MAJESTIC THEATRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 46, 24 February 1939, Page 9

MAJESTIC THEATRE

“THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD” Of all the heroes of fact and fiction, there is none so beloved or dashing as Robin Hood, the outlaw of Sherwood Forest. Celebrated in song and story, in opera and in the silent movies, Robin now appears in brand new guise in Warner Bros.’ technicolour production "The Adventures of Robin Hood," which opens to-day at the Majestic Theatre. Errol Flynn, a veritable reincarnation of the legendary Robin, plays the title role. Handsome, young and adventurous, Flynn makes the perfect Robin Hood. Sharing honours with him is the demurely lovely Olivia de Havilland (who was his heroine in “Captain Blood” and "The Charge of the Light Brigade”) portraying his lady-love, Maid Marian. And they prove that medieval romance was even more thrilling’ than the modern variety. Norman Reilly Raine and Seton I. Miller, who wrote the screenplay, took the choicest of the yarns and legends that have Deen written about Robin and his merry men, who robbed the rich to feed the poor, added their own original touches, and came out with something entirely new. The current story is altogether different from the one which Douglas Fairbanks, Wallace Beery and the rest of this old valiants gave the film public sixteen years ago. Action and plenty of it is rampant throughout, from the jousting tournament at Nottingham Castle to the wedding of Robin Hood and Maid Marian at the end. Fighting with bows and arrows, quarter staves, pikes and broadswords, Robin Hood and his merry men wage a constant war against the Norman forces. The duel to the death between Robin and Sir Guy of Gi - bourne (Sir Basil Rathbone) is more thrilling than the duel these two had in “Captain Blood.” Sherwood Forest, Nottingham Castle, and the countryside of medieval England are faithfully reproduced in vast sets, breathtaking in their beauty and opulence. Warner Bros., makers of huge-scale

productions like “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade," have again put all. their recources to work to make “The Adventures of Robin Hood” a masterpiece of film entertainment suitable for adults and children alike.