Very well executed

From my favorite movies..

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

SON OF ROBIN HOOD is a cheapjack addition to the Robin Hood franchise which, despite plentiful action sequences, is largely a somewhat laughable viewing experience and more often than not a bore. The film is set some twenty years after the Robin Hood story and sees David Hedison adopting the moniker of the son of Robin Hood, even though he's actually not; Hood's offspring was a daughter, not a son.Confused yet? It doesn't really matter. There's a girl to romance, some hijinks to be had in Sherwood Forest, and a Sheriff of Nottingham-alike and his men to fight and pierce with arrows. This film looks and feels very cheap with cardboard walls, painted backgrounds, and a general fake feel. I was surprised to see that it was made in England as it has more of a stylised, fantasy Hollywood feel and is no patch on the similar, more grounded efforts that Hammer put out around the same time such as THE SWORD OF SHERWOOD FOREST.Hedison never really convinces as an outlaw hero and it's fair to say that the majority of the cast members simply go through the motions. The only one I really liked was George Woodbridge, who makes a decent stab at the character of Little John. Marius Goring and George Coulouris show up in support too. The direction is very poor with plenty of continuity errors and the like which constantly distract the viewer, although the climactic sword fight isn't bad in a "let's rip off THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD" type way.

***SPOILERS*** Things haven't been that merry for the merry-men of Sherwood Forest since their fearless and right on target, with a bow & arrow, leader Robin Hood passed away some 10 years ago. It's when the evil Duke Simon Des Roches tried to make a grab at the English throne that the merry-men started to take matters into their own hands. Getting the Earl of Chester the legal successor to the English throne, out of harms way in a safe house in Sherwood Forest the merry-men plan to install him as the new English King when the time is right. It's later that the Earl is captured, on tip from an inside source inside the merry-mens hideout, by Des Roches' men and taken into his castle's dungeon. It's Des Roache's plan to get the Earl to sign away his right to the English throne and thus give it over to himself.It's then that the head of the merry-men Little John gets the good news that the late Robin Hood has a son-Deering-who's residing in sunny Spain who's more then willing to take over his dad's place as the leader of the now not so merry merry-men of Sherwood Forest. It's Little John's plan to get Deering Hood to get the now rejuvenated merry-men to organize a guerrilla war against Des Roches and bring the now in chains and incarcerated Earl of Chester back in power as the King of England! The only stumbling block to Little John's plans is that the son of Robin Hood turned out to be his daughter! This made things even more complicated for Little John and his merry-men then they already were!As things turned the Earl of Chester's younger brother Jamie back from the Crusades showed up in town, or Sherwood Forest, the same time that Deering Hood did. After the sword twirling Jamie dispatched a squad of Des Roches's men who were waiting in ambush to knock off Miss Hood the two changed identities with Jamie taking the part of Deering and Deering becoming his woman companion. Still Des Roches had a ace up his sleeve in having planted a spy among the merry-men who tipped him off on their plans to unseat him from power. That's where Jamie's brother, the Earl of Chester, came in with him knowing just who this undercover operative of Des Roches is. The only trouble here is that the Earl of Chester in being told that Jamie was killed in the Crusades doesn't believe that he's his brother and feels that Jamie is in fact a spy for Des Roches and isn't talking!Lots of action with the merry-men lead by both Jamie & Deering Hood getting their act together and taking on Des Roches and his men after they finally found out who's slipping him classified information to what their plans are. It was Des Roches' big mistake in underestimating Deering Hood's, whom he thought was Jamie, ability to lead the merry-men with the same skill and courage that her late dad Robin Hood did in the past. It was in fact Deering who prevent the plant, or spy, inside the merry-mens compound to get the news to Des Roches on the merry-men, lead by Jamie & herself, impending assault on his fortified castle complex.***SPOILERS*** In the end the merry-men made mincemeat out of Duke Simon Des Roches' men in a two prong attack, by land and and under water, on his castle. It was then that Jamie after rescuing the Earl of Chester, the soon to be anointed King of England, put an end to Des Roches' reign of terror by running him through, with his sword, after a long boring and very unconvincing dueling match with him.

And neither is the beginning or the middle as the story of Robin Hood gets the AT SWORDS' POINT treatment, with a bunch of little-known actors -- except for George Couloris, David Farrar and Marius Goring -- under the direction of George Sherman, who spent most of his career, properly, directing B westerns.June Laverick, a pretty young blonde, plays the daughter of Robin Hood, who spends most of her time hiding behind David 'Al' Hedison, who pretends to be her -- him -- that is, Robin Hood's son, leading Robin's old and graying Merry Men. The whole thing is directed with little of the silliness that attended AT SWORDS' POINT, but the whole thing is handsomely shot in wide screen. Unhappily, the prints were definitely not Technicolor, but have aged poorly, casting a gloomy and pink sheen over the entire proceedings. The score is also a nice variation on Korngold's score for the Errol Flynn version. You can skip this one.

Absolutely, ridiculous tale of Robin Hood's alleged son who is really a girl....don't get too confused.....it confused me at first....tale concerns Robin Hood's offspring who was expected to be a man, who comes back to England to fight, not the Sheriff of Nottingham, but a bird named "DeRoche"......Al Hedison inherits the role of Robin Hood's son as it appears RH did not have a true son.....ridiculous acting, poorly staged action battles and acting worse than "Plan Nine from Outer Space".....in one instance a group of Deroche's men try to corner the men of Sherwood and Robin Hood's daughter shoots an arrow in a man in a tree who was a spotter for DeRoche.....man falls out of tree and no where are the 25 men of DeRoche after the shooting!!!! Cardboard castle walls among the other ditties....want more - son of Robin Hood gets invited to DeRoche's castle and soon starts bedding DaRoche's girlfriend!!!! Whew!!! No recognizable actors of any renown.....Robin Hood's men (25 years older!!!!) wipe out the bad guys along with Hedison......this total production by 1959 standards could not have cost more than $100,000 to make.....where was Peter Cushing in this film???? Go figure.......