Robin Hood

From my Netflix queue, I saw that I had a movie I had never seen before but had wanted to for ages - Robin Hood. Now, this isn't the Errol Flynn version, nor the abominably dismal Kevin Costner version (where the best casting choice went to Alan Rickman as the Sherrif of Nottingham), nor was it the hilarious Men in Tights. This is a SILENT motion picture. Have you ever seen one of these? THEY DON'T SPEAK AT ALL! I have seen several silent films in my time. I appreciate the film history and there are lots of things I can find to appreciate in these films. This is no exception. Douglas Fairbanks (co-founder of United Artists) was one of the biggest stars during this period of early film. He produced and did his own stunts. The sets ranged from what seems to be an actual castle to very studio looking castle interiors with really fake looking backgrounds. His lovely co-star was Enid Bennet, who didn't seem to have much of a career beyond the silents. I wonder if her speaking voice was horrible or if she really turned out to be a bad actress with the talkies? Anyhow, I had to fast foward through many of the scenes because the music was horrible and it seemed that the action seems go really slow without the clang of metal and grunts or stabbing sound effects. Makes me appreciate sound engineers so much more. Nevertheless, I watched the whole thing. I was glad to have seen it. Also on the DVD was a clip from a short by humorist Will Rogers. That was worth the whole thing. It was a spoof of the Douglas Fairbanks Robin Hood character. There was one seen in the Robin Hood movie where Robin Hood struts his stuff showing off how talented he is in jumping out of trees, shooting arrows etc. In the Will Rogers parody, there are about 10 rocks in varying sizes in a row. "Robin Hood" (Will Rogers) jumps onto rock 1 and throws his hands up in a ta-da pose. It cuts to the Merry Men cheering him on. He jumps again and again. Slips on rock 3 and climbs back on again with the ta-da pose. Cut to the Merry Men cheering again. This continues across the rocks with "Robin Hood" falling off and stepping back on. In another scene, he is shooting at a target and hits the bullseye. Cheers from the Merry Men. He steps farther back and manages to shoot the arrow into the feathers of arrow 1. Cheers again. He jumps backwards and lands in the tree, shoots and - ta-da! Again the cheers of the crowd. He continues shooting arrows and the camera pans down to a man in present day (1922) attire shooting arrows as "Robin Hood's" arrows fall to the ground. The man on the ground is a stunt man. It was really funny. I guess you had to have been there to see it.

I am working my way through another silent film. This one is with Gloria Swanson, of Sunset Boulevard fame. So far, it is a bit of a yawner, but she's pretty good. Even for a silent film star.