Long Live Robin Hood

Giuliano Gemma portrays Robin Hood obviously inspired by the swashbuckling tradition of Douglas Fairbanks, young Burt Lancaster and Errol Flynn, with a never disappearing broad grin against all odds. All characters in this movie either have an ugly beard or a ridiculous Prince Valiant haircut. That was 1970 for ya. "L'Arciere del fuoco", as it was retitled, is a jolly good B-movie with sense of humour, just the kind of thing you will be looking for when you get bored by stylish 100 million bucks productions.

This is an estimable version of the famous story ,with interesting variants.Giuliano Gemma is an all-smile Robin and he has plenty of go and dynamism;he has often played in costume adventures ,notably in the famous "Angélique " saga in which he played the heroine's childhood's friend ,Nicolas.

The screenplay is rather well constructed for a "spaghetti " Robin;the hero meets his celebrated mates after half an hour and Marian herself shortly afterward .Marian is not like the other ones,she refuses to be the damsel in distress,she dresses like a man and she takes part in the macho archers competition! Marian and Robin were engaged when they were 8 or 9 ,the hero knows it but she does not recognize him ("he's a yokel,crude and uneducated and I 'm a noble") :it gives some fine lines between them .Tuck,warning in Latin his mates danger is around the corner while pretending he is praying is also a good moment of humor .

Very much in the style of the Errol Flynn version of the Robin Hood tale from 1938, this is quite an enjoyable and entertaining historical romp with "Sir Henry" (Giuliano Gemma) as the wronged nobleman who leads his band of rebels against the tyranny of "Sir Robert" (Luis Dávila), his equally ruthless lady Helga Liné and of course, Prince John (Daniele Dublino). There are plenty of escapades, a bit of romance with the feisty "Lady Marianne" (Silvia Dionisio) and a cast of Hood regulars that ensure the well choreographed combat scenes keep coming thick and fast. It's been done on a small-ish budget, but luckily the sheer gusto of the ensemble as well as a good underpinning story and a jolly score from Gianni Ferrio make this at least as good as any of the British Hammer adventures from the late 1960s. As ever, the dubbing really does let it down - but with a story this well known, the quality of the dialogue is much less important and impacts less on what is really quite a watchable and colourful action-adventure film.

ARCHER OF FIRE is a film with many names. It's also variously called THE SCALAWAG GANG and LONG LIVE ROBIN HOOD, and as you might have guessed it's a cheerful Italian spin on the Robin Hood legend, starring popular western star Giuliano Gemma as the titular hero, battling against the typically evil oppressors and doing some neat archery tricks along the way.

The costume adventure boom experienced a brief resurgence in popularity in the early 1970s in Italy, helped no doubt thanks to the popularity of the likes of Terence Spencer and Bud Hill. ARCHER OF FIRE is a sturdy entry in that sub-genre, getting by thanks to good charm, plenty of energy, and some low brow humour.

The plot is barely worth writing down and the characters are thinner than thin, suffice to say this is based on the usual action-adventure template in which the sneering villains get their just desserts and the rowdy heroes end up winning out against their foes. Supporting cast members include Mario Adorf (as Brother Tuck, no less!) and Mark Damon. Expect bad dubbing, cheesy acrobatics, and an anything-goes mentality.

I had missed out on this one a couple of times on Italian TV in a relatively brief space of time; having finally acquired it not too long ago through the very same channels (the film seems to be only available elsewhere in a poor-quality English-dubbed print), I thought now was high time that I check it out i.e. in the wake of the brand-new Ridley Scott/Russell Crowe epic ROBIN HOOD, since it is yet another version of these popular events – though you would you be hard-pressed to gather as much from the absurdly misleading U.S. moniker! Anyway, having been rendered aware of the movie – and I definitely became interested, given the involvement of director Ferroni as well as stars Giuliano Gemma and Mark Damon – one still could not have foreseen just how well-made this turned out to be in all departments!

For starters, the look of the film – courtesy of authentic and expansive locations, a soft-yet-appealing color palette and stylish costumes – is quite rich for a "Euro-Cult" offering that seems to have garnered so little credit over the years. The action, too, is plentiful and vigorous and the performances reasonably committed for this sort of thing; to be sure, while essentially a romp, the film generally refrains from campiness and ends up a decidedly more considerable effort than, say, Umberto Lenzi's not unenjoyable if invincibly juvenile THE TRIUMPH OF ROBIN HOOD (1962) – which I actually watched a day previously as part of a mini-marathon of little-seen outings revolving around this legendary outlaw.

More significantly, however, thanks to an above-average script co-written by one of Italian cinema's stalwart scribes – Ennio De Concini – I would say that the film under review even approaches the level of some of Hollywood's innumerable renditions of the exploits of The Bandit Of Sherwood Forest (to name one of the better, albeit not obvious, such examples). In fact, some of the more interesting twists in the familiar plot include: Gemma as the heir to the Nottingham dukedom despoiled of his heritage; his asking to join the already-established "Merrie Men" but then rising to lead the band and give it purpose; Prince John (whose role, as in the afore-mentioned THE TRIUMPH OF ROBIN HOOD, gets rather downsized here) is played as a slightly effeminate youth; the finale, then, sees the traditional return of Richard the Lionheart (after the many hardships and intrigues in raising the required ransom) to his rightful throne and Robin's one-on-one with the usurper/oppressor.

Damon, a "Euro-Cult" lead in his own right, surprisingly accepted a secondary role in this case as Allen-a-Dale; that said, he would receive compensation two years later with a remake of another swashbuckling classic, "Ivanhoe", titled THE NORMAN SWORDSMAN and which I have also just gotten hold of. Silvia Dionisio, then, is Maid Marian – who, having been promised to the Duke Of Nottingham when still a child and oblivious of Robin Hood's true identity, is naturally initially averse to the attentions of the ostensibly commoner outlaw (this lends the whole an unexpected, yet timely, class struggle angle)…and, by the way, she also proves to be Robin's chief rival in the archery contest!

Another novelty resides in the presence of a female villain played by Helga Line' (overlooked by the male counterpart she is devoted to in favor of the somewhat bland heroine); more familiar and welcome cast members would be Mario Adorf (as Friar Tuck) and Nello Pazzafini (playing Little John – incidentally, he had been the chief baddie's long-suffering lackey in the earlier Lenzi film!). As expected, the score by Gianni Ferrio is a rousing one (albeit intermittently punctuated by a jubilant yodel!) which cements a surprisingly solid overall achievement.