Rogues of Sherwood Forest *** (1950, John Derek, George Macready, Alan Hale, Billy House, Billy Bevan, Diana Lynn, Paul Cavanagh, Lowell Gilmore, Lester Matthews) – Classic Movie Review 3037

In 1950 a young and dashing John Derek (later the husband of Bo Derek) played Robin Hood’s son, also Robin, the Earl of Huntington, battling King John over the Magna Carta in this sturdy, action-packed swashbuckler adventure.

When King John imposes oppressive taxes and cruel treatment on the medieval England population, Robin reforms his father’s Merry Men to rise against the king.

Rogues of Sherwood Forest is rousingly directed by Gordon Douglas in handsome Technicolor captured in Charles Lawton Jnr’s eye-catching cinematography.

Screenwriter George Bruce’s modest, revisionist yarn from a story by Ralph Bettinson is lifted by the welcome star support players, including a memorable villain in George Macready as King John, Alan Hale as Little John, Billy House as Friar Tuck, Billy Bevan as Will Scarlett, Diana Lynn as the Lady Marianne de Beaudray, Paul Cavanagh as Sir Giles, Lowell Gilmore as the Count of Flanders and Lester Matthews as Alan-a-Dale.

All in all it is a high-spirited, old-style adventure movie and still entirely entertaining – and it gets a boost from having camp appeal now too.

Alan Hale Sr completes his hat trick by making the third of his three appearances as Little John in Robin Hood films. He was also Little John with Douglas Fairbanks Sr in the 1922 silent classic Robin Hood and with Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). It was his final film before his death on January 22 1950, aged 57.

Also in the cast are Wilton Graff as Baron Fitzwalter, Donald Randolph as Archbishop Stephen Langton, Patrick Aherne, Jimmy Aubrey, Matthew Boulton, Paul Bradley, Harry Cording, John Dehner, Leslie Denison, Tom Dillon, Art Foster, Alex Frazer, Lumsden Hare, Olaf Hytten, Charles Jordan, Guy Kingsford, Gavin Muir, Russell Saunders, Reginald Sheffield, Trevor Ward, Patrick Whyte, Tom Stevenson, Barbara Ruth and Byron Poindexter.

John Derek (real name Derek Delevan Harris) was married to Bo Derek, Linda Evans, Ursula Andress and Pati Behrs. He died on 22 May 1998, aged 71.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3037

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