Welcome to the INCspotlight, where I put the spotlight on classics of old that deserve to be remembered. (And while I'm in the process of moving my older blogs over from That Guy With The Glasses to the new Channel Awesome website, I'm taking the opportunity to revamp this review a bit and make it fit my current standard format.) I want to start this blog off by reviewing my absolute favorite movie of all time, The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn. It wasn't the first Robin Hood movie ever made, and it sure as heck wasn't the last, but it's definitely the best. Also, it's one of the first movies I remember ever seeing, and I love it now as much as I loved it back then - heck, maybe more.
The story is no doubt familiar to many of you. King Richard the Lionheart (Ian Hunter), during his return to England from the Third Crusade, is captured by Leopold of Austria and held for ransom. (Quick history lesson never addressed in any Robin Hood book or movie I've seen - Leopold didn't abduct King Richard so much as arrest him for allegedly arranging the murder of the elected king of Jerusalem, Conrad of Montferrat. See, Monty Python? You do vote for kings sometimes!) Anyways, while Richard is imprisoned, his brother Prince John (Claude Rains) decides to make his play for the vacant throne of England with the help of the powerful Norman barons and corrupt churchmen, who lord over England and its Saxon population with an iron fist.