The Bandit of Sherwood Forest

The Bandit of Sherwood Forest is a 1946 American Technicolor adventure film directed by Henry Levin & George Sherman and starring Cornel Wilde, Anita Louise, Jill Esmond and Edgar Buchanan.

Plot

Robin Hood's son returns to save Magna Carta, flirt with Lady Catherine and protect a boy king.

Cast

Anita Louise as Lady Catherine Maitland
Jill Esmond as the Queen Mother
Edgar Buchanan as Friar Tuck
Cornel Wilde as Robert of Nottingham
Henry Daniell as the Regent, William of Pembroke
George Macready as Fitz-Herbert
Russell Hicks as Robin Hood, Earl of Huntingdon
John Abbott as Will Scarlet
Lloyd Corrigan as the Sheriff of Nottingham
Eva Moore as Mother Meg
Ray Teal as Little John
Leslie Denison as Allan-A-Dale
Ian Wolfe as Lord Mortimer
Maurice Tauzin as The King
Miles Mander as Lord Warrick
Mark Roberts as Robin Hood's Man
Harry Cording as Prioress Guard
Harry Wilson as Outlaw

Production

The film is based on a 1941 novel, Son of Robin Hood by Paul Castleton. In 1941, Don "Red" Barry was attached to star in a serial called The Son of Robin Hood but it was not made.
Producer Clifford Sanforth said he got the idea to make the film when his little son saw The Adventures of Robin Hood and asked his father whether Robin Hood had a son. Sanforth tracked down and bought the film rights to the novel. In April 1944 Sanforth had intention to make a series of films about the son of Robin Hood for Republic Pictures starring archer Howard Hill.
In early 1945 the project moved to Columbia Pictures where Sanforth was to produce with Leonard Picker. MGM objected to the title The Son of Robin Hood claiming they had the rights to use the words "Robin Hood" as they had bought screen rights to an operetta of that name by Reginald de Koven. This resulted in Columbia deciding to use the title The Bandit of Sherwood Forest.
The casting of Cornel Wilde and Anita Louise was announced in March 1945 and filming began in April.
The film featured the first cinematic use of helicopter-mounted cameras used, during the scene of the storming of the castle.

Reception

Critical reception

Variety wrote: "There is considerable ineptness in writing, production and direction but it still stands up as okay escapist film fare for the not-too-critical. There is a concentration of chases and 'they-went-thata-way' flavor about the doings that hints at the western feature training of producers and directors. Wilde is properly swashbuckling as the hero, and probably had himself a time enacting the dare-and-do". The New York Times wrote: "Cornel Wilde is dashing and flashes a toothsome smile as the virtuous "bandit" of Sherwood and Anita Louise is beautiful, though perhaps a bit more coquettish than a maiden fair should be. All the rest, including Russel Hicks as the elder Robert, pitch into their roles with picturesque extravagance. The Bandit of Sherwood Forest is the kind of entertainment that makes one wish one could be a boy again—if only for an hour and a half".

Box office

The film was a sizable box office hit. It earned over $3 million in the US and was the 14th most popular film of the year in France in 1948.

Legacy

The sets built for the film were reused in the Three Stooges shorts Squareheads of the Round Table, Fiddlers Three, and The Hot Scots, and again for the 1948 film The Prince of Thieves.