270-271 Robin Hood at Hammer: Two Tales from Sherwood Forest

[MichaelB]

ROBIN HOOD AT HAMMER: TWO TALES FROM SHERWOOD FOREST
SWORD OF SHERWOOD FOREST (Terence Fisher, 1960)
A CHALLENGE FOR ROBIN HOOD (C M Pennington-Richards, 1967)

Release date: 22 August 2022
Limited Edition Blu-ray (UK and World Blu-ray premieres)

Pre-order here

Britain’s best-loved outlaw gets the Hammer treatment in Robin Hood at Hammer: Two Tales from Sherwood Forest.

For 1960’s Sword of Sherwood Forest, Richard Greene (The Blood of Fu Manchu, The Castle of Fu Manchu) reprises the role he made famous in the classic television series The Adventures of Robin Hood. Directed by Terence Fisher (The Gorgon, The Revenge of Frankenstein), and starring Peter Cushing (The Devil’s Men, Corruption) as the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham, the film sees Robin Hood thwart a plot to assassinate the Archbishop of Canterbury (Jack Gwillim, Jason and the Argonauts, The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb). The film also boasts an uncredited early role for Oliver Reed (The System, The Damned).

In 1967’s A Challenge for Robin Hood, Barry Ingham (The Day of the Jackal) dons the Lincoln green as he and his merrie men hide out in Sherwood Forest after his cousin (Peter Blythe, Frankenstein Created Woman) frames him for murder. This action-packed adventure features acting support from Gay Hamilton (Barry Lyndon, The Duellists) and Leon Greene (Adventures of a Private Eye, Adventures of a Plumber’s Mate).

This 2-disc Limited Edition set contains a double-sided poster, an 80-page book, and extensive new and archival extra features, including the much-loved Children’s Film Foundation film Robin Hood Junior (1975), starring Keith Chegwin (Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Cheggers Plays Pop) as the diminutive hero.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES

• High Definition remasters of Sword of Sherwood Forest and A Challenge for Robin Hood
• Original mono audio
• Audio commentary on Sword of Sherwood Forest with author and critic Kim Newman (2022)
• Audio commentary on A Challenge for Robin Hood with film historians Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby (2022)
• The BEHP Interview with Sidney Cole (1987): archival audio recording, made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring the Sword of Sherwood Forest producer in conversation with Alan Lawson, Arthur Graham and Rodney Giesler
• The BEHP Interview with C M Pennington-Richards (1990): archival audio recording, made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring the director of A Challenge for Robin Hood in conversation with Alan Lawson and Colin Moffat
• Jonathan Rigby on ‘Sword of Sherwood Forest’ (2022): appreciation by the author and film historian
• Kim Newman on Robin Hood (2022): the author and critic surveys the many cinematic portrayals of the world-famous English outlaw
• Hammer’s Women: Vanda Godsell (2022): profile of the British stage and screen performer
• Hammer’s Women: Irene Lamb (2022): profile of the casting director whose career encompassed many Hammer productions, Star Wars, and the films of Sally Potter
• Appreciations of the Alun Hoddinott and Gary Hughes scores by David Huckvale, author of Hammer Film Scores and the Musical Avant-Garde
• Robin Hood Junior (1975): Children’s Film Foundation spin on the folk hero starring actor and television presenter Keith Chegwin as the young outlaw
• Original theatrical trailers
• Image galleries: on-set and promotional photography
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Limited edition exclusive 80-page book with a new essay by Frank Collins, archival interviews and articles, Jeff Billington on Robin Hood Junior, an overview of contemporary reviews, and film credits
• Limited edition exclusive poster
• UK and world premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited edition of 5,000 copies for the UK

Extras subject to change

#PHILTD270
BBFC cert: PG
REGION B
EAN: 5060697922349

[Dr Amicus]

I haven't seen Challenge, but Sword is solidly entertaining - minor Hammer but very watchable. And the extras look really good - there's some real Hammer knowledge in those contributors.

Related story - about 20 years ago, I gave a paper at an Academic conference in Bradford about Widescreen cinema; my paper was on the Dr Who and Thunderbirds films of the 1960s and how they differed in their approaches to transferring televisual media to the cinema. Anyway, the one post-session question I can remember came from Steve Neale (one of the conference's organisers) who asked how the Hammer Robin Hood's might fit in - a question I had to admit hadn't occurred to me!

[MichaelB]

Final specs:

Sword of Sherwood Forest:



A Challenge for Robin Hood:

[swo17]

Delayed to 12 Sep

[Finch]

Cine Outsider review

[Orlac]

I definetly prefer Challenge (even if it does open with a shot of a castle ruined by a very obvious airplane contrail) - Barry Ingham is an interesting choice for the leading man, looking rather mature and villainous. I defiently recall reading before, probably in a Doctor Who reference book, that Eric Flynn (who plays Alan-a-Dale) was the son of Errol, but this is definetly not the case!

Sword is weaker tea, but Peter Cushing is superb. Oliver Reed...less so, but it's interesting seeing him playing a snobby cad.

[therewillbeblus]

I enjoyed both of these - Hammer is so good at cultivating a loose, leisurely vibe, yet with a tight control on precise economy and vivid art direction, that really benefits these adventure pics in feeling like both mini-epics and programmatic comfort food. I also liked Challenge a bit more, which surprised me given the CV of the cast and crew in Sword of Sherwood Forest. Not everything works, but Challenge is a bit like Return of the Jedi - the woods stuff can be silly and obnoxious a la Ewoks, but the rest of the action is more brutal, the set pieces and blocking inventive, the narrative turns exciting and fun, and Hammer's visual romanticism is not deprioritized in the chaos of a more busy picture.