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Old 19th September 2022, 09:15 PM
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Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960)

Richard Greene reprises his role from the fifties tv serial as the legendary Robin Hood in this terrific Hammer film.

Peter Cushing is excellent as the nefarious Sheriff of Nottingham who plots to land grab from those killed in the Crusades. When the Archbishop of Canterbury hears of this he vows to stop the Sheriff. Meanwhile Robin is tasked by the Earl of Newark (A devious Richard Pascoe) to assassinate a trouble maker, unbeknown to Robin it's the Archbishop.

Directed by the great Terence Fisher this swashbuckler zips along at a tremendous pace. The plot is cleverly simple but works really well and i was totally engaged by it throughout. I was even surprised, shocked even by some events towards the end of the film as they were genuinely unexpected. Meanwhile Pascoe's challenges for Robin at archery are great fun.

Greene is totally at ease as Robin Hood, well he should be as it's his signature role whilst Cushing makes for a very hands on Sheriff of Nottingham. The cast is made up of Hammer faves and there are even a couple of uncredited familiar faces who turn up that made me nod in approval.

Anyone who enjoys their period swashbucklers (Devil Ship Pirates, Pirates of Blood River and so on) could do a lot worse than picking up the beautiful Robin Hood at Hammer box set just released by Indicator. The picture quality on this film is gorgeous. You won't be disappointed.
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