what seemed like instability during the first few scenes and at the 61:50 mark of the film (slight mis-registration..??). Authoring seems to have been handled perfectly as compression errors were non-existent as were any signs of edge enhancement.
Considering the age of this film, this is a stunning video presentation.
Video: 9.5/10
Audio:
The audio soundtrack provided is a DD+ Mono offering. Given the limitations of the period, this is a mostly pleasing track, although the wonders which are immediately evident with the video upgrade are no so evident on the audio side of things. Not to say the track is poor (it’s not, in fact it’s excellent), just that the upgrade is much less (if any) apparent. Dialogue is mostly clear and crisp and rarely harsh – although I did note some straining during a few of the more hectic sequences.
The track has been cleaned up and shows little sign of hiss or other noisy distractions. The movie is filled with action scenes and a great score (a wonder by Erich Wolfgang Korngold) which lends to the excitement - exhibited beautifully.
An excellent audio offering…
Audio: 7/10
:Special Features:
Like many of the previous WB HD releases, the Special Features from the SD have been ported over for the upgraded release – and that’s fine, particularly in this case as the features here are fantastic. There’s also a bonus inclusion (see below).
- First up is a Commentary By Author/Film Historian Rudy Behlmer. This effort offers up some interesting tidbits and history relating to the film including some of the film’s inconsistencies from the novel. Behlmer has a rather soothing voice and listening to him never gets monotonous. Very thorough and informative.
- Music Only Track is as you might imagine the entire film with just the music score only – no dialogue. A must for fans of Erich Korngold's legendary score.
- Warner Night At The Movies starts off with an introduction from Leonard Maltin who puts many of the extras into context. His intro is 2:41 Mins. Next is a theatrical trailer for the great 1938 Cagney film, Angels With Dirty Faces. A Newsreel which is nothing more than a 1:23 minute feature on a new machine gun carrier invented for military use has been included. Freddie Rich And His Orchestra are featured next with a number of swing tunes from the period. Duration: 11:05 Mins. Finally for the segment is the 1938 Looney Tunes short, Katnip Kollege. An unexpected bonus, this and two others (see below) have been presented here in 1080p HD and go a long way to whet the appetite for others to appear in the same manner. Duration: 07:25 Mins.
- The next special feature is an extensive collection of Errol Flynn trailers titled, the Flynn Trailer Gallery. It contains twelve trailers from the following films: Captain Blood, The Prince & The Pauper, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Dive Bomber, They Died With Their Boots On, 1948 re-issue of The Adventures of Robin Hood, Dodge City, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, The Sea Hawk, Objective Burma, Kim and lastly The Master of the Ballantrae.
- The next feature is a fabulous documentary entitled, Glorious Technicolor narrated by Angela Lansbury. This in my opinion is the icing of the special features on this set. It covers a mini biography on the Technicolor process founder, Dr. Herbert Kalmus. There are a number of comments from likes of Jack Cardiff who recalls various experiences as well as techniques used during different films. Covered are most of the original pictures that used the process including animation at Disney and WB. Personally, I found the documentary worth the price of admission alone. Duration: 60:04
- Welcome To Sherwood – The Story of The Adventures Of Robin Hood is another featurette with Rudy Behlmer which describes how WB wanted to change direction from their gritty gangster films to go on to making films like Robin Hood. Duration: 55:42.
- Up next are two short films. The first is Cavalcade of Archery which is a short biography of Howard Hill who was a pro archer used during the filming of Robin Hood. Duration: 9:24 Mins. The next short is titled The Cruise Of The Zaca. This is a portrayal of Flynn, an avid yachtsman and a chronicle of some of his voyages with various friends and family. Duration: 19:56.
- A short feature entitled Robin Hood Through The Ages has been included which is a brief account of the various Robin Hood productions that exist today including the 1922 silent version starring Douglas Fairbanks. Duration: 6:52.
- And finally, a special treat. Two other Looney Tunes are featured; Rabbit Hood from 1949 with the infamous Errol Flynn scene dubbed in… “Welcome to Sherwood”… and Robin Hood Daffy from 1958. Both are presented in 1080p HD and look great on the big screen. The Merrie Melodie, Katnip Kollege, also appears in 1080p HD as part of the WNatM sequence. These are fantastic inclusions and I look forward to more of these HD offerings in the future.
Special Features: 5/5
**Special Features rated for the quality of supplements, not the quantity. Video and Audio portions will be rated from 0-10. The remainder of the review will continue being rated from 0-5 (similar to SD DVD reviews). Since the ratings are not averaged, the final Overall Rating will be from 0-5.**
Final Thoughts:
Despite all the other Robin Hood productions of this great story, this 1938 version starring Errol Flynn is clearly the definitive version. The nearly 70 year old film has become instantly scene recognizable as one of the greatest swashbucklers ever made.
Though it was one of the first major classic boxed sets to be released, The WB Legends set remains one of my favorites. As we have witnessed over the last couple of weeks, Warner Home Video has all of a sudden made this format, a serious leader in terms of titles that are deserving of the lavish HD treatment. The oldest film thus far to be released in HD is sure to please fans of the new format and offers proof positive that classic film can yield substantial improvements with our newest format.
Very Highly Recommended…!!!
Released: September 26th, 2006
