Robin Hood: from Errol Flynn to Russell Crowe

Robin Hood (2010) Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott's new version
Photograph: Universal Pictures/Allstar

Robin Hood (1922) The money-spinning daddy of them all, with Douglas Fairbanks and a cast of thousands setting the movie template in a silent movie classic. The noble earl of Huntingdon, dashing and playful, turns outlaw to save England from Prince John, who we know is evil because has a sinister beard and a falcon strapped to his arm
Photograph: Cinetext/United Artists/Allstar

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) From the opening bars of Erich Korngold’s wonderful score, you are completely captivated. Errol Flynn is a lithe, taut-thighed, high-energy Robin Hood, forever laughing uproariously, head thrown back; Alan Hale an amiable Little John; Claude Rains a camp Prince John; the sheriff a bombastic figure of fun. Framed by anachronistic Norman-Saxon conflict – this is 130 years after the Conquest – and follows the standard Good King Richard-Bad King John line, borrowed from Sir Walter Scott, so suspect as history. But a rollicking adventure story, a Tecnicolor poem to feasting and the forest, and a powerful pre-war call to arms in defence of freedom against fascism. For Nottingham, read Munich
Photograph: Cinetext/Warner Bros/Allstar

The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946) More trouble afoot in Not-so-merrie England, with some new tyranny threatening English liberty. Robin Hood calls on his son, Robert, to rescue the country. Competent and colourful, but Cornel Wilde can’t out-outlaw Errol Flynn. Lady Catherine (the Maid Marian figure) is a bit of a looker, though
Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar

Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950) Another routine son-of-Robin story, this time set in 1215 at the end of poor old King John’s reign. Used sets and even some footage from the 1946 film. Alan Hale played Little John for the third time: he was also in the Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn films
Photograph: Cinetext/MGM/Allstar

The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952) Richard Todd is a stiff-upper-lipped Robin in an underrated Disney-made version with a terrific cast. Sherwood has never looked more gorgeously sun-dappled, or the minstrels sounded sweeter
Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955-60) “Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen, / Robin Hood, with his band of men, / Feared by the bad, loved by the good / Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood.” Men of a certain age (me, actually) still go weak at the knees when they hear this sung in the rich baritone that used to round off this teatime series on ITV. It was this immaculately made series, shown in the UK and US, that started the love affair for many Hoodies. “He called the greatest archers to a tavern on the green, / They vowed to help the people of the king, / They handled all the trouble on the English country scene,/ And still found plenty of time to sing …” Tum-ti-tum, tum-ti-tum, tum-ti-tum-ti-tum. Sherwood looks glorious in black and white, and Carl Sigman’s theme song really did say it all (even if “English country scene” is a bit clunky) [This caption was amended on 19 April 2010. The original said them theme song introduced the show]
Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features

Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960) Richard Greene reprises his clean-cut Robin from the TV series – more Battle of Britain pilot than dangerous outlaw – in this dull Hammer film. Wooden acting, dialogues sounds like they are making it up as they go along, and lots of static shots of forest glades. Colour somehow makes it less colourful. The blonde, pouting Maid Marian – first seen swimming naked in a pool in the forest – looks like she has wandered on to the set from Confessions of a Wattle-cleaner
Photograph: Cinetext/Hammer Film/Allstar

A Challenge for Robin Hood (1967) Another Hammer version and something of a cult classic, though principally for its tackiness – you can see the zippers on the backs of costumes and the odd vapour trail in the blue sky above the forest. Proud of the twist that Robin is a renegade Norman nobleman, but Barrie Ingham’s funereal features and stagey style make for an unlikely hero, though James Hayter is a terrific, doughy-faced Friar Tuck. The scene in which Robin is saved from hanging by Saxons throwing custard pies suggests an uncertainty of tone
Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

Robin Hood (1973) Walt Disney’s animated version, with the characters recast as animals. Robin is a fox Maid Marian a vixen, the sheriff is a wolf, naturally. Peter Ustinov voices Prince John (a lion?) to great effect, but The Jungle Book it isn’t
Photograph: Disney/Allstar

