Le Défi de Robin des Bois

The previous reviewer's summation of this movie seems to ring true, especially the part about seeing it over and over on HBO as a child. I have been looking for a copy of this movie for almost ten years ( video stores, garage sales, flea markets, etc.) and no such luck.

Does anyone have any ideas? Someone make me a copy for christ sake. I will send the BBC their royalties if it comes down to that.

Feel free to write me with any suggestions or comments on the movie.

I wouldn't hazard a guess at the plot or acting as I haven't seen the flick in about 21 years.

Chris

Interesting Hammer Films production of the oft told Robin Hood story. Similar to what they did with their adaptations of Dracula, they added some additional grit to their version, which makes it stand apart from prior film adaptations. However, this is still a family film and not filled with the blood and heaving bosoms of the Hammer Horror pictures, which left the film not gritty enough and instead rather dull at times.

A ropey version of the Robin Hood legend replete with stock medieval cliches. It's period acting 101 with fake hearty laughing, thigh slapping, people taking one bite out of a chicken leg before throwing it away, roughly handling serving boys, dodgy wrestling, cringeworthy ballads being sung by the Merry Men and improbable feats of archery (in one scene Robin, with a hood over his head...get it?...manages to fire an arrow into a red ribbon attatched to a pidgeon), and it has to be the only Robin Hood movie with a custard pie fight. But there's great bad dialogue to savour as well: "I'll savour those morsels intended for Sir Roger's table!", "Then we'll build a wall around this forest with thicket and thorn" and "You'll hear a lot more before you swing from a gibbet". This is one to watch with your friends, half drunk, and trying to spot the cliches.

A Challenge for Robin Hood is directed by C.M. Pennington-Richards and written by Peter Bryan. It stars Barrie Ingham, Peter Blythe, James Hayter, John Arnatt, Gay Hamilton, John Gugolka, Eric Flynn, Leon Greene and Douglas Mitchell. Music is by Gary Hughes and cinematography by Arthur Grant.

A Seven Arts-Hammer production in De Luxe Color, this is another variant on the Robin Hood legend. Very much operating from the Norman and the Saxon feud, pic has all the requisite swashbuckling shenanigans to entertain the family. It's very colourful, both in camera lensing and costuming, robust with the action scenes, and thrives on the good olde goodies versus baddies nature of the origin story.

The Masked Monk!

It's all very fanciful of course, with derring-do and machismo the order of the day, which unfortunately renders the Maid Marian (Hamilton) character as being an outsider looking in. Yet the camaraderie of the merry men, the earning of trusts and surrogate kinship's, ensures there's nary a dull moment in the tale.

The pies have it.

Whilst the choreography is not high end, the standard of the buckling of the swashes is better than average, while there is some fun sequences that can't fail to raise a smile. Pennington-Richards and his team have managed to not let the modest budget bog the picture down; modern day car glimpsed in the background of one shot not withstanding!

Mr. Kipling makes exceedingly good cakes.

The cast is made up of mostly unknowns, but that is absolutely fine as the likes of Ingham and Blythe are attacking their roles with such relish, with a glint in their eyes, it's hard not to just buy into the frothy fun of it all. The standout is Hayter as Friar Tuck, the voice of a major cake advertising campaign in Britain, he steals every scene he is in here and he actually on his own makes this well worth watching.

There are far better Robin Hood movies out there, for sure this one feels at times like it's clinging on to the swashbuckling coat tails that had long since gone as the 70s approached. Yet sometimes all you need from this type of film to entertain is guts and frivolity, and this has it in spades. 7/10

I agree with other reviewers who found this romp surprisingly good. There's a background realism to the fun - for instance, the lincoln green cloth has to be acquired and paid for, and without any comment being made on it, it's apparent that there isn't quite enough to go round. The forest settings are better than usual in such a low-budget film - they've used a conifer woodland with wide walks, rather than the sort of recent-growth scrub than one sometimes sees. As others have said, Barrie Ingham seems an odd choice for the hero - he's far from being the most handsome man in the picture - but he has a wonderful rich voice. And like all of the serious parts, he delivers the lines with great sincerity. The dialogue has a good period feel as well.