The Robin We Didn't Know

Forums: Robin Hood, 1950s, Eisenhower Era, Blacklists, Richard Greene
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Although it looks like a classic action flick (in the trailer, there is a landing scene that looks the Medieval precursor of the Normandy invasion) and although I really didn't like Gladiator, I am, surprisingly, eager to see the latest film version of Robin Hood, with Cate Blanchett and Russell Crowe.

So, I've been reading the commentary on the film.

This surprising history behind the 1950s British tv series, starring Richard Greene (did he ever do anything else?) and a very 1950s style beauty as Maid Marion appeared in Salon.com:

Though not without flashes of excitement or, more rarely, political insight, the Robin Hood movies that followed in the next 20 years were stylistically unambitious. But then came clean-cut Richard Greene in TV's "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1955-58). This remarkable show, which ran for 143 episodes, was produced by a British-based company funded by the CPUSA to provide clandestine work for blacklisted Hollywood screenwriters. Among the 22 who contributed were Ring Lardner Jr., Ian McLellan Hunter, Robert Lees and Waldo Salt, who, working for producer Hannah Weinstein, a "silent" left-wing organizer, sent their scripts pseudonymously from America. The socialistic stories, often based on historical laws and customs, revolved around Robin's efforts to protect the heavily taxed serfs and teach the well-born lessons in humanism.

Not only did the series suggest support for the British welfare state, it created offshore opportunities for its American writers. As Tom Dewe Mathews noted in the Guardian: "Lardner explained that a TV show about an outlaw who takes from the rich to give to the poor provided him 'with plenty of opportunities to comment on issues and institutions in Eisenhower-era America.'" Mathews cites blacklist scholar Steve Neale's discovery that "within the scripts' emphasis on redistribution of wealth there is 'a theme that recurs in the first two series: the probability that Robin Hood or one of the outlaws will be betrayed,'" like the writers themselves.

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 6 • Views: 3,066 • Replies: 19

No top replies

If you want to read the entire article, here is a link:

http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/film_salon/2010/05/11/robin_hood_history/index.html?source=newsletter

0 Replies

As soon as I read this, the theme song started playing in my head, and I felt
the urge to buy some Wildroot Cream Oil.

1 Reply

@George,

That's funny. The song has a sort of Frankie Lane feel . . . wonder how much it inspired the theme from Blazing Saddles?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w7ALMIUy74

1 Reply

@plainoldme,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2NOX9U41Jc

This is unintentionally funny.

1 Reply

@plainoldme,

I recall the same cheesey theme song used in the Dennis Moore Series made popular by M Python.
http://www.wikio.com/video/monty-python---dennis-moore-2812312

3 Replies

@farmerman,

http://www.blather.net/abroad/_MG_7455_arctic_lupin_f_500.jpg

0 Replies

@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

I recall the same cheesey theme song used in the Dennis Moore Series made popular by M Python.
http://www.wikio.com/video/monty-python---dennis-moore-2812312

What does cheesey mean ?

David

0 Replies

During the filming of Gladiator (which was based on actual fiction), it is alleged that Crowe at one point had a screaming fit, shouting that he is the greatest actor in the world. Anyone who has seen the motion picture will likely have a hard time reconciling that statement with the evidence on the screen before them. I suspect it will be no different with this motion picture.

They were running a program on the History Channel on Robin Hood, which i suspiciously tuned in to. (I usually view anything on the History Channel with suspicion, but since i only watch during the time it takes me to prepare and consume supper, it can't be considered a terrible waste of my time). It turned out to be an extended ad for the Crowe motion picture (he was listed as "Actor/Producer," as though the audience had just crawled out of a cave and tuned into that channel). Nonetheless, i stayed tuned for most of the program because they actually consulted people who have credentials and are knowledgeable on the subject (something rare, in my experience, on the History Channel). There was a lot of that tendentious crap you get all the time on television when they've gotten history down and are breaking its arm, to get you to tune in again after the run of ads. But this wasn't bad at all.