Robin and Marian (1976) Clever, thoughtful film, directed by Richard Lester, with Sean Connery as a truculent, ageing Robin, Audrey Hepburn as a mature Marian (who has become a nun) and Robert Shaw as a handsome, brave, world-weary sheriff, irritated by Robin’s bloody antics. Brilliantly decoded by film historian Kevin Harty as a movie about disillusion with the radical politics of the 1960s. Robin saved the poor of Nottingham in his youth, and now feels he has to do it all over again, but this time he just looks irresponsible and, in the words of the sheriff, “a little bit in love with death”
Photograph: Columbia/Allstar

Time Bandits (1981) History-obsessed youngster Kevin travels through time in Terry Gilliam’s boundlessly inventive fantasy, encountering Robin Hood among other figures from history and mythology. John Cleese, overseeing a band of psychopathic gangsters, plays Robin as if he were the smarmy head of a minor public school. It may well capture the essence of the Wentbridge outlaw circa 1225
Photograph: Handmade Films/Allstar

Robin of Sherwood (1984-86) Dark, complex, portentous reimagining of the tale by Richard Carpenter which drew on the idea of Robin’s origins as a pagan spirit, a “hooded man”, fighting evil. Influential, not least in introducing a Saracen outlaw – a central figure in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Historian Laura Blunk has argued that, whereas most Robins have fought against corrupt individuals and sought to restore legitimate kingship, Carpenter’s Robin is opposed to the entire social system. “Robin of Sherwood”, she writes, “presents a tale of revolutionaries opposing a corrupt system.” He is a hoodie with a political agenda
Photograph: Ilpo Musto/Rex Features

Maid Marian and Her Merry Men (1989-94) Tony Robinson’s take on Robin Hood, shown on the BBC in the early 90s. Aimed at children, but adults loved it too. Robin’s a wimpish yuppie tailor, so Marian has to do all the fighting, along with the violent (and vertically challenged) Little Ron
Photograph: Rex Features

Robin Hood (1991) This film, starring Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman, got blown away by the Kevin Costner blockbuster, but deserved better. More Saxons v Normans, but earthier than most versions, gives Robin his “true” name Robert Hode, and invents a new villain, nasty knight Sir Miles Folcanet. Little John has a Scouse accent, Marian’s a dab hand with a broadsword, the outlaws – a scurvy bunch – live in caves, Barnsdale is referenced, and the green man of the springtime revels makes an appearance at the end. Someone has been reading the textbooks, which may explain its limited success
Photograph: Rex Features

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) Great cast, great music, great production values, and Brian Blessed. What more could you want? “This is English courage,” says Kevin Costner’s Crusader Robin with a marked American accent at the start of a film which crosses Walter Scott’s gothic plotting with a dash of Monty Python. Dodgy history, as usual, and even dodgier geography, with Costner and his Arab chum Azeem (Morgan Freeman) walking from Dover to Sherwood Forest in about 10 minutes – Americans really do think Britain is a small country. Alan Rickman is memorably crazed as the sheriff; Michael Wincott thoatily pathological as Guy of Gisborne. Usual late 12th-century plot, but this feels like England two centuries later, stalked by the Black Death and even blacker deeds, with Robin (a medieval Mad Max) resisting the apocalypse
Photograph: Cinetext/warner Bros/Allstar

Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) Mel Brooks’ spoof of Prince of Thieves (with the odd reference to other Robins, especially the Errol Flynn one). “Every time there’s a Robin Hood movie they burn our village down,” complains an agitated Saxon in the time-honoured opening scene of Norman brutality, setting the tone for a funny and affectionate parody. The sheriff of Rottingham is a bit feeble, but Cary Elwes catches Robin’s obligatory hands-on-hips pose (initiated by Fairbanks, trademarked by Flynn) to perfection, and the outlaw’s blind servant Blinkin (Mark Blankfield) is scene-stealingly hysterical
Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar

Robin Hood (2006-09) A Robin targeting teenagers and designed to fill the Doctor Who teatime slot on Saturdays on BBC1. Big budget and mega-publicity, but didn’t quite hack it and was cancelled after three series. Robin (Jonas Armstrong) and the Merrie Men look like a boyband, and the language and style are consciously anachronistic, but maybe needed to be even wackier to succeed. Ridley, Russell, take note
Photograph: Tiger Aspect/BBC