This legendary meeting has been done on film so many times – with the best ever being Richard Todd and James Robertson Justice in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men 1952.
However just a little later we have the famous Television Series with Richard Greene – and in this the third episode in the series entitled ‘ Dead or Alive’ the confrontation on the bridge is quite well staged with Archie Duncan as Little John.
I was alerted to this by a regular reader of this Blog, David , who did give me the episode details from the series – he has all the episodes. He has lso contributed more information over the last few years which is very much appreciated.
This famous scene was filmed out of doors and not using a stage set- the disappointing thing to me is that it has been done in late winter so we do not have the green leaves on the trees and everything looks bare. I would guess this may have been done in late March or early April. Other than this it is well done.
I must say that when Richard Greene plunges into the water, it must have been very cold indeed – it may just have been a stunt man doing this though as we did not get a clear picture of Robin in close-up.
It looks like you photographed these images off a television screen showing a poor quality video tape of the episode, Neil, complete with moire effect. The image I have of the episode on DVD is far clearer than this.
David. You are quite right – I did photograph from the Youtube video and the images are not too brilliant but I wanted to try to give a sequence to that legendary meeting of the two.
My own view is that I want to show different shots if possible – or unusual ones anyway. Can’t always get them I know. Neil
Loved this series. I too have the complete series. There are many connections to Disney’s Story of Robin Hood including some of the props and several actors including James Hayter, Hubert Gregg and Patrick Barr. There is even a scene, in one of the episodes, in which Maid Marian and some of the outlaws sit on a sick and defiant Robin just like in Disney’s wonderful film
Tony, It really was a good series and you can imagine at the time, how it was received in those early days of Television. It got off to a great start with that terrific thrilling opening as the arrow thudded into the tree trunk and the music with it which was so dramatic and exciting. I am sure that you, like me, compared the bridge fight. This one is good but nowhere near as good as the 1952 film. Neil
It’s a great pity that the present Disney company won’t remaster The Story of Robin Hood properly for a DVD release. The only DVD of it available is a version transferred from their old VHS video release from thirty years ago and only made available for a short time to members of the Disney club. The image on it is a bit ‘soft’ and a remaster would produce a much crisper and sharper image. However, it seems that Disney are not interested in remastering their early live action Technicolor classics for DVD and BluRay because the films were so good that they put the company’s modern films in the shade.
David. It certainly is – however a few years ago ITV showed the film using an original 35 mm print and it looked stunning. Tony Wait who has also commented below sent me a DVD taken from that. I must ask him again for another copy but it really was good. Neil
Sometimes Neil, the versions of films made available to television are far better than the DVD version made available to the public.
Yes David. It seems odd in a way but it does seem to be correct what you say. I have emailed Talking Pictures about showing wide screen films in that square format but as the lady explained, sometimes these panned versions are the only ones available to them as opposed to the original celluloid print. I would have though such a print would be available somewhere though. Thanks, Neil