35mm THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938 version) at the Vista, Los Feliz
DATE AND TIME
Sat, November 17, 2018
10:30 AM – 1:00 PM PST
Vista Theatre
4473 Sunset Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90027
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2018 10:30am: THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938, dir by Michael Curtis, 35mm, Warner Brothers, USA)
Yeah, that’s right: THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD. No one has ever
come close to the swash-buckling joy and pure cinematic ecstasy of
Michael Curtiz’s 1938 masterpiece starring Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland, Claude Rains, and Basil Rathbone.
If you’ve never seen this version of the movie, you’ve never seen ROBIN HOOD. The movie quite possibly served as a single movie film school for much of the visual language of Steven Spielberg. Sword fights are played almost exclusively in shadow against walls. Action sequences are filled with bursts of expertly choreographed movement to and from the camera. But the whole movie holds together because of the glue of the great charismatic performances from all its leads.
Widely celebrated, director Michael Curtiz had a ridiculously talented grasp of cinematic language, blocking, action, style. If one wants to learn how to make a rip-roaring adventure movie, one studies Michael Curtiz. And this programmer suspects that Steven Spielberg spent a lot of time studying Curtiz before making such swashbucklers as JAWS and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
Join us for 102 minutes of pure adventurous joy as lovable rogue Robin Hood (Errol Flynn) romances the beautiful and clever Maid Marion (the luminous Olivia De Havilland), fights the corruption of the selfish Prince Guy (the ever reliable scoundrel, Claude Rains) and crosses swords with the nefarious and murderous Sir Guy (Flynn’s regular foil, Basil Rathbone).
Filled with classic sequences of irrepressible energy and verve, THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD is one of the all-time great adventure movies.
— Tim