However, i gave it up entirely when it became clear that Crowe's particular "genius" was to transfer the entire tale to 1215 and Runnymede.

It appears that that, too, shall be based on actual fiction.

2 Replies

@Setanta,

Quote:

However, i gave it up entirely when it became clear that Crowe's particular "genius" was to transfer the entire tale to 1215 and Runnymede.

Perhaps Crowe will advance the theory that William Robehod was a signer of the Magna Carta.

0 Replies

If Crowe is playing Hood, then he will have conceived and written Magna Carta.

2 Replies

@Setanta,

chuckle

0 Replies

I watched a trailer and saw what looked to be wooden versions of WWII
landing craft approaching a beach. 'Sup with that?

0 Replies

@plainoldme,

I watched that as a kid. That's a fascinating bit of history!

Ring Lardner Jr writing for a kids' show!

1 Reply

@farmerman,

Ah, do you want some lupines?

0 Replies

@Setanta,

Actual fiction is always so true to life!

0 Replies

@Setanta,

Was the conception immaculate?

0 Replies

@dlowan,

Isn't that fun?

0 Replies

Great discussion on On Point . . . I have to listen again as I was driving west, away from the station while this was being aired.

http://www.onpointradio.org/2010/05/the-legend-of-robin-hood

0 Replies

@plainoldme,

plainoldme wrote:

This surprising history behind the 1950s British tv series, starring Richard Greene
(did he ever do anything else?) and a very 1950s style beauty as Maid Marion appeared in Salon.com:

Though not without flashes of excitement or, more rarely, political insight, the Robin Hood movies that followed in the next 20 years were stylistically unambitious. But then came clean-cut Richard Greene in TV's "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1955-58). This remarkable show, which ran for 143 episodes, was produced by a British-based company funded by the CPUSA to provide clandestine work for blacklisted Hollywood screenwriters.

I am certainly taken aback to hear an allegation
that the Richard Greene series was a communist product.

Quote:

Among the 22 who contributed were Ring Lardner Jr., Ian McLellan Hunter, Robert Lees and Waldo Salt, who, working for producer Hannah Weinstein, a "silent" left-wing organizer, sent their scripts pseudonymously from America.

We certainly had no idea that any commies nor pinko fellow travellers
were involved in those innocuous little stories of the fictional Robin Hood,
which were primarily devoted to the abusive usurpation of King John
of the throne of his brother, King Richard the Lion Hearted,
who was away in the Crusades.

Quote:

The socialistic stories,

I dispute that thay were socialistic. If thay had been,
we 'd have taken a different philosopny qua our viewing habits.
I did not support commies nor nazis.
Maybe some picket signs woud have been in order.

Quote:

often based on historical laws and customs, revolved around Robin's
efforts to protect the heavily taxed serfs and teach the well-born lessons in humanism.

The problems sought to be addressed were clear, simple and non-controversial.
I do not remember any communist propaganda in those scripts.

Quote:

Not only did the series suggest support for the British welfare state,

I dispute that thay DID.

Quote:

it created offshore opportunities for its American writers.

That 's a shame.

Quote:

As Tom Dewe Mathews noted in the Guardian: "Lardner explained that a TV show about an outlaw who takes from the rich to give to the poor provided him 'with plenty of opportunities to comment on issues and institutions in Eisenhower-era America.'"

As I remember, that did not happen. This commentary is deceitful.

Quote:

Mathews cites blacklist scholar Steve Neale's discovery that "within the scripts' emphasis on redistribution of wealth there is 'a theme that recurs in the first two series: the probability that Robin Hood or one of the outlaws will be betrayed,'" like the writers themselves.

Nazis and commies DESERVE to be betrayed.
That is an act of self defense from their intended victims.

David

0 Replies

The Robin We Didn't Know

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know